Code Name Generator

One press joins a prefix and two words that say nothing about the job, which is the whole point of a code name.

Code Name Generator: 20 code names

Team Winter Williwaw

Padlock: keep a part. Arrows: change only that part.

PrefixTeam
First wordWinter
Second wordWilliwaw

History (0)

Every code name you make is kept here, newest first, up to the last 20. The list stays in this browser.

Code Name of the day

Team Winter Williwaw
Operation Cinnabar Winch
Release Solemn Lathe
Operation Frost Shikra
Sprint Brisk Grus
Squad Glacial Foehn
Exercise Slate Ararat
Team Discreet Mattock
Squad Coastal Caracara
Exercise Leeward Bateleur
Sprint Humble Bradawl
Task Force Canny Corvus
Exercise Winter Tramontane
Project Hazel Annapurna
Task Force Lunar Monsoon
Task Force Lunar Chimborazo
Project Agate Billhook
Squad Saffron Crowbar
Sprint Cinnabar Jaguarundi
Team Malachite Buteo

Next step Deal a plainer two-word pair Give the agent a call sign

Prefix: all 10 prefixes

Field and drill 6

Agent Turns the pair into one person's cover name for a spy game, a story or a mystery night.
Exercise Marks a drill and not the real thing. The US naming system keeps a separate class for exercise terms.
Mission Suits a single outing with one clear goal, such as a scavenger hunt or a game night quest.

Show all 10 prefixes (7 more)

Field and drill, continued

Operation The classic opener for a military-style plan, as in Operation Overlord, a name Churchill chose himself.
Squad A small unit. Works for a gaming group, a relay leg or a group chat.
Task Force A temporary group pulled together for one job and stood down when the job is done.

Office and product 4

Project The usual opener in industry, where a code name keeps a product quiet until launch day.
Release Software teams name a version so they can talk about it before it has a number.
Sprint A short, fixed block of work in a software team. A name is easier to recall than Sprint 47.
Team A plain label for a quiz team, a hackathon crew or one side in a water fight.

How this list was compiled: Own list of ten openers. The Overlord note follows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_name and the exercise-term note follows Gregory Sieminski, The Art of Naming Operations, Parameters, 1995, at https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1995/sieminsk.htm (the US system is the Code Word, Nickname, and Exercise Term System). The page's two tips on US Secret Service names (unambiguous, easy to say, one first letter per family) follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Service_code_name. Every line was written for this page. Checked 2026-09-19. Licence: own work

First word: all 135 first words

Colors and pigments 28

Amber A warm yellow-orange, named after fossil tree resin.
Burgundy A dark purplish red, named after the wine of the French region.
Carmine A deep red pigment made from cochineal insects.
Celadon A pale gray-green, the color of a classic glaze on East Asian ceramics.
Cerise A deep pinkish red, from the French word for cherry.
Cerulean A deep sky blue, from the Latin caeruleus.

Show all 135 first words (129 more)

Colors and pigments, continued

Charcoal A dark gray, the color of burnt wood.
Claret A deep purplish red, from the English name for red Bordeaux wine.
Crimson A deep red leaning toward purple, first made from the kermes insect.
Cyan The color halfway between blue and green, and one of the four inks in color printing.
Ebony A deep black, named after a dense dark hardwood.
Hazel A light golden brown, the color of a ripe hazelnut shell.
Ivory An off-white with a faint yellow tint.
Khaki From a Hindustani word meaning soil-colored. The Corps of Guides in British India wore it first.
Magenta An aniline dye patented in 1859 and renamed to mark the Battle of Magenta, fought that June.
Maroon A dark brownish red, from the French marron, chestnut.
Mauve Named after the mallow flower. William Perkin found the dye in 1856, aged 18, while trying to make quinine.
Ochre An earthy yellow-brown, from a clay pigment colored by iron oxide.
Russet A reddish brown, and once the name of a coarse homespun cloth.
Sable Black in heraldry, named after the dark fur of the sable marten.
Saffron The golden yellow of the spice, which comes from the threads of a crocus flower.
Sepia A brown named after the cuttlefish, whose ink was once used for writing and drawing.
Sienna An earth pigment named after the Italian city of Siena.
Tawny A light orange-brown, the color of a lion's coat.
Teal A dark blue-green named after the Eurasian teal, a duck with a stripe of that color on its head.
Umber A dark earth brown. Roasting the raw pigment turns it redder, giving burnt umber.
Vermilion A vivid red-orange pigment, made for centuries from the mineral cinnabar.
Viridian A blue-green pigment, from the Latin viridis, green.

