How it works
This kitsune name generator makes a fox spirit of Japanese folklore for a story or a game: a real Japanese word as its name, such as Kohaku, amber, a kind of fox from the tales and one to nine tails.
Read the full guide
Name the fox, then count its tails
Press New kitsune name. Keep one part and press again to change the rest. The list below gives every name in kanji with its reading and meaning, so you can choose by sense: Hotaru is a firefly and Shigure a rain shower of late autumn.
Kinds and tails in the folklore
In the tales a zenko is a good fox, regarded as a messenger of Inari, and a yako or nogitsune is a wild one, often mischievous. A fox may have as many as nine tails, and more tails generally mean an older and more powerful fox.
Questions and answers
What is a kitsune?
In popular Japanese folklore the kitsune is a fox or fox spirit with the supernatural ability to shapeshift or bewitch other life forms. Kitsune are often presented as tricksters.
What is a nine-tailed fox called in Japanese?
Kyūbi no kitsune (九尾の狐), nine-tailed fox. It is typically represented as the most powerful form of the fox, and the nine tails come from the Chinese classics.
What are the types of kitsune?
Folklore broadly sorts them into benevolent foxes, zenko, regarded as messengers of Inari, and wild foxes, yako or nogitsune. Some Edo-period texts rank the good foxes further, and such rankings vary between sources.
Are these real Japanese names?
Each is a real Japanese word, checked in the JMdict dictionary and in Wiktionary and used here as a name. No Japanese speaker has read the list, and a word is not always a usual given name.
Who are the famous foxes of the old tales?
Tamamo-no-Mae, a nine-tailed vixen whose story developed in the 14th century, and Kuzunoha, the fox-woman of the Shinoda Forest tales. This page deals neither name.