Real meanings for unreal beings

Monster slang: What do the names of these 12 mythical beings really mean?

Monsters, ghosts, and strange beasts have haunted stories for a very long time, but their names can be just as mysterious as the creatures themselves. Some are surprisingly literal, while others have traveled across languages, religions, and continents before reaching English. From a "knocking spirit" to a goblin hiding in the periodic table, here’s what the names of 12 famous mythical creatures really mean.

The word zombie has traveled almost as dramatically as the creature itself. English acquired it through Caribbean forms such as Haitian Creole zonbi, with deeper roots in African languages. Merriam-Webster compares it with Kimbundu nzúmbe, meaning "ghost."

The traditional Haitian concept also differs significantly from Hollywood's hordes of contagious undead. Zombies became associated with people supernaturally deprived of autonomy and restored to a form of life. The modern flesh-eating version is largely a product of later popular culture, which transformed both the creature and the image English speakers associate with its name.

The word wendigo comes from a family of related Algonquian words, including Ojibwe wiindigoo and Cree wīhtikōw. The Ojibwe People’s Dictionary describes wiindigoo as a winter cannibal monster associated with terrifying, insatiable hunger.

But its literal origin is surprisingly uncertain. The mysterious-sounding word fuels the image of a night monster from past times.

A banshee's famous cry sounds frightening enough, but her Irish name is much less sinister. Banshee comes from bean sí: bean means "woman," while sí refers to the supernatural beings traditionally associated with Ireland's ancient mounds.

That makes the name something like "woman of the fairy mound." And contrary to many movie versions, a banshee traditionally doesn't scream someone to death. Her mournful keening warns that a death is approaching, making her more of a supernatural messenger than an attacker.

Sometimes a monster's name tells you exactly what you're getting. Werewolf comes from Old English werwulf, combining wer, meaning "man," with wulf, meaning "wolf." In other words, the fearsome name basically means "man-wolf."

The interesting part is that wer was once an ordinary word for a male person before disappearing from everyday English. Meanwhile, the alternative lycanthrope reaches almost the same destination through Greek: lykos means "wolf," and anthrōpos means "human being."

Today, finding your doppelgänger might mean spotting somebody who looks uncannily like you. The German word is wonderfully straightforward: doppel means "double," while Gänger means "goer." English speakers began using doppelgänger during the 19th century.

Originally, however, this wasn't merely a word for two strangers who could pass for siblings. A doppelgänger could be an eerie supernatural counterpart of a living person. Over time, the ghostly implications faded, leaving us with a convenient, and much less alarming, word for a look-alike.

If a ghost spends the night knocking things around, German already has the perfect name for it. Poltergeist combines a verb meaning "to knock" or "make a racket" with Geist, meaning "spirit." Literally, it's essentially a "knocking spirit."

That explains why poltergeists differ from the stereotypical silent apparition floating down a hallway. Their calling card is physical commotion: bangs, mysterious noises, and moving objects.

Long before the golem became a legendary creature, its name appeared in the Hebrew Bible. In Psalm 139, the Hebrew golem refers to something unformed or unfinished, an intriguing origin for a being traditionally fashioned from lifeless material.

Jewish folklore eventually transformed the idea into an artificial humanlike figure, commonly created from clay and animated through sacred knowledge.

Here's a surprisingly gentle name for a decidedly ungentle monster. Chimera comes ultimately from Greek chimaira, meaning "she-goat." Yet the mythological Chimera was no ordinary farm animal: ancient accounts combined parts of a lion, goat, and serpent into one fire-breathing beast.

The hero Bellerophon eventually defeated it while riding Pegasus. Its bizarre mixture of incompatible parts proved linguistically durable. A chimera later came to mean an impossible fantasy, while modern biology uses the same word for an organism containing genetically distinct populations of cells.

The Minotaur's name is practically a miniature plot summary. Greek Minōtauros combines the name Minos with tauros, meaning "bull." The famous monster is therefore, quite literally, the "bull of Minos."

According to Greek mythology, King Minos had the creature confined inside the Labyrinth designed by Daedalus on Crete. Theseus eventually killed the Minotaur and found his way back with Ariadne's help.

Break apart hippogriff, and half the creature immediately appears. Its first element ultimately comes from Greek hippos, meaning "horse," joined to griffin.

Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto featured the hippogriff in Orlando Furioso, first published in 1516. He imagined the flying animal as the impossible offspring of a mare and a griffin. Modern fantasy fans may know the creature from Harry Potter, but hippogriffs had already been around for roughly five centuries.