Metals 17

Bismuth The name may come from an old German phrase meaning white mass.
Brass Copper alloyed with zinc, used for instruments and fittings.
Bronze An alloy of copper and tin, important enough to name an age of history.
Cobalt Named after the kobold, a goblin that German miners blamed for troublesome ore.
Copper Named after Cyprus, the island the Romans got it from.
Gallium Named after Gallia, the Latin name for France.
Indium Named after the indigo line in its spectrum.
Nickel Shortened from Kupfernickel, the old German miners' name for its ore.
Niobium Named after Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, because it turns up alongside tantalum.
Osmium From the Greek osme, smell.
Pewter A soft gray alloy made mostly of tin, once the everyday metal for plates and mugs.
Rhodium From the Greek rhodon, rose.
Tantalum Named after Tantalus, the figure of Greek myth who could never reach the water.
Tin An Anglo-Saxon word. Its symbol, Sn, comes from the Latin stannum.
Titanium Named after the Titans of Greek myth.
Vanadium Named after Vanadis, which is the Norse goddess Freyja under a different name.
Zinc Probably from the German Zinke, prong.

Gemstones 10

Agate A banded stone that forms in layers inside cavities in volcanic rock.
Emerald The green gem form of the mineral beryl.
Garnet From a Middle English word for dark red, possibly after the seeds of the pomegranate.
Lapis Short for lapis lazuli, the deep blue stone once ground to make ultramarine paint.
Malachite A green copper mineral with light and dark bands.
Onyx A banded variety of chalcedony. The black kind is the one most people picture.
Opal A gem that flashes different colors as it turns in the light.
Quartz One of the most common minerals in the Earth's crust, made of silicon and oxygen.
Sapphire The blue gem form of the mineral corundum. The red form is ruby.
Topaz A hard gem that marks number 8 on the Mohs scale of hardness.

Rocks and minerals 13

Alabaster A soft, pale stone that is easy to carve and lets light glow through thin pieces.
Chalk A soft white limestone made from the shells of tiny sea creatures.
Cinnabar A bright red ore of mercury, once ground to make the pigment vermilion.
Flint A hard stone that breaks to a sharp edge and throws sparks when struck against steel.
Granite A coarse, hard rock that cooled slowly underground from molten magma.
Graphite The soft gray form of carbon in a pencil. The name comes from the Greek for write.
Marble Limestone changed by heat and pressure into a stone that takes a polish.
Mica A mineral that peels into thin, shiny, flexible sheets.
Obsidian Black volcanic glass, formed when lava cools too fast to make crystals.
Pumice A volcanic glass so full of bubbles that it floats on water.
Pyrite A brassy yellow mineral better known as fool's gold.
Shale A soft rock made of hardened mud that splits into thin layers.
Slate A fine-grained rock that splits into thin flat sheets, which is why it roofs houses.

Sky, season and compass 32

Alpine Of high mountains, from the Alps.
Arctic From the Greek arktos, bear, after the northern constellation of the Great Bear.
Austral Southern, from the Latin auster, the south wind. Australia is named the same way.
Autumn The season between summer and winter. American English also calls it fall.
Boreal Northern, from Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind.
Coastal Along the shore, where land meets sea.
Dawn First light. A natural name for the opening phase of a plan.
Dusk The darker end of evening twilight, just before night.
Eastern Toward the sunrise. Handy for the first of two phases.
Evening The end of the day, from sunset to bedtime.
Frost Ice crystals that form on cold surfaces overnight.
Glacial Of glaciers and ice ages. Also said of anything that moves very slowly.
Halcyon Calm and peaceful. In Greek myth the halcyon was a bird that calmed the winter sea.
Highland High or hilly country.
Inland Away from the coast, toward the middle of a country.
Leeward A sailor's word for the sheltered side, away from the wind.
Lunar Of the moon, from the Latin luna.
Meridian A line of longitude from pole to pole, from the Latin for midday.
Morning The first part of the day, up to noon.
Noon Midday, when the sun is highest.
Northern A plain compass word that says nothing about the job, which is the point.
Offshore Out at sea, some way from the land.
Polar Of or near either of the Earth's poles.
Solar Of the sun, from the Latin sol.
Southern A compass word. Pair it with Northern when two teams work the same problem.
Summer The warmest season, and a fair tag for work due before the fall.
Tropic Either of the two lines of latitude, Cancer and Capricorn, that bound the tropics.
Upland Higher ground, away from the coast and the river valleys.
Vernal Of the spring, as in the vernal equinox in March.
Western Toward the sunset. Handy for the second of two phases.
Windward A sailor's word for the side the wind is blowing from.
Winter The coldest season. A season word dates a name without giving away its subject.

