Sword Names: 40 Legendary and Famous Blades From Myth and History

A sword gets a name when it stops being equipment and starts being a character.

That is not a poetic flourish — it is close to a rule. Across every culture that made swords, the ones that got names were the ones that outlived their owners. A named sword was inherited, buried, stolen, fought over, and written into the story of whoever carried it next. The name was how you kept track of an object that had its own biography.

Below are forty of them: from myth, from scripture, and from museum cases where you can still go and look at the actual steel.

How swords got their names

Four patterns cover almost all of it, and they are worth knowing if you ever want to name one yourself.

Named for what it does. The most common by far. Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi means "grass-cutting sword". Fótbítr means "leg-biter". Fragarach means "the answerer". Blunt, descriptive, and usually earned in a specific incident rather than assigned at the forge.

Named for a quality. Joyeuse — "joyous". Claíomh Solais — "sword of light". Dyrnwyn — "white-hilt". These read as titles rather than nicknames, and they tend to belong to kings.

Named for a flaw. Szczerbiec means "the notched one", after a nick in its edge. Naming a sword for its damage is a way of saying it has been used.

Named for its maker. Ulfberht is not a sword; it is a signature. So is Masamune. When the smith's reputation outweighs any individual blade, the name migrates from the object to the workshop.

Swords of myth and legend

Excalibur — Arthurian Britain. The famous one, and usually misremembered: Excalibur and the sword in the stone are separate weapons in most tellings. Merlin points out that the scabbard was the greater gift, since it stopped the wearer bleeding. Arthur loses the scabbard and dies of a wound.

Caliburn — the older Welsh and Latin form of the same name, from Geoffrey of Monmouth. If you want the version before French romance reshaped it, this is it.

Durandal — France, The Song of Roland. Said to hold a tooth of Saint Peter and hair of Saint Denis in its golden hilt. Dying at Roncevaux, Roland tries to destroy it against a rock and splits the cliff instead. A blade is still embedded in the cliff face at Rocamadour.

Joyeuse — Charlemagne's sword, and one that crossed from legend into use: a sword called Joyeuse sits in the Louvre and was carried at French coronations for centuries. Its parts date from several different periods, which is its own kind of authenticity.

Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi — Japan. "Grass-Cutting Sword", pulled from the tail of the eight-headed serpent Yamata-no-Orochi and originally called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, "sword of the gathering clouds of heaven". One of the three Imperial Regalia. Its location is not publicly confirmed.

Gram — Norse. Sigurd's sword, shattered and reforged from the pieces, used to kill the dragon Fafnir. Called Balmung in the Nibelungenlied and Nothung in Wagner. Same blade, three traditions.

Tyrfing — Norse, and cursed in the most specific way in the corpus. Forged under duress by the dwarves Dvalinn and Durin, who built in the condition that it would never miss, never rust, and kill a man every single time it was drawn.

Zulfiqar — the sword of Ali ibn Abi Talib, given to him by the Prophet Muhammad. Traditionally depicted with a split or bifurcated blade, and one of the most reproduced sword forms in Islamic art.

Harpe — Greek. The curved blade, part sword and part sickle, that Perseus used to behead Medusa and that Cronus used against Uranus. Its shape is the ancestor of the kopis and falcata family.

Ascalon — the sword Saint George killed the dragon with, named for the city of Ashkelon.

Caladbolg — Irish. Fergus mac Róich's two-handed sword, which left rainbow arcs when swung and could shear the tops off hills.

Claíomh Solais — the Sword of Light, Irish, appearing across many tales as one of the four treasures. No enemy escaped it once drawn.

Fragarach — "The Answerer". Manannán mac Lir's, later Lugh's. Said to compel truth from anyone held at its point and to cut any armour.

Hrunting — Beowulf. Lent to Beowulf by Unferth for the fight against Grendel's mother, and it fails him completely — one of the very few named swords in literature whose entire role is not working.

Nægling — Beowulf's own sword, which breaks against the dragon in his last fight. The poet blames Beowulf's strength: he was too strong for any blade.

Dyrnwyn — Welsh. The sword of Rhydderch Hael, which burst into flame from hilt to tip when drawn by a worthy man and destroyed anyone else who tried.

Skofnung — Icelandic sagas. The sword of the legendary Danish king Hrólf Kraki, said to hold the spirits of his twelve berserker bodyguards. Wounds it made would not heal without a specific stone kept with it.

Mistilteinn — "Mistletoe". From Hrómundar saga, taken from a barrow, and never rusting or dulling.

Fótbítr — "Leg-Biter", carried by Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, and one of the plainest named swords on this list.

Angurvadal — "Stream of Anguish", from Frithiof's Saga, inscribed with runes that glowed in wartime and stayed dim in peace.

Holy swords and swords in scripture

The Flaming Sword of Eden — Genesis. Set east of the garden with the cherubim, turning every way to guard the way to the tree of life. The oldest named-function sword in the Western tradition.

The Sword of Saint Michael — the archangel's blade in Revelation and in centuries of iconography, and the reason so many later swords were consecrated in his name.

The Sword of Goliath — taken by David after the duel, kept by the priests at Nob wrapped behind the ephod, and later reclaimed by David when he had nothing else. One of the few biblical swords with a documented chain of custody.

