Every name here is a sea monster someone once told of: the Kraken of the Norwegian Sea, Scylla and Charybdis of Greek myth, Umibōzu of Japan, and creatures that sailors reported in the last five hundred years. None is invented.
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Choose a tradition
The Any tradition menu under the button keeps the draw to Greek and Roman, Northern European, Near Eastern and Asian, Pacific and the Americas, or Sailors' reports and sightings. The line on each card says whose story the monster belongs to and where it was said to live.
Naming a monster of your own
Read a few real ones for their sound first. Many are plain words in their own language: Hafgufa joins haf, sea, and gufa, steam, and Bake-kujira is Japanese for ghost whale.
Questions and answers
Can I use this as a kraken name generator?
The kraken is one card on the list: a legendary giant of the sea off Norway, which may go back to sightings of giant squid. For more names from the same waters, choose Northern European: Hafgufa, Lyngbakr and Jörmungandr are there.
Are these sea monsters real?
The names are real, the animals are not. Each is a monster of a myth, a folk tale or an old report, checked against its own encyclopedia article. Lake monsters, the Loch Ness Monster among them, are left out.
Which sea monsters were mistaken for islands?
Several. The Aspidochelone of the old bestiaries is a whale or turtle so large that sailors take it for an island, and a saga says the same of Lyngbakr. The Devil Whale is told of in the same way.
Why is Leviathan not on the list?
Sea monsters named in the Hebrew Bible, Leviathan among them, are left off this list. The list keeps to myth, folklore and sailors' reports.
AspidocheloneA sea creature of the old bestiaries, a giant whale or turtle so large that sailors take it for an island.
CetoA sea goddess of Greek myth, daughter of Pontus and Gaia; her name is the word for a sea monster.
CetusA large sea monster of Greek myth; Perseus saved Andromeda from one.
CharybdisA sea monster of Greek myth, placed by ancient writers in the Strait of Messina, opposite Scylla.
HippocampusA sea-horse of myth with the upper body of a horse and the lower body of a fish.
IchthyocentaurA sea centaur of late Greek art: human above, with a horse's forelegs and a fish's tail.
ScyllaA monster of Greek myth on one side of a narrow strait, facing Charybdis; Odysseus meets her in the Odyssey.
Sea goatA legendary water animal, half goat and half fish.
SirenHumanlike beings of Greek myth with alluring voices, met by Odysseus and his crew in the Odyssey.
TritonA sea god of Greek myth, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, half man and half fish.
Show all 61 sea monsters (51 more)
Northern European 13
Blue men of the MinchBlue beings of the strait between the Outer Hebrides and the Scottish mainland, said to raise storms.
CeasgA mermaid of Scottish folklore, a woman above and a young salmon below.
Cirein-cròinA huge sea monster of Scottish Gaelic folklore, said to be able to eat seven whales.
FinfolkSorcerous shapeshifters of the sea in the folklore of Orkney and Shetland.
HafgufaA sea creature of old Norse writing, said to live in Iceland's waters; the tales may come from the way whales feed.
Iku-TursoA sea monster of the Finnish Kalevala; the name is also given to one or more giants.
JörmungandrThe World Serpent of Norse myth, a sea serpent that circles the world and bites its own tail.
KrakenA legendary giant of the sea off Norway; the legend may have begun with sightings of giant squid.
LyngbakrA giant whale-like sea monster of the sagas, reported in the Greenland Sea, that sailors mistook for an island.
NuckelaveeA horse-like sea demon of Orkney folklore.
OilliphéistA sea serpent, or a monster like a dragon, of Irish mythology and folklore.
SelkieA being of Celtic and Norse folklore that changes from seal to human by taking off its skin.
Stoor wormA gigantic sea serpent of Orkney folklore.
Near Eastern and Asian 15
AkugyoA giant fish of Japanese legend, met in the seas near old Kibi Province; its name means evil fish.
AyakashiA Japanese name for all the yōkai seen over water, among them ghost lights above the water.
Bake-kujiraThe ghost whale of Japanese folklore, the bones of a whale seen at sea on stormy nights.
DandanA giant fish of the Arabian Nights.
HedammuA sea-dragon of Hurrian-Hittite mythology that caused trouble on the Syrian coast.