Temperament 35

Brisk Quick and energetic, like a cold walk.
Calm Unruffled. Neither boastful nor gloomy, so it passes the Churchill test.
Candid Frank and open, from the Latin candidus, white.
Canny Shrewd and careful, a word from Scotland and northern England.
Cautious Avoids risk. Good for a trial run.
Cordial Warm and polite, from the Latin cor, heart.
Curious Eager to find out. Good for research and experiments.
Deft Neat and skillful with the hands.
Diligent Careful and hard-working over a long stretch.
Discreet Careful about what it says, which is the whole job of a code name.
Frugal Careful with money. A fair name for a cost-saving project.
Genial Friendly and cheerful. Good for a social club or a party plan.
Gentle Mild and kind. Good for a slow rollout.
Hardy Able to stand cold and rough conditions, as gardeners say of plants.
Humble Makes no claim to greatness, the opposite of a boastful name.
Keen Sharp and eager, of a blade or a mind.
Loyal Faithful to a person or a cause.
Modest Makes no big claims, so nobody can mock it if the plan goes wrong.
Patient Willing to wait. Fits anything measured in months.
Placid Not easily upset, like flat water.
Prudent Careful about the future. Good for budgets and backups.
Serene Calm and untroubled, like a clear sky.
Shrewd Good at judging people and situations.
Solemn Formal and serious, without being gloomy.
Steady Holds its course. Fits a long project with no drama planned.
Stern Strict and serious. Also the back end of a ship.
Stoic Bears trouble without complaint, after the Stoic school of ancient Athens.
Stubborn Refuses to give way. Fits a bug hunt that has dragged on.
Sturdy Strongly built and hard to knock over.
Subtle Hard to notice, which is a fair aim for a code name.
Tactful Careful not to give offense, as the US nickname rules ask.
Thorough Leaves nothing out. Good for an inventory or a cleanup.
Tireless Keeps going without flagging.
Wary On guard against a catch. Good for an audit or a security review.
Watchful Paying close attention. Good for monitoring, testing and night shifts.

How this list was compiled: Own selection, screened so that no word is one of the twelve Rainbow Code colors listed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Codes and no word fails the tests Churchill set in 1943 (not boastful, not despondent, not frivolous), as quoted in Sieminski, The Art of Naming Operations, https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1995/sieminsk.htm. Element name origins follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chemical_element_name_etymologies. Color notes follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauve, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magenta, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teal and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaki. Stone notes follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumice and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garnet. The other lines are plain dictionary senses. Astral was removed on 2026-09-19 because, with Knight in the second row, it rebuilt the name of a real US and NATO air defense exercise (https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/AstralKnight). Every line was written for this page. Checked 2026-09-19. Licence: own work

Second word: all 194 second words

Birds of prey 23

Accipiter A genus of slender hawks with short, rounded wings and a long tail.
Bateleur An African eagle named from the French for street performer, for the way it rocks in flight.
Buteo What the common buzzard is called in Latin. Buteos are buzzards in Europe and hawks in America.
Caracara A New World member of the falcon family, found mainly in South and Central America.

Show all 194 second words (190 more)

Birds of prey, continued

Eyas A downy falcon chick taken for falconry, from the Latin nidus, nest.
Eyrie The nest of a bird of prey, built high on a cliff or in a tall tree.
Goshawk A medium-large hawk of temperate Eurasia.
Griffon A large Old World vulture.
Gyrfalcon The largest falcon, up to 65 cm long, breeding on Arctic coasts and tundra.
Harrier A hawk that hunts by flying low over open ground.
Hawk True hawks hunt woodland by dashing out from a hidden perch.
Kestrel A small falcon that hovers in one spot while it hunts.
Kite A long-winged bird of prey that soars for hours. The name is Old English.
Lammergeier The bearded vulture. It drops bones from a height to break them, and bone is most of its diet.
Lanner A falcon of Africa and southeast Europe, possibly the sacred falcon of ancient Egypt.
Merlin A small falcon of the Northern Hemisphere.
Osprey A single species found almost worldwide that lives on fish it catches itself.
Owl A night hunter whose soft feathers make its flight close to silent.
Peregrine The falcon whose hunting dive has been recorded at 320 km/h.
Saker A large falcon that ranges from Central Europe to Manchuria.
Shikra A small raptor of Asia and Africa, also called the little banded goshawk.
Sparrowhawk A small woodland hawk. The female can be up to 25 percent larger than the male.
Tiercel The falconer's word for a male falcon, from the Latin for third.

