nomen

Categorical name generator. DNS-safe names from fourteen geographic and natural-history lists, plus construct techniques (portmanteau, compound, clip, affix, backform, phonosym, acronym).

CLI and HTTP API for humans and agents. Same seed and flags always produce the same name.

Install

Requires Zig 0.15 or Nix with flakes.

# Nix
nix run github:alleneubank/nomen -- generate --count 5

# from source
git clone https://github.com/alleneubank/nomen
cd nomen
zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe
./zig-out/bin/nomen generate

Library consumers:

zig fetch --save git+https://github.com/alleneubank/nomen

Dev shell (Zig 0.15.2, zls, ziglint):

nix develop
zig build test

Usage

nomen generate                                    # one name (human in TTY, json otherwise)
nomen generate --count 5 --category rivers
nomen generate --strategy phrase --format json
nomen generate --strategy phrase:alliterative --count 5
nomen generate --strategy triple --count 3
nomen generate --strategy mnemonic --input 0xdeadbeefcafe
nomen generate --seed 42
nomen generate --strategy construct:portmanteau --input "spell,master"
nomen generate --strategy construct:compound --input "storm,forge"
nomen generate --strategy construct:phonosym --input "sharp" --count 5
nomen generate --strategy construct:affix --input "quill"
nomen generate --strategy construct:acronym --input "spell,practice,app"
nomen generate --dry-run

nomen categories
nomen serve --port 8080
# GET /generate?count=3&category=mountains&seed=42
# GET /categories
# GET /health

nomen --llms
nomen generate --help --format json

Categories

mountains, rivers, deserts, canyons, islands, passes, moons, raptors, minerals, norse, volcanoes, forests, oceans, storms

Strategies

Strategy	Description
thematic	One word from a category
phrase	Adjective-noun (default pattern)
phrase:noun_noun	Noun-noun
phrase:verb_noun	Verb-noun
phrase:alliterative	Shared first letter, with fallback
triple	Three words
mnemonic	Deterministic pair or triple from hex/numeric input
construct:portmanteau	Blend two words at an overlap
construct:compound	Concatenate two words
construct:clip	First syllable + last syllable
construct:affix	Prefix or suffix
construct:backform	Strip a recognized suffix
construct:phonosym	Mood-tagged phonemes (sharp, soft, rhythmic)
construct:acronym	Pronounceable initials

Agent-first

• JSON on non-TTY stdout; --format json|jsonl|human on every command
• --llms manifest with schemas and examples
• --help --format json on every subcommand
• --fields filters output keys
• Structured errors with code and message
• stdout is data; stderr is messages

Playground

The generator also compiles to WebAssembly:

zig build wasm
python3 -m http.server -d site 4173

Open http://127.0.0.1:4173. Visual system: DESIGN.md.

Development

zig build test
zig build fmt
ziglint
lefthook install
zig build docs

License

MIT