IkuchiA sea serpent of Japanese legend, so long that it takes days to pass over a ship.
IsonadeA sea monster like an enormous shark, said to live off Matsuura and other coasts of western Japan.
KoromodakoA yōkai of Japanese folklore that looks like a small octopus and is said to swell until it wraps boats.
LotanA sea monster of the Ugaritic texts that serves the sea god Yam; its name means coiled.
NingyoPart human and part fish, in Japanese writing; the word means human fish and is often translated mermaid.
ShachihokoA carp-bodied sea monster of Japanese folklore with a dragon's or tiger's head, often built onto roofs.
TiamatThe cosmic ocean of ancient Mesopotamian religion in the Babylonian creation myth, the Enūma Eliš.
UmibōzuA giant, dark figure of Japanese folklore that rises from a calm sea beside ships.
WaniA dragon or sea monster of Japanese mythology.
ZaratanA giant sea creature of Arabic literature and folklore; its name comes from the Arabic for crab.
Pacific and the Americas 8
AkhlutA creature of Inuit folklore, like an orca at sea and a wolf when it comes on land.
ApotamkinA creature of the folklore of the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy, said to live in Passamaquoddy Bay.
Caballo marino chiloteA water horse of the Chilote mythology of southern Chile.
CipactliA primeval sea monster of Aztec myth, part crocodile, part fish and part toad or frog.
LuscaA sea monster of Caribbean folklore, said to live in the blue holes of the Bahamas.
PonaturiHostile creatures of Māori mythology who live beneath the sea by day and come ashore each evening to sleep.
QalupalikCreatures of Inuit mythology said to live along Arctic shores, near the ice floes.
Te Wheke-a-MuturangiA monstrous octopus of Māori tradition, chased across Cook Strait by the navigator Kupe.
Sailors' reports and sightings 15
Bishop-fishAlso called the sea bishop; the legend is first recorded in the 1500s.
CadborosaurusA sea serpent in the folklore of the Pacific coast of North America, nicknamed Caddy.
ChessieA sea monster said to live in Chesapeake Bay.
Daedalus sea serpentThe sea serpent that officers of the British ship HMS Daedalus reported seeing in 1848.
Devil WhaleA legendary whale of enormous size, said to be mistaken for an island.
GamboThe name given to a carcass washed up on Bungalow Beach in the Gambia.
Gloucester sea serpentA sea serpent reported off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Sea monkA sea creature found off the Danish island of Zealand in 1546, said to look like a monk in his habit.
Sea serpentA kind of sea monster described in many mythologies, most often shaped like a huge snake.
Sea SwineA name given through history to several sea-dwelling creatures, first mentioned in ancient Greece.
Stronsay BeastA large unidentified creature washed ashore on Stronsay in the Orkney Islands after a storm in 1808.
TrunkoThe nickname of a large unidentified sea creature reported at Margate in South Africa in 1924.
U-28 creatureAn enormous sea reptile that the commander of a German U-boat said he sighted in 1915.
Valhalla sea serpentThe sea serpent sighted from the steam yacht Valhalla in the Atlantic in 1905.
Zuiyo-maru carcassA carcass caught by a Japanese trawler off New Zealand in 1977, which some took for a sea serpent.
How this list was compiled: 61 sea monsters of myth, folklore and sailors' reports, every one from a recorded tradition or report and none made up. Each has an article of its own in English Wikipedia, found through its article Sea monster (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_monster) and its categories of sea monsters, sea serpents and legendary water creatures, read on October 2, 2026. A creature is listed only if the opening of its article places it in the sea, a bay or a sea strait; the line on its card is our own wording of what that opening says, and a script checked the key words of every line against the article after this file was written. Left out: monsters of lakes, rivers and swamps (the Loch Ness Monster, the Hydra); creatures of modern books, films and games; hoaxes; creatures whose stories are not for children; beings that the opening of their own article calls guardians, bringers of luck or figures of a religion practiced today; and the sea monsters named in the Hebrew Bible (Leviathan, Rahab and Tannin), which this list of myth, folklore and sailors' reports does not cover. Hedammu is written in plain letters; its article spells it with a dotted H. The five groups are the tradition or kind of record the article places the creature in. Licence: Facts from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/); the selection and the wording of every line are ours.