Curtana — the Sword of Mercy, part of the English coronation regalia and unmistakable: its tip is deliberately broken square off. It is carried before the sovereign alongside the pointed swords of Justice.

Saint Peter's Sword — the blade said to have cut off Malchus's ear at Gethsemane. A sword claimed to be it is held in Poznań.

The Sword of Saint Galgano — Tuscany, and unusually you can go and see it. A 12th-century knight is said to have driven his sword into a rock as a renunciation of violence; a blade still stands in stone in the chapel at Montesiepi, and metallurgical testing is consistent with the period.

Real swords with real names

These are objects, not stories. Most can be visited.

Honjo Masamune — the finest surviving work of Japan's most celebrated swordsmith, passed down through the Tokugawa shogunate and designated a National Treasure. Surrendered to occupation authorities in 1945 and never seen again. It is the most valuable missing sword in the world.

Muramasa — like Ulfberht, a smith rather than a sword. Muramasa blades acquired a reputation for bloodthirst and for bringing ruin to the Tokugawa specifically, which had more to do with politics than metallurgy.

Kogarasu Maru — "Little Crow". A Japanese blade of unusual construction, double-edged for the upper third, sitting at the transition between the straight ancient swords and the curved katana.

The Seven-Branched Sword — Isonokami Shrine, Japan. A ceremonial blade with six protruding branches, inscribed and gifted from the Korean kingdom of Baekje in the 4th century. Never a weapon.

Tizona — El Cid's, and it exists: held at the Museo de Burgos, with blade analysis placing it in the 11th century.

Colada — El Cid's second sword, won from the Count of Barcelona. In the Cantar both swords are described as terrifying enemies who did not deserve to face them.

Szczerbiec — "the Notched Sword", the Polish coronation sword, used from 1320 and one of very few medieval regalia swords to survive intact. Now at Wawel Castle.

The Wallace Sword — attributed to William Wallace, held at the National Wallace Monument. Over five feet, though the hilt and parts of the blade are later replacements.

The Sword of Goujian — China, Spring and Autumn period, roughly 2,500 years old and found almost untarnished, its edge still sharp. A tin-copper alloy with a chromium-bearing surface layer explains the preservation.

Ulfberht — a Frankish maker's mark on Viking-age blades from roughly the 9th to 11th centuries, made from crucible steel far purer than most contemporary European work. Widely counterfeited even at the time — genuine examples read +VLFBERH+T, with the crosses in specific positions. See modern Viking swords.

The Sword of Attila — the Sword of Mars, said to have been found by a herdsman and presented to Attila as proof of his right to rule. A sword claimed to be it is in Vienna.

The Sword of Osman — the Ottoman accession sword. Girding it, rather than any crown, made a sultan.

The Sword of Mercy, Justice and the Curtana set — three blades carried together in English coronations, one blunted and two pointed, representing mercy, spiritual justice and temporal justice.

Naming a sword of your own

If you want a name that sounds like it belongs to the tradition rather than a fantasy generator, the patterns above are the shortcut.

Name it for what it did, not what you hope it does. "Leg-Biter" is a better name than "Doombringer" because it sounds like something that actually happened once.

Compound words work. Most of the Norse and Old English names are two plain words fused: leg-biter, white-hilt, sword-of-light. The compound does the work; grandeur is not required.

A flaw is a legitimate name. Szczerbiec is named for a notch. Nothing marks a sword as real like naming it for its damage.

One word is usually enough. Gram. Tyrfing. Colada. Skofnung. The shortest names on this list are the oldest.

Frequently asked

What are the most famous sword names? Excalibur, Durandal, Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, Gram, Joyeuse, Zulfiqar and Tizona are the most widely recognised. Excalibur is Arthurian, Durandal belongs to Roland, Kusanagi is one of Japan's Imperial Regalia, Gram is Sigurd's dragon-slaying blade, Joyeuse was Charlemagne's, Zulfiqar was the sword of Ali ibn Abi Talib, and Tizona was El Cid's — and unlike most of the others, Tizona can still be seen in a museum.

What are the holy sword names? The flaming sword of Eden, the sword of Saint Michael, the sword of Goliath, Curtana the Sword of Mercy, Saint Peter's sword, and the sword of Saint Galgano. Durandal also belongs in this group, as it was said to contain relics in its hilt.

Are any legendary swords real? Several. Tizona is in the Museo de Burgos, Szczerbiec at Wawel Castle, the Wallace Sword at the National Wallace Monument, the Seven-Branched Sword at Isonokami Shrine, and the Sword of Goujian in Hubei. A blade said to be Saint Galgano's still stands in stone in Tuscany. The Honjo Masamune was real and documented until 1945, and has been missing ever since.

What is a good name for a sword? The names that have lasted are short, concrete and descriptive — usually one word or two plain words joined. Fótbítr means leg-biter. Fragarach means the answerer. Szczerbiec means the notched one. Name it for something it did or something visible about it, and it will sound far more authentic than an invented grand title.

Why did people name their swords? Because a good sword outlived its owner. A blade that took months to make and was worth a working farm got inherited, buried, looted and carried into someone else's story. The name was how that object stayed identifiable across generations — closer to how a ship or a house is named than a tool.

If you would rather hold one than read about one, everything above has a modern descendant in our sword collection.