Lexember is a social-media challenge to add one word to your constructed language each day of December. Lexember was created by Mia DeSanzo and Pete Bleackley in 2012, so this will be its twelfth year! Adding a word a day is certainly an easily achievable goal, something that you can do over a cup of coffee, on a commute, or when pulling out your smartphone.

If you already have a conlang that you’ll be adding words to, check out Stephen Escher’s “12 Tips for Lexember.”

If you don’t have a conlang, what a great time to start one! How to do that?

To create a naming language, each day choose a different meaning from these tables, making sure to have a fairly even mix of adjectives and nouns.

AdjectivesNouns 
bear-like
beloved
bitter
blessed
brave
chief
compassionate
constant
desired
divine
eagle-like
earnest
falcon-like
famous
flowering
fortunate
fox-like
free
hallowed
happy
industrious
laughing
lion-like
loyal
manly
mighty
noble
northern
patriotic
peaceful
powerful
praiseworthy
prayerful
protecting
pure
ready
sharp
shining
small
strong
strong-willed
swift
valiant
victorious
war’s
wealthy
wise
wolf-like
worthy
young
arrow
battle
bearer
brightness
counselor
crown
defender
dweller
earth
farmer
father
fighter
forest
gate
gift
giver
God
guardian
hammer
harvester
healer
helper
home
horse keeper
laurel
leader
lily
lover
maid
man
pearl
people
protector
rock
rose
ruler
runner
smith
son
spear
staff
steward
stranger
stronghold
sword
traveler
twin
warrior
wolf

You can use these tables to generate names in the following ways:

  • adjective1:  “Pure” (Katherine)
  • adjective1 + adjective2:  “Noble and Shining” (Alberta)
  • adjective1 + noun1:  “Chief Protector” (Howard)
  • noun1 + noun2:  “Elf Ruler” (Avery)
  • adjective1 + adjective2 + noun1:  “Noble, Brave Warrior” (Gunther)
  • adjective1 + noun1 + noun2:  “Strong Warrior Twin”
  • adjective1 + adjective2 + noun1 + noun2:  “Young Bear-like Battle Hammer”

Remember to keep your words short, with just 2 to 4 sounds each, since they will be combined together. The average length of a name in the Dungeon & Dragons Player’s Handbook is just 6 sounds long. And you might want to add a final suffix to signal gender.

tweet about Lexember, 2020

My first year participating in Lexember was 2020. I actually started late, on December 10 to be exact, so if you’re reading this in mid-December you should still start. (Heck, don’t worry if you’re doing this in another month entirely—I also did Lextober in 2021, just because.)

For an added holiday-themed challenge, when creating your December conlang’s inventory of sounds, make sure you have no L.

Happy Lexember!

Photo by Kristian Strand on Unsplash. Originally published 27-Nov-2021.