The Nine Nazgûl Ranked: Why Only Two Have Names | Tolkien Explained

Most Tolkien fans can rattle off names for the Nazgûl — Dwar, Ûvatha, Akhôrahil, Adûnaphel — but almost none are real. This honest ranking of the Nine Ringwraiths rests on a fact that overturns the fandom: Tolkien named exactly one of them, Khamûl the Easterling, Sauron's lieutenant at Dol Guldur. The Witch-king of Angmar carries only titles, never a name, and the other seven are complete blanks. Every other name comes from a 1980s tabletop game, not the legendarium. The episode ranks them in three tiers — the Witch-king, alone undiminished by daylight or water; Khamûl, most sensitive to the One Ring yet crippled by sunlight; and the seven nameless shadows. The deeper revelation: the Rings consumed identity itself. The missing names are the meaning. It closes with fear, not force, as the wraiths true weapon, and the Witch-king felled by Éowyn and Merry on the Pelennor Fields.