Hyena Name Generator

Press for five hyena names, each with a line about the real animal or why the name fits.

Hyena Name Generator

  1. Iron AuntieKind, until you step out of line.
  2. KuraHausa for hyena.
  3. Night WalkerWhat the Old English word for a hyena meant, before hyena replaced it.
  4. WaterholeWhere everyone meets in the end.
  5. Stub TailA brown hyena has pointed ears and a short tail.

Next step Draw another mammal

How it works

Press for five names for a hyena in a story, a game or a toy box. The list goes by species: spotted, striped and brown hyenas and the aardwolf, then names from the calls, words for hyena in other languages, and matriarch names.

Read the full guide

Four species, four looks

The spotted hyena is the largest and has rounded ears, so Heavyweight and Round Ears fit. A striped hyena wears a long mane, a brown hyena a shaggy dark coat with a cream ruff, and the aardwolf is the small one that eats termites.

What the calls mean

Names from the calls come from the spotted hyena. The giggle, a run of high hee-hee-hee sounds, is given when a hyena is chased. A groan comes before and during a greeting, and a soft squeal greets a clan-mate after a long time apart.

Questions and answers

What is a good name for a hyena?

Pick one from the animal. Laugher suits a spotted hyena, which is also called the laughing hyena. Long Mane suits a striped hyena, Shaggy a brown hyena and Sticky Tongue an aardwolf, which laps up termites.

What is a good name for a female hyena?

Try the matriarch group: Matriarch, Clan Mother, Den Mother or Big Sister. Spotted hyena society is led by females, who are larger than the males, so a leader's name fits a female spotted hyena.

What is the word for hyena in African languages?

Fisi is Swahili, Impisi is Zulu for the spotted hyena, Phiri is Tswana and Northern Sotho, Waraabe is Somali and Kura is Hausa. Strandwolf is the Afrikaans name for the brown hyena.

Are these the names of hyenas from films?

Not on purpose. We wrote the names and left out the hyenas of well-known films and cartoons, along with any name found in Wikipedia's article on spotted hyenas in culture.

More tools

Browse Animals and Nature

All 109 hyena names

For a spotted hyena 18

  • Acacia Shade The place to wait out the heat.
  • Bearish A spotted hyena has a build a little like a bear's.
  • Bone Cruncher The big hyenas belong to the robust, bone-crushing branch of the family.
  • Crunch The sound of dinner.
  • Dark Cub Spotted hyena cubs are born with soft, dark brown hair.
  • Dry Season Tough enough for the hard months.
  • Dusk Patrol Out along the edge of the territory as the light goes.
  • Dust Trail What is left hanging in the air behind it.
  • Grin For a face that always looks pleased with itself.
  • Heavyweight The spotted hyena is the largest living member of the hyena family.
  • Laugher The spotted hyena is also known as the laughing hyena.
  • Long Grass Where a spotted coat disappears.
  • Moonlit Plain Open ground under a bright sky.
  • Red Dust The color of its paws by evening.
  • Round Ears A spotted hyena has rounded ears. The striped and brown hyenas have pointed ones.
  • Short Coat A spotted hyena's fur is spotted, not striped, and much shorter than its cousins'.
  • Spot Pattern Researchers tell spotted hyenas apart by the pattern of their spots.
  • Waterhole Where everyone meets in the end.
Show all 109 hyena names (91 more)

For a striped hyena 18

  • Bristle For the mane that stands up along the spine.
  • Chalk Lines Pale marks between the dark ones.
  • Far Traveler Striped hyenas live from North and East Africa across the Middle East to India.
  • Ink Lines Drawn on with a steady hand.
  • Ladder Back Rungs of dark fur from shoulder to tail.
  • Lebanon The striped hyena is the national animal of Lebanon.
  • Long Mane A striped hyena has a mane of long, tough hairs along its back.
  • Moon Stripes Bands of pale light on dark fur.
  • Night Fence Dark stripes against a darker night.
  • Pitch Dark A striped hyena usually comes out only in complete darkness.
  • Plays Dead A striped hyena has a habit of pretending to be dead when attacked.
  • Railings Upright dark bars, evenly spaced.
  • Shadow Bars Stripes that look like the shade of a fence.
  • Sharp Ears A striped hyena's ears are large, sharply pointed and set high on the head.
  • Soft Spoken The striped hyena is not as noisy as the spotted hyena.
  • Tiger Stripe Dark bands on a pale coat.
  • Two Parents Striped hyena mothers and fathers both help raise the cubs.
  • Zebra Crossing Black and white lines, and it does cross roads.

For a brown hyena 17

  • Beachcomber Brown hyenas also live along the coast of southwest Africa.
  • Brunnea The second half of the brown hyena's scientific name, Parahyaena brunnea.
  • Cocoa Husk Dark brown and dry.
  • Cream Ruff An adult brown hyena has a cream-colored ruff of fur around its neck.
  • Doormat Rough, brown and lying across the way.
  • Family of Six Brown hyenas keep a steady clan of four to six relatives.
  • Kalahari The largest group of brown hyenas left lives in the southern Kalahari Desert.
  • Mop All hair, with a face somewhere in it.
  • Old Coat Worn, warm and a size too big.
  • Parahyaena The brown hyena's genus. It is the only living species in it.
  • Rag Rug Long, mixed browns in no order.
  • Rare One The brown hyena is the rarest kind of hyena living today.
  • Scruffbag Has not seen a brush in its life.
  • Shag Rug Long pile, dark brown.
  • Shaggy A brown hyena has a long, shaggy, dark brown coat.
  • Striped Socks A brown hyena's legs are striped brown and white.
  • Stub Tail A brown hyena has pointed ears and a short tail.

