This prison name generator names a prison for a story or a game: a grim made-up place and a real word for a place of confinement, with a line on what each kind was.
Read the full guide
Name a prison
Press New prison name for a place and a kind. Tap either half to lock it and press again for a new partner. Lock a kind such as Tolbooth or Brig to keep every name in one setting.
Which word fits your story
A tolbooth was the town building of a Scottish burgh, with a jail in it. A compter was a small English prison run by a sheriff. A brig is a jail on a ship or, in fiction, on a spacecraft. A prison hulk was a ship turned into a place of detention, and an oubliette is a dungeon reached only by a trapdoor at the top.
Tips
For a fantasy castle, lock Dungeon or Oubliette; for a harbor town, lock Prison Hulk.
Lock one name and change the kind to see how the word alone shifts the place.
Questions and answers
What is a good name for a fictional prison?
A cold, hard place name and one word for the kind. Every made-up name on this page is built from plain things such as slate, salt, frost and iron.
What is the difference between a jail and a prison?
Both are places where people are held under the authority of the state, and the words are often used as one. In US usage a jail is especially a place for minor offenses or for people waiting on a court.
What is an oubliette?
An oubliette is a dungeon that can only be reached by a trapdoor at the top. A dungeon is an underground prison or vault, typically built underneath a castle.
Are these real prisons?
No. They are made up for fiction. The invented names were checked against place lists and searched across Wikipedia, and plain names that turned out to be real rocks or islands were removed. The words for the kinds are real.
How this list was compiled: 68 names for a made-up prison in a story or a game, written for this page: invented names of cold, hard places, and plain names for a rock, an island or a stretch of water. Each made-up name was checked by script on 2026-10-02 against a dictionary, lists of first names and surnames, GeoNames places (towns of the world, and every name in the tables for the United Kingdom and the United States; https://download.geonames.org/export/dump/, CC BY 4.0), names from published fiction, every list on this site, the page titles of English Wikipedia and a full-text search of English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/, CC BY-SA 4.0). 53 of 113 candidates were cut (17 found on English Wikipedia; 15 already on another list of this site; 13 a real place; 4 a name from published fiction, or one letter from one; 3 a rude word inside the letters; 1 a real first name or surname). The names come from one list kept for all the made-up place pages of this site, so none is on two pages. No list of names is complete, so search a name before you publish it. Each plain name was also searched, alone and with every kind on this page, as a page title of English Wikipedia and as a name in the GeoNames tables, which hold many prisons; nine that are real rocks or islands were cut. Three more names were taken out after a second check: each is a real hill, rock or bank on a map. Licence: own work
Kind of prison: all 24 kinds of prison
Everyday words 5
GaolThe dated British spelling of jail.
JailIn US usage, especially a place where people are held for minor offenses or before a court hearing.
PenitentiaryA US word for a state or federal prison; Quakers in Pennsylvania used it in the 1790s for a place for penitents.
PrisonA facility where people are held under the authority of the state.
ReformatoryA kind of correctional facility popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Show all 24 kinds of prison (19 more)
Old English and Scottish kinds 6
BridewellA small prison, or a police station that has cells; named for a place in London.
CompterA type of small English prison controlled by a sheriff.
Debtors' PrisonA prison for people unable to pay a debt, common in Western Europe until the mid-19th century.
House of CorrectionBuilt in England after the Poor Relief Act 1601 as a place where people were set to work.
TolboothThe main building of a Scottish burgh: council chamber, court house and jail in one.
WorkhouseIn the US, a prison where the sentence includes manual labor; in old Britain, an institution for the poor.
Slang 4
CalabooseA US and Australian dialect word for a prison or jail.
ClinkDated slang for a prison.
HoosegowUS slang for a jail.
LockupSlang for a jail cell, or a building that holds such cells.
Small and military 4
BrigA US word for a jail on a ship or a navy base and, in fiction, on a spacecraft.
GuardhouseA station for guards, especially at the entrance of a town or castle; also a military prison.
RoundhouseA circular prison, especially a small local lockup.
StockadeAn enclosure of upright logs; the word also means a military prison in an army camp.
Castles and designs 3
DungeonAn underground prison or vault, typically built underneath a castle.
OublietteA dungeon that can only be reached by a trapdoor at the top.
PanopticonA type of prison where all the cells are visible from the center.
By sea 2
Penal ColonyA settlement in a remote place, often an island, that kept prisoners apart from everyone else.
Prison HulkA ship turned into a place of detention; most widespread in 18th- and 19th-century Britain.
How this list was compiled: 24 real words for a place of confinement, with what each one was. Each line follows the English Wiktionary entry or the English Wikipedia article on the word (CC BY-SA 4.0), read on 2026-10-02; some lines keep the source's own words. No line describes a crime, a sentence or a prisoner. Licence: own selection; meanings from English Wiktionary and English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)