overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

kelpie.

A malevolent shapeshifting spirit, most often in the form of a horse, believed to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun
  1. A malevolent shapeshifting spirit, most often in the form of a horse, believed to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland.

  2. An Australian breed of sheepdog.

Where this word comes from

Possibly from Scottish Gaelic cailpeach or colpach, meaning "colt"; recorded earliest in a placename (Kelpie hoall, Kirkcudbrightshire) in 17th century. The dog breed, from 1889, derives from the name shared by the first two breeding bitches (dam and pup) in Victoria, Australia, which in turn derives from the mythological spirit.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

kelpie has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

kelpie studiokelpie workshello, kelpie

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.