Christmas elf names

The old stories never named them. In the 1823 poem that gave us the reindeer's names, the only elf is Santa himself, “a right jolly old elf”. You'll see six elf names copied all over the internet, but nobody knows who made them up, so we left them out. Every film and every family names its own elves, and that's the fun part.

Sources, checked 12 Oct 2026: the 1823 poem at Representative Poetry Online, University of Toronto Libraries; L. Frank Baum, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1902), Project Gutenberg.

You need two things: the first letter of your name and the month you were born. Mia was born in May, so M gives her Marshmallow and May gives her Daisychain. Our maker does it for you, with eight more if the first one doesn't fit, and the chart does the same on paper.

Noodle Wobblebottom, Pickle Puddingpants, Kazoo Bananafeet and Fiddlesticks Fuzzlewump, for a start. There are 25 silly ones in our list of 100, and the maker knows 2,808 more. Our guess: anything with socks in it gets the biggest laugh from a five year old.

Whatever the story needs. In most of them the elves make the toys, wrap the presents and look after the reindeer. Ours also sign the gift tags, and one of them sends a little door by email every morning in December. On Christmas Eve they wave the sleigh off, and then, at last, they put their feet up.

Of course. If a little elf turns up at your house in December and still has no name, pick one from the list. Some families give theirs a family name instead, from the first letter of their last name and December, and then print it a badge to make it official.

No. The maker works in your browser. The name stays on this device for the other Christmas makers, until you press Clear, and the birth month is gone as soon as you close the page. We count that someone printed a badge, never what was on it.