Wild cats 11

Caracal A tuft-eared cat of Africa, the Middle East and southern Asia.
Colocolo The Pampas cat, a small wild cat of western and southern South America.
Jaguarundi A plain-coated cat of South and Central America. Kittens are born with spots that fade as they grow.
Kodkod The smallest wild cat native to the Americas, found in central and southern Chile.
Lynx The Eurasian lynx ranges over Eastern Europe and Russia. Lynx is also a northern constellation.
Manul Another name for Pallas's cat, a thick-furred cat of rocky ground in Central Asia.
Margay A tree-climbing cat whose ankles rotate as far as 180 degrees.
Ocelot A spotted cat found from southern North America through Central and South America.
Oncilla A small spotted cat found across most of South America.
Serval An African cat; for its body size, no cat has longer legs.
Wildcat The European wildcat still lives in Spain, Scotland, the Balkans and Central Europe.

Rivers 22

Amur About 4,444 km through Russia, China and Mongolia to the Sea of Okhotsk.
Daugava About 1,020 km, reaching the sea at the Gulf of Riga.
Indus About 3,180 km to the Arabian Sea.
Irrawaddy The main river of Myanmar, flowing south to the Andaman Sea.
Lena About 4,400 km across Siberia to the Laptev Sea, all of it inside Russia.
Limpopo About 1,800 km through southern Africa to the Indian Ocean.
Loire About 1,012 km across France to the Atlantic.
Mackenzie About 4,241 km with its headstreams, flowing north across Canada to the Beaufort Sea.
Magdalena The main river of Colombia, about 1,550 km north to the Caribbean.
Mekong About 4,350 km through six countries to the South China Sea.
Meuse About 950 km through France, Belgium and the Netherlands to the North Sea.
Neman About 914 km to the Baltic Sea.
Neva Only 74 km long, from Lake Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland at Saint Petersburg.
Nile About 6,650 km from its farthest source to the Mediterranean.
Oder Runs through Czechia, Poland and Germany to the Baltic Sea.
Okavango About 1,600 km, and it never reaches the sea. It ends in the inland Okavango Delta.
Pechora About 1,809 km across northern Russia to the Barents Sea.
Salween About 3,060 km to the Andaman Sea.
Tagus About 1,007 km through Spain and Portugal to the Atlantic.
Vltava About 431 km. It joins the Elbe at Melnik.
Yangtze About 6,300 km to the East China Sea, all of it inside China.
Yenisei About 5,539 km with its headstreams, flowing north to the Kara Sea.

Mountains 27

Aconcagua The highest peak in Argentina, at 6,961 m.
Annapurna The first peak over 8,000 m ever climbed, by Herzog and Lachenal on 3 June 1950.
Aoraki The Maori name of Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand at 3,724 m.
Aragats The highest peak in Armenia, at 4,090 m.
Ararat The highest peak in Turkey, 5,137 m, and the traditional resting place of Noah's Ark.
Chimborazo The highest peak in Ecuador, at 6,263 m.
Damavand The highest peak in Iran, at 5,609 m.
Eiger A 3,967 m peak in the Bernese Alps. Its north face was first climbed in 1938.
Elbrus The highest peak in Russia, at 5,642 m.
Erebus The southernmost active volcano on Earth, named in 1841 after the ship HMS Erebus.
Etna A volcano on Sicily's east coast, among the world's most active.
Hekla One of the most active volcanoes in Iceland, in the south of the island.
Kinabalu The highest peak in Malaysia, at 4,095 m, on the island of Borneo.
Lhotse The fourth-highest mountain on Earth, 8,516 m, first climbed in 1956.
Logan The highest mountain in Canada, at 5,959 m.
Makalu The fifth-highest mountain on Earth, 8,485 m, first climbed in 1955.
Manaslu The eighth-highest mountain on Earth, 8,163 m, first climbed in 1956.
Musala The highest peak in Bulgaria, at 2,925 m.
Orizaba Pico de Orizaba, the highest peak in Mexico, at 5,636 m.
Parnassus A mountain in central Greece above Delphi, home of the Muses in Greek myth.
Roraima A flat-topped mountain shared by three countries. Its top, 2,810 m, is in Venezuela; a point at 2,772 m is the highest in Guyana.
Rysy The highest point in Poland, at about 2,500 m.
Sajama The highest peak in Bolivia, at 6,542 m.
Stromboli An island volcano north of Sicily, known as the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean.
Toubkal The highest peak in Morocco, at 4,167 m.
Triglav The highest peak in Slovenia, 2,864 m. The name means three-headed.
Vinson The highest peak in Antarctica, at 4,892 m.