For an aardwolf 18

  • Anthill Where dinner lives.
  • Civet The aardwolf is also called the civet hyena.
  • Cristatus The second half of the aardwolf's scientific name, Proteles cristatus.
  • Dainty The lightest feet in the hyena family.
  • Day Sleeper An aardwolf rests in a burrow during the day.
  • Earth Wolf What aardwolf means in Afrikaans and Dutch.
  • Insectivore The word for an animal that eats insects, as the aardwolf does.
  • Mane Jackal The aardwolf's other Afrikaans name, maanhaarjakkals, means mane-jackal.
  • Midnight Snack Thousands of them, one lick at a time.
  • Mound Finder Knows every termite hill in its range.
  • Night Seeker An aardwolf comes out at night to look for food.
  • No Big Game Unlike many of its relatives, the aardwolf does not hunt large animals.
  • Proteles The aardwolf's genus name.
  • Slim Stripe An aardwolf looks like a much smaller, thinner striped hyena.
  • Sticky Tongue An aardwolf can lap up as many as 300,000 termites in a night with its long, sticky tongue.
  • Termite An aardwolf eats insects, mainly termites.
  • Termite Mound A tall earth tower and an aardwolf's favorite table.
  • Yellow Coat An aardwolf has black upright stripes on a coat of yellowish fur.

Names from the calls 13

  • Cackle The spotted hyena's laugh is among the best known sounds of Africa.
  • Chatter A striped hyena's calls are limited to a chattering laugh and a howl.
  • Giggle The famous giggle is not a joke: a spotted hyena gives it when it is chased.
  • Groan Spotted hyenas groan before and during a greeting.
  • Grunt A soft, low growl a spotted hyena gives when an unwelcome hyena comes near.
  • Hee Hee The giggle is a run of loud, high "hee-hee-hee" sounds, usually under five seconds.
  • High Note In spotted hyenas, high-pitched calls show fear or giving way.
  • Loud and Low In spotted hyenas, loud, lower-pitched calls show aggression.
  • Pitch The pitch of a spotted hyena's laugh tells its age.
  • Squeal The soft squeal greets a clan-mate after a long time apart.
  • Twelve Calls One researcher listed twelve kinds of spotted hyena call, from whoop to soft squeal.
  • Whine Mostly a cub's call, made when it follows a female for a feed.
  • Whoop A string of six to nine long calls, given alone or in a group.

The word for hyena 11

  • Fisi Swahili for hyena.
  • Hyaena The Latin spelling. The Greek word behind it is built on the word for pig, for the bristly mane.
  • Impisi Zulu for the spotted hyena, and the word for hyena in Xhosa and Northern Ndebele.
  • Ingcuka A Xhosa word for hyena.
  • Kaftar Persian for hyena.
  • Kura Hausa for hyena.
  • Night Walker What the Old English word for a hyena meant, before hyena replaced it.
  • Phiri Tswana and Northern Sotho for hyena.
  • Strandwolf The Afrikaans name for the brown hyena, also used in South African English.
  • Tsavoa Hebrew for hyena.
  • Waraabe Somali for the spotted hyena.

Matriarch names 14

  • Auntie Boss Family first, and she decides what that means.
  • Big Sister Among spotted hyenas the females are the bigger ones.
  • Clan Mother For the female at the head of a spotted hyena clan.
  • Clan Queen One clan, one queen.
  • Den Mother Keeps count of every cub.
  • First Among Sisters Her sisters follow and so does everyone else.
  • Grand Dame Old, respected and not to be argued with.
  • High Seat Takes the best spot on the mound.
  • Iron Auntie Kind, until you step out of line.
  • Lady of the Den Home is hers.
  • Lead Lady Out in front on every patrol.
  • Madam Chair Runs the meeting.
  • Matriarch Spotted hyena society is led by females, who are larger than the males.
  • Top Rank First in line, always.

How this list was compiled: Own list of 109 names for a hyena, made on 2 October 2026 for a story, a game character or a soft toy. Four groups go by species and are named for the animal's real look and habits: the spotted hyena, the striped hyena, the brown hyena and the aardwolf. One group is named from the calls, with what a spotted hyena's call is used for, and one is for the female who leads a spotted hyena clan. The facts on those cards are from English Wikipedia's articles Hyena, Spotted hyena, Striped hyena, Brown hyena and Aardwolf (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyena, CC BY-SA 4.0), read 2 October 2026; the uses of the calls are from the table of calls in the Spotted hyena article, which credits Hans Kruuk, 1972. The 11 words for a hyena are from each word's own entry in English Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org, CC BY-SA 4.0), read the same day, in languages of the lands where hyenas live; a card says only what the entry says. The other names and every line are ours. An own name was left out when it stands on this site's lists of pet, dog, cat, horse, fish or teddy bear names or appears in Wikipedia's article Cultural depictions of spotted hyenas as read that day, and the hyenas of well-known films and cartoons were left out by hand. 17 of the 109 names (16 in 100) also stand on another list of this site. Licence: The names we wrote and the line under every name are our own work. Meanings of real names and words draw on English Wiktionary, and facts about the animal and its folklore on English Wikipedia, both under CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).