List of ghosts

Folklore

Africa

• Obambo

  Asia

India

• Nale Ba
• Pūtam
• Pishacha/Pishach
• Preta
• Naagin
• Daayan
• Chetkin

• Banjhakri and Banjhakrini
• Kichkandi

• Churel
• Pichal Peri

  Southeast Asia

• Hungry ghost
• Mogwai
• Vengeful ghost
• Wangliang
• Yaoguai

• Hantu Air
• Hantu Raya
• Jenglot
• Kuntilanak, also called Matianak or Pontianak
• Langsuyar
• Leyak
• Orang Minyak
• Pelesit
• Pocong
• Penanggalan or 'Hantu
• Sundel bolong

• Ayakashi
• Chōchin-obake
• Funayūrei
• Gashadokuro
• Goryō
• Hitodama
• Ikiryō
• Inugami
• Kuchisake-onna
• Mononoke
• Mujina
• Noppera-bō
• Obake
• Ochimusha
• Onryō
• Raijū
• Shikigami
• Shinigami
• Shirime
• Shiryō
• Tsukumogami
• Ubume
• Umibōzu
• Yōkai
• Yōsei
• Yuki-onna
• Yūrei

• Nat
• Peik-ta
• Thayé

• Aswang
• Manananggal
• Tiyanak

• Krasue
• Krahang
• Mae Nak
• Nang Tani
• Nang Takian
• Phi Pop

Middle East

Europe

• The Wild Hunt
• The Headless Horseman
• White Lady

• Black Knight, believed to haunt Fort Manoel
• Blue Lady, believed to haunt Verdala Palace
• Grey Lady, believed to haunt Fort St Angelo

• Iele, feminine mythical creatures
• Moroi, a type of vampire or ghost
• Muma Pădurii, an ugly and mean old woman living in the forest
• Samca, an evil spirit, said to curse children and pregnant women with illness
• Spiriduş, a domestic spirit/familiar that when summoned, acts as an intermediate between the devil and the master of the home
• Stafie, spirits of the dead who are bound to a place in which they lived in life; a poltergeist
• Strigoi, troubled souls of the dead rising from the grave
• Vâlvă, feminine nature spirits that control various phenomena. Can be good or bad
• Vântoase, female spirits of the wind
• Zmeu, a fantastic creature

• The Knights of Ålleberg are the ghosts of twelve knights that died in the Battle of Ålleberg in 1389.
• James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell of Dragsholm Castle, Denmark
• Myling, a child ghost

• Countess Báthory allegedly haunts her former castle at Čachtice.

• Santa Compaña
• The ghost of Catalina Lercaro in the Museum of the History of Tenerife

• Agnes Sampson, known as Bloody Agnes, believed to haunt Holyrood Palace.
• Drummer of Tedworth
• Bloody Mary
• The Brown Lady
• The Grey Lady, a ghost believed to haunt Glamis Castle.
• Sweet William's Ghost
• The Cock Lane ghost received massive public attention in 18th-century England.
• Man in Grey of the Theatre Royal
• Nan Tuck's Ghost, believed to haunt Nan Tuck's Lane, one mile from Buxted.
• The ghost nun of Borley Rectory
• The ghost of Anne Boleyn, reportedly seen at the Tower of London

  North America

• Emily Carr allegedly haunts James Bay Inn in Victoria, British Columbia.
• Francis Nicholson Darke allegedly haunts Darke Hall in Regina, Saskatchewan.
• The Dungarvon Whooper is a ghost believed to haunt Blackville, New Brunswick.
• Charles Melville Hays allegedly haunts Château Laurier in Ottawa, Ontario.
• The Headless Nun is a purported ghost believed to haunt French Fort Cove in Nordin, New Brunswick.
• Minnie Hopkins, wife of Edward Nicholas Hopkins, allegedly haunts Hopkins Dining Parlour in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
• Alexander Keith allegedly haunts his brewery in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
• Nils von Schoultz allegedly haunts Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario.
• Aeneas Shaw's daughter, Sophia allegedly haunts Queenston, Ontario.
• Lady in Red
• White Lady

• Duppy

• Ghosts of the American Civil War
• Joe Bush, a legendary ghost that allegedly haunts the Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge in Sumpter, Oregon. He is said to leave wet, bare footprints on the decks of the dredge, cause lights to flicker, and doors to open and close.
• Ghost of Queen Esther, the ghost of an Iroquois woman who allegedly mourns the massacre of her village in Pennsylvania.
• President Abraham Lincoln's ghost has been reported in the White House numerous times, many of those by prominent people such as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill.
• Kate Morgan, a ghost which is said to haunt the Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, California.
• Minnie Quay, a legendary ghost of Michigan.
• Old Book is the name given to a ghost or spirit which allegedly haunts a cemetery at Peoria State Hospital in Bartonville, Illinois.
• The Red Lady of Huntingdon College is a ghost believed to haunt the former Pratt Hall dormitory at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama.
• The Ridgeway Ghost of Wisconsin Folklore, is believed to terrorize people along a 25-mile stretch of old mining road.
• Slag Pile Annie, a ghost said to appear as an elderly woman working in a remote and hard-to-access location in the former Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Greenbrier Ghost, the alleged ghost of a young woman in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. In a court trial, the woman's mother claimed that her daughter's ghost told her she had been murdered.
• Emily, the ghost of a high school age girl who supposedly haunts a covered bridge in Stowe, Vermont. The bridge is dubbed "Emily's Bridge" and she is said to be seen only at midnight.
• The Bell Witch was a poltergeist said to haunt the family of John Bell near the town of Adams, Tennessee starting in 1817. The spirit was said to have been witnessed by Andrew Jackson although this is highly unlikely and has manifested itself as various animals and a disembodied voice mocking John and citing scripture from the Bible. It was also said to have tormented the family violently but seemed to have a fondness for daughter Betsy as she grew older until she fell in love with a man the witch despised. Eventually the ghost was blamed for John Bell's death after it was said it left a poison disguised as medicine. The Bell Witch partly inspired The Blair Witch Project and the events of her story were depicted in the film An American Haunting.
• The Wizard Clip was a ghost said to have clipped articles of clothing and visitor's hair at a home in Middleway, WV after a Catholic traveler died there in 1794 without receiving Last rites or other Catholic Sacrament. According to the story, the ghost was exorcised when Catholic priests performed a Mass at the house, and the grateful homeowner deeded about 35 acres of his land to the Catholic Church.
• The ghost of Resurrection Mary allegedly haunts roads and buildings