Winds 27

Cierzo A cool north or northwest wind of the Ebro Valley in Spain.
Coromuel A south to southwest wind felt at La Paz in Baja California.
Derecho A long-lived line of straight winds. The word is Spanish for straight, first used in 1888.
Elephanta A strong southerly on India's Malabar coast.
Foehn A warm, dry wind that comes down the northern side of the Alps.
Gale Force 8 on the Beaufort scale, 34 to 40 knots, enough to break twigs off trees.
Gregale A Mediterranean northeasterly, named for blowing from the direction of Greece.
Harmattan A dry northeast wind that carries Sahara dust toward the Gulf of Guinea.
Khamsin A hot, sandy wind of Egypt and the Levant. The name is Arabic for fifty.
Kona A southeast wind in Hawaii that replaces the usual trade winds.
Levanter An easterly wind that funnels through the Strait of Gibraltar.
Lodos A southwesterly that blows toward Turkey.
Marin A southeasterly that blows off the Mediterranean onto the south coast of France.
Meltemi The northerly that blows across Greece and Turkey, also called the Etesian wind.
Monsoon A seasonal wind that reverses direction and brings the rains.
Norte A strong, cold northeasterly that blows over Mexico.
Ostro The Mediterranean name for a wind from the south.
Pampero A very strong wind that crosses the Rio de la Plata onto the Pampas behind a squall line.
Papagayo A wind that crosses Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Shamal A summer northwesterly across Iraq and the Persian Gulf.
Simoom A strong, dry desert wind of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Arabia.
Sirocco A hot wind that blows north from the Sahara into the Mediterranean.
Squall A sudden, sharp rise in wind speed that lasts minutes, not hours.
Squamish A violent wind that pours down the fjords of British Columbia.
Tehuano A wind that crosses southern Mexico at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Tramontane A cold wind that blows from the mountains down to the Mediterranean.
Williwaw A sudden violent wind of the Strait of Magellan and the Aleutian Islands.

Tools and instruments 31

Adze An axe-like tool with the blade set crosswise, for shaping timber.
Astrolabe An old astronomer's instrument for measuring the height of stars above the horizon.
Auger A spiral bit that bores deep holes in wood or soil.
Bellows A bag with handles that blows a stream of air to feed a fire.
Billhook A hooked blade on a short handle for cutting hedges and brush.
Bradawl A pointed hand tool that starts a hole for a nail or screw.
Burin A steel cutting tool with a sharp point, used by engravers.
Caliper A two-legged instrument for measuring the width of an object.
Capstan An upright rotating drum on a ship's deck for hauling ropes and anchor cable.
Chisel A steel blade driven by hand or mallet to pare and cut wood or stone.
Crowbar A steel bar with a flattened end, used as a lever.
Dovetail A wedge-shaped joint that resists being pulled apart, used on drawer fronts.
Drawknife A two-handled blade, pulled toward the body to shave wood.
Gimlet A small hand tool that drills fine holes without splitting the wood.
Gouge A chisel with a curved cutting edge, for hollows and carving.
Grapnel A small anchor with several hooked arms, thrown to catch hold of something.
Lathe A machine that spins the work against a cutting tool to make round parts.
Mallet A hammer with a large wooden or rubber head that will not bruise a chisel handle.
Mandrel A shaft that holds the work while it is turned or shaped.
Marlinspike A pointed steel pin sailors use to open the strands of a rope for splicing.
Mattock A digging tool like a pickaxe, with a broad blade set crosswise.
Plumbline A weight on a string, used to find a true vertical.
Pulley A grooved wheel that changes the direction of a pull on a rope.
Rasp A coarse file whose raised teeth shape wood.
Spokeshave A two-handled blade for shaping rods and shafts such as wheel spokes.
Theodolite A surveyor's instrument that measures angles, both horizontal and vertical.
Tongs A two-armed tool for gripping what is too hot to hold.
Trowel A small flat-bladed hand tool for spreading mortar or lifting plants.
Whetstone A fine-grained stone for sharpening blades.
Winch A drum turned by a crank or motor to haul in a rope or cable.
Windlass A horizontal winding drum for raising an anchor, or a bucket from a well.

Chess 21

Arbiter The official who oversees a chess tournament.
Bishop The piece that moves along diagonals and stays on one color all game.
Castling The one move that shifts two pieces at once, the king and a rook.
Deflection A tactic that lures a piece away from the square it needs to defend.
Diagonal A slanting line of squares that are all the same color.
Fianchetto Italian for little flank: developing a bishop to the long diagonal on b2 or g2.
Flank The files at either edge of the board, a to c or f to h.
Fortress An endgame position that cannot be broken down, letting the weaker side draw.
Kingside The half of the board made up of the e to h files.
Knight The only piece that jumps over others, moving in an L shape.
Lucena A textbook rook endgame, won by building a bridge with the rook.
Luft German for air: an escape square made for a castled king.
Middlegame The stretch of a chess game that comes after the opening.
Najdorf A line of the Sicilian Defense named after the grandmaster Miguel Najdorf.
Outpost A square guarded by a pawn in or near enemy territory, ideal for a knight.
Philidor A textbook rook endgame that shows the defender how to hold a draw.
Queenside The half of the board made up of the a to d files.
Rook The piece that moves in straight lines along ranks and files.
Skewer An attack on a valuable piece that, once it moves, exposes a lesser piece behind it.
Tempo A unit of time in chess, equal to one move.
Zeitnot German for time need: having very little time left on the clock.

Constellations 32

Auriga The charioteer, whose brightest star is Capella.
Caelum The engraver's chisel, added by Lacaille in 1756.
Carina The keel, split from the old ship Argo Navis. Its brightest star is Canopus.
Cepheus Named after a king of Greek myth, and listed by Ptolemy.
Cetus The sea monster of Greek myth, later drawn as a whale.
Circinus The drawing compasses, added by Lacaille in 1756, and the fourth-smallest constellation.
Columba The dove, split from Canis Major by Plancius in 1592.
Corvus The crow, an ancient constellation listed by Ptolemy.
Crux The Southern Cross; none of the 88 constellations is smaller.
Cygnus The swan, an ancient constellation whose brightest star is Deneb.
Delphinus The dolphin, one of Ptolemy's ancient constellations.
Dorado The dolphinfish, or mahi-mahi, a southern constellation charted in 1598.
Equuleus The pony, a small ancient constellation listed by Ptolemy.
Eridanus A mythical river, and the sixth-largest constellation. Its brightest star is Achernar.
Fornax The furnace, one of the instruments Lacaille put in the southern sky in 1756.
Grus The crane, a southern bird constellation charted in 1598.
Lacerta The lizard, added by Hevelius in 1690.
Lepus The hare, an ancient constellation listed by Ptolemy.
Lyra The lyre, one of Ptolemy's ancient constellations. Its brightest star is Vega.
Monoceros The unicorn, added by Plancius in 1613.
Octans The octant, a navigator's instrument, placed in the sky by Lacaille in 1756.
Pavo The peacock, a southern constellation charted in 1598.
Perseus Named after the hero of Greek myth, and listed by Ptolemy.
Pictor The painter, first drawn by Lacaille in 1756 as a painter's easel.
Sagitta The arrow, an ancient constellation and the third smallest in the sky.
Scutum The shield, named by Hevelius in 1684 for the Polish king Sobieski and drawn in his atlas of 1690.
Serpens The snake, an ancient constellation listed by Ptolemy.
Sextans The sextant, added by Hevelius in 1690.
Triangulum The triangle, an ancient constellation listed by Ptolemy.
Tucana The toucan, a southern constellation charted in 1598.
Volans The flying fish, a southern constellation charted in 1598.
Vulpecula The little fox, added by Hevelius in 1690 as the little fox with the goose.