Kobolds were mischievous spirits in German folklore, appearing around homes or underground. Another remarkable oddity is the fact that one of these creatures managed to sneak onto the periodic table.

The element cobalt takes its name from kobold. German miners used the term "supernatural" for troublesome ores that failed to produce the metals they expected and could contain dangerous arsenic compounds. In the 18th century, Swedish chemist Georg Brandt established cobalt as a distinct element.

The Kraken came into English from Scandinavian tradition, where stories described an enormous sea creature lurking beneath northern waters. English records the word by the mid-18th century, when European writers were spreading accounts of the supposedly gigantic beast.

Its name contains a neat grammatical surprise. Scandinavian kraken is related to krake, with the final -n functioning as a definite article, essentially "the krake." Later encounters with real giant squid offered a tantalizing possible explanation for some old sea-monster stories.

Identity crisis

How Siam became Thailand and 9 other countries that chose to rebrand

Image: pure julia

Countries rename themselves for many reasons—shedding colonial pasts, embracing local languages, or settling political disputes. Some changes are subtle, others dramatic, but each reflects deep historical, cultural, or geopolitical shifts. Here are 10 times a nation decided to swap out its old name for a new identity.

Image: Yves Alarie

In 1989, the ruling military junta of the country changed "Burma" to "Myanmar" to reflect what it said was a more inclusive, indigenous identity. The name "Burma" was strongly associated with British colonialism and the dominant Bamar ethnic group.

The UN and many countries recognized the change, but some, like the U.S. and UK, resisted for years as a political stance against the unelected military regime behind the change.

Image: S'mile Vilakati

In 2018, King Mswati III declared that Swaziland would become Eswatini, meaning "land of the Swazis" in the local language. He announced the change during the country’s 50th independence anniversary.

The king cited confusion with Switzerland and a desire to break with colonial-era names as reasons. Also, the new name had already been in unofficial use for years during local events.

Image: Hendrik Cornelissen

In 1972, the island nation officially changed its name from Ceylon to Sri Lanka after becoming a republic. "Sri Lanka" derives from Sanskrit, meaning "resplendent island."

The name "Ceylon" was tied to Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonial rule. However, some companies (like Ceylon Tea) still use the old name as a global brand.

Image: Kaysha

In 1997, after the dictatorial regime of Mobutu Sese Seko was overthrown, Zaire reverted to its pre-1971 name: the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"Zaire" had been Mobutu’s attempt to Africanize the nation, but reverting to the original name also caused its own problems, since its neighbor is also named the Republic of the Congo, leading to some confusion for both locals and tourists.

Image: Ljupco Dzambazovski

After years of dispute with Greece over the name "Macedonia," the country officially became North Macedonia in 2019. Greece claimed "Macedonia" implied a territorial claim over its northern region of the same name.

The compromise unblocked North Macedonia’s path to NATO and EU talks. Though controversial domestically, the change ended a decades-long diplomatic standoff.

Image: allPhoto Bangkok

Under the Khmer Rouge regime, the country was known as Democratic Kampuchea. After the regime’s fall in 1979, the name gradually returned to "Cambodia," the anglicized form of the original name.

By 1993, with the monarchy restored and a new constitution, "Kingdom of Cambodia" became official. "Kampuchea" is still used in the Khmer language, but not internationally.

Image: Road Ahead

In 1984, revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara renamed Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, meaning "Land of Incorruptible People" in local languages. The old name referred to river tributaries of the region.

Sankara saw the change as a break from colonial legacy and a tribute to national dignity. The people became known as Burkinabé, a new term coined to reflect unity.

Image: Azhar J

This was more a rebranding than a true name change. "The Netherlands" has always been the country’s official name, whereas "Holland" refers only to two provinces. In 2020, the Dutch government stopped using "Holland" in international marketing to avoid confusion.

The change was part of a tourism and trade branding overhaul, with major events like Eurovision and the Olympics adopting "Netherlands" exclusively in their materials.

Image: Mathew Schwartz

In 1939, and again officially after WWII in 1949, the country dropped the name Siam to become Thailand, meaning "land of the free."

The change was mainly driven by a nationalist movement that sought to unify the country under a more inclusive Thai identity. While the name "Siam" carried some specific cultural connotations, the name "Thailand" emphasized sovereignty and the ethnic majority’s rule.

Image: Chloe Evans

In 1980, the unrecognized white minority government of Rhodesia was replaced, and the country became Zimbabwe, derived from "Great Zimbabwe," an ancient city of the region.

The old name honored British imperialist Cecil Rhodes. The new one reclaimed African history and identity after years of brutal conflict.