Names of darkness

Though I wrote a previous October post about names whose meanings relate to the word “night,” only two of those names related to the separate word “darkness.” Here, then, are names with just that meaning.


Yami means “darkness, dark” in Japanese.

Yuan can mean “evening darkness” in Japanese.


Afagddu means “utter darkness” in Welsh, from y fagddu. This was the nickname of Arthurian warrior Morfran.

Erebus is the Latinized form of Erebos, which means “nether darkness” in Greek.

Hela was the Vaianakh (Caucasian) god of darkness.

Húmi means “semi-darkness, twilight” in Icelandic.

Hymir means “darkening one” in Old Norse, from húm (semi-darkness, twilight). This was a giant in Norse mythology, and is also a modern, rare Icelandic name.

Ialdabaoth (or Ialdabaoth, Jaldabaoth, or Ildabaoth) was the first ruler of darkness in Phoenician, Gnostic, and Kabbalistic mythology.

Kek was the Ancient Egyptian primordial god of darkness.

Kud is the personification of darkness and evil in Korean mythology.

Orpheus may mean “the darkness of night” in Greek, derived from orphne (night).

Peckols was the Old Prussian god of darkness and Hell. The name derives from either pyculs (Hell) or pickūls (devil). His servants, the Pockols, are often compared to the Furies.

Saubarag means “black rider” in Ossetian. He was the god of darkness and thieves, comparable to Satan.


Brėkšta is believed to be a Lithuanian goddess, first written about by two Polish historians as Breksta and Brekszta. Jan Lasicki, writing circa 1582 and published 1615, believed she was the goddess of twilight. Theodor Narbutt, writing between 1835–41, believed she was the goddess of darkness and dreams.

Daikokutennyo means “She of the great blackness of the heavens” in Japanese. In her male form, Daikokuten, she’s a very popular, beloved household deity.

Dimmey is a rare Icelandic name derived from dimma (darkness) or dimmr (dark) and ey (island; flat land along a coast).

Iluna is a rare Basque name which may mean “darkness, dark, sombre, obscure, gloomy, mysterious.”

Orphne means “darkness” in Greek. She was an underworld nymph.

Rami means “darkness” in Sanskrit, Hindi, Nepali, Sinhalese, Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada, and Marathi.

Tamasvi means “one who has darkness inside” in Sanskrit.

Zulmat means “pitch darkness” in Uzbek.

One thought on “Names of darkness

  1. Love N and L’s interpretations of twilight and dreams respectively – lots of aspects of darkness can be read in Breszka.

    The only ones which were previously familiar to me were the classic ones [Kek and Orphne].

    And isn’t there an Antarctic mountain called Erebus?

    Hope you find out more about Iluna – or a Basque scholar can.

Share your thoughts respectfully


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s