How this list was compiled: Own selection, screened against the operation names in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_name and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Codes and the big-cat release names in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS_version_history. Birds follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_of_prey, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bateleur and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearded_vulture. Cats follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_felids and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguarundi. River lengths and mouths follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_river_systems_by_length and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_of_Europe (the Tagus row of its table, 1,007 km, read again 2026-09-19). Mountains follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elevation_extremes_by_country, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-thousander and the articles on Eiger, Mount Erebus, Mount Etna, Stromboli, Hekla, Mount Ararat, Mount Parnassus, Triglav and Mount Roraima (both Roraima figures are in the list's note on Guyana and in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Roraima, read again 2026-09-19). Winds follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_local_winds, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khamsin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squall and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho. Chess terms follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_chess and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Defence,_Najdorf_Variation. Constellations follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAU_designated_constellations and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAU_designated_constellations_by_area; that table dates Scutum to the 1690 atlas, and the 1684 naming follows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutum_(constellation), read 2026-09-19. Woodworking tools follow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_woodworking; the other tool lines are plain dictionary senses. Pair screen, 2026-09-19: all 26,190 first word and second word pairs were checked against the text of these Wikipedia pages and found no operation, exercise or product name among them: List_of_U.S._Department_of_Defense_and_partner_code_names, List_of_NATO_exercises, List_of_military_operations, List_of_World_War_II_military_operations, List_of_coalition_military_operations_of_the_Iraq_War, List_of_military_operations_in_the_war_in_Afghanistan_(2001–2021), List_of_Canadian_military_operations, Rainbow_Code, Code_name, Secret_Service_code_name, List_of_Microsoft_codenames, List_of_Intel_codenames, List_of_Apple_codenames, Android_version_history and Ubuntu_version_history (all under https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/). Those lists are not complete. The second words were screened as halves of a pair, not alone: Serval, Harmattan, Peregrine, Sparrowhawk, Gimlet, Fortress, Cygnus and Merlin are each the one-word name of a real operation or exercise, so the row must be screened again before any one-word output is offered. Every line was written for this page. Checked 2026-09-19. Licence: own work

How it works

This code name generator joins one of 10 prefixes to one of 26,190 pairs, built from 135 first words and 194 second words, as in Operation Cobalt Kestrel. The words are colors, metals, seasons, birds of prey, rivers, winds and chess terms, chosen because they say nothing about the job. Names are not checked against trade marks.

Read the full guide

Set the prefix, then hunt for the pair

The prefix sets the tone: Operation, Mission, Exercise, Task Force, Agent and Squad for the field; Project, Team, Release and Sprint for the office. Lock the one that fits and press New code name until the pair is right. For a repo or a character, copy the two words and leave the prefix behind.

How real code names are chosen

In a 1943 minute Winston Churchill asked that operations never carry boastful, gloomy or silly names such as Bunnyhug, and suggested constellations, heroes of antiquity and famous racehorses. Britain's Rainbow Codes, used until 1958, paired a random color with a noun: Blue Steel, Yellow Sun. In 1975 the US Defense Department set up a system called NICKA to log two-word nicknames, with each command assigned letter pairs for the first word. UR gave Urgent Fury.

Pick words that have nothing to do with the work. Germany's wartime name Wotan, a one-eyed god, let British scientist R. V. Jones guess the system used a single beam.
Say it aloud. US Secret Service names are picked to be unambiguous and easy to say, so Amber Rook beats Viridian Zeitnot.
For sub-projects, hold the first word and roll second words. Secret Service names within one family share a first letter.

Questions and answers

Can I use one of these names in public?

For a game, a story or an internal project, yes. For anything public, search the name first. On 19 September 2026 a script checked every pair against Wikipedia's lists of military operations, NATO exercises and Microsoft, Intel and Apple code names and found no such name. Those lists are incomplete, and nothing is checked against trade marks.

Why is there no Red, Tiger or Eagle?

Those words rebuild real names. All twelve Rainbow Code colors, Black to Yellow, were left out so no British weapon name can come back. The big cats went because Apple used nine of them for operating system releases. Eagle, Storm, Thunder and Hammer went too, with anything boastful.

Do the words mean anything?

Each has a line in the lists below. Cobalt is named after the kobold, a goblin German miners blamed for troublesome ore, and a kestrel is a small falcon that hovers while it hunts. The meaning is for the team. To an outsider, Cobalt Kestrel should say nothing.