173 Spider Names: Male, Female, Cute, Funny Web Puns, Tarantula and Jumping Spider Picks

Pet spiders are among the most misunderstood companion animals, but for the keepers who love them they are endlessly fascinating: animals that have remained largely unchanged for 400 million years, that produce one of the strongest materials in nature by weight, and that range in appearance from the jewel-blue Gooty sapphire tarantula to the enormous fuzzy Goliath birdeater to the animated, wide-eyed jumping spider that turns to look at a keeper with unmistakable curiosity. This collection of 173 spider names covers male picks, female picks, cute options, web and silk puns, famous fictional spiders, tarantula names, jumping spider names, mythology and folklore names, and names by tarantula colour.

Male Spider Names

Male spiders are typically smaller and shorter-lived than females in most pet species, with male tarantulas often reaching maturity at three to five years and living only one to two years after their final moult, which gives male spider naming a certain poignant quality that female spider naming does not have.

Male tarantulas are sought primarily for breeding in the hobby, while female tarantulas are the preferred pet due to their significantly longer lifespan. A male spider given a bold or mythological name carries it with a dignity that suits the species.

• Archimedes
• Ares
• Axel
• Blaze
• Bruno
• Caesar
• Cosmo
• Diablo
• Draco
• Duke
• Hugo
• Loki
• Maverick
• Nero
• Onyx
• Orion
• Phantom
• Rex
• Shadow
• Titan

Female Spider Names

Female spider names suit the longer-lived, often larger, and more prominent sex across all commonly kept pet spider species, where female tarantulas regularly live for 15 to 30 years and female jumping spiders develop the rich personalities that make the species so popular as pets.

Female spiders are the collectors’ priority in the tarantula hobby. A well-named female tarantula that lives for 25 years will have her name outlast a dozen other pet relationships. Names with mythology, darkness, elegance, or natural beauty all suit female spiders well. For similar exotic pet female naming with longevity in mind, the turtle names guide covers names chosen for animals with similarly long lifespans.

• Arachne
• Athena
• Aurora
• Calypso
• Cleo
• Ebony
• Electra
• Freya
• Isis
• Jade
• Lilith
• Luna
• Medusa
• Nyx
• Pandora
• Raven
• Sable
• Selene
• Vesper
• Xena

Cute Spider Names

Cute spider names work particularly well for jumping spiders and pink-toed tarantulas, where the animal’s actual appearance — enormous forward-facing eyes, fuzzy body, animated head tilts — genuinely supports a sweet name without any irony required.

Applying a very cute name to a large, formidable tarantula works equally well in the opposite direction: a Goliath birdeater named Mochi or a Cobalt blue tarantula named Biscuit earns its comedy every time the name is introduced. These names suit any spider species regardless of sex.

• Biscuit
• Boba
• Bubbles
• Button
• Caramel
• Coco
• Cookie
• Doodle
• Fluffy
• Fudge
• Fuzzy
• Jellybean
• Mochi
• Nugget
• Pebble
• Pudding
• Snuggles
• Sprinkles
• Toffee
• Wiggles

Funny Spider Names and Web Puns

Spider naming produces one of the richest pun categories in all of pet keeping, because webs, silk, spinning, eight legs, creeping, lurking, and the general spookiness of spiders all provide wordplay material that no other animal can quite match.

The web/silk pun lane for spiders is as productive as the shell pun lane for turtles and the hop pun lane for frogs. A tarantula named Webster, Sir Webs-a-Lot, or Silk Daddy earns its laugh reliably. Applying a completely incongruous cute or dignified name to an animal that lives in a hide and occasionally lunges for a cricket is also consistently funny.

• Attila the Furred
• Baron Von Legs
• Charlotte (after Charlotte’s Web)
• Creepy McCreepface
• Eight Legs McGee
• Fuzzy Wuzzy
• Hairy Houdini
• Incy Wincy
• Lord Fluffington
• Miss Muffet
• Mr. Legs
• Mr. Wiggly Legs
• Professor Venom
• Sir Creeps-a-Lot
• Sir Silks-a-Lot
• Sir Webs-a-Lot
• Silk Daddy
• Spidey McSpiderface
• Sticky Buns
• Taran-tula Montana
• The Webmaster
• Velvet Fang
• Venom McSpinface
• Webster
• Weavy McWeaveson

Famous Spiders from Fiction and Pop Culture

Fictional spiders appear across literature, film, television, and comics in roles that range from the beloved Charlotte of E.B. White’s novel to the terrifying Shelob of Tolkien’s Middle-earth, and the pool of famous spider names is deeper and more culturally varied than most people expect.

The table below covers the most memorable fictional spiders and spider-adjacent characters across popular culture, with their sources.

Tarantula Names

Tarantula names suit the most commonly kept pet spider group, spanning docile New World species like the Mexican red knee and Chilean rose to the faster, more defensive Old World species like the Cobalt blue and the Indian ornamental, each with a personality and appearance distinct enough to inspire names that no other pet category can claim.

Tarantulas are named from the town of Taranto in southern Italy, where a species of wolf spider was blamed for causing a dancing hysteria known as tarantism in the Middle Ages. That etymological history alone gives tarantula naming a cultural depth that most keepers never explore. Names drawn from mythology, geography, darkness, and vivid colour all suit tarantulas across species lines.

• Abyss
• Cobalt
• Crimson
• Darling
• Eclipse
• Ember
• Ghost
• Goliath
• Hades
• Jade
• Jet
• Obsidian
• Phantom
• Prism
• Rosie
• Sahara
• Scarlet
• Tarantella
• Velvet
• Venom

Jumping Spider Names

Jumping spider names suit the fastest-growing category of pet spider, led by species like Phidippus regius whose enormous forward-facing eyes, animated body language, and habit of tilting their head to examine a keeper with visible curiosity has made them viral sensations and genuinely popular pets.

Jumping spiders do not build webs to catch prey: they stalk and pounce, can jump up to 40 times their body length, and have the best vision of any spider, tracking moving objects with their distinctive large anterior eyes. Their personality is more animated and interactive than any other spider species commonly kept as a pet, which makes cute, energetic, and character-driven names more fitting for them than for more sedentary tarantula species. For other small animated pet naming ideas, the frog names guide covers similar personality-led naming for another expressive exotic pet.

• Blink
• Bounce
• Dash
• Dot
• Flash
• Freckle
• Lucas
• Nimble
• Peanut
• Pebble
• Pixel
• Rascal
• Scout
• Twitch
• Zippy

Mythology and Folklore Spider Names

Spiders appear in the mythology and folklore of more cultures than almost any other invertebrate, from the West African spider trickster Anansi to the Greek weaver Arachne to the Navajo Grandmother Spider who wove the universe into existence, making mythology-based names more culturally rich for spiders than for almost any other pet.

These names carry genuine weight across multiple traditions and are far less commonly used in the spider-keeping community than the standard mythology names that appear in general pet naming lists. A tarantula named Anansi or Jorogumo is a conversation starter that immediately signals a keeper who has done their research.

• Anansi (West African spider trickster god)
• Arachne (Greek weaver transformed into a spider)
• Ariadne (Greek goddess associated with weaving and labyrinths)
• Athena (Greek goddess who created the spider in myth)
• Grandmother Spider (Navajo creator deity)
• Jorogumo (Japanese spider-woman shape-shifter)
• Kumonga (Godzilla kaiju spider deity)
• Lolth (Dungeons and Dragons dark elf spider goddess)
• Neriene (Roman goddess of strength, associated with spider myths)
• Nzambi (Congolese spider creator figure)
• Penelope (Odyssey weaver who unpicked her work each night)
• Suleyman (Arabian Nights spider-related reference)
• Tezcatlipoca (Aztec deity associated with darkness and weaving)
• Tsuchigumo (Japanese earth spider demon)
• Ungoliant (Tolkien’s primordial spider, older than Shelob)

Tarantula Names by Colour

Tarantula colour is the most precise visual starting point for naming any tarantula, and the range across commonly kept species spans the electric blue of the Poecilotheria metallica and Cyriopagopus lividum, the vivid orange and black of the Mexican red knee, the deep black of the Grammostola pulchra, and the warm brown of the Chilean rose.

The table below maps five common tarantula colour categories to names that suit each one, applicable across species lines in the hobby.

How to Choose the Right Spider Name

The best spider name connects to the animal’s colour, species personality, or the keeper’s sense of humour, and a spider is one of the few pets where the name can go in any direction at all, from the most fearsome mythology to the most absurdly cute food name, with complete conviction.

Spiders do not recognise their names, respond to being called, or display any visible reaction to being named. This removes all practical constraints and opens the field completely. Colour is the fastest reliable shortcut for tarantulas: a blue Cobalt tarantula suits Azure or Sapphire, a black Brazilian black suits Onyx or Jet, an orange Mexican red knee suits Ember or Blaze. Species personality is the second layer: a docile Chilean rose that sits motionless for weeks suits something calm like Sage or Ghost, while a fast and defensive Orange baboon tarantula that flares up at anything suits something with fire like Diablo or Venom. For jumping spiders, personality and the animal’s visual expressiveness should lead: a spider that consistently tilts its head to examine its keeper suits Pixel or Scout, while one that launches across the enclosure at feeding time suits Flash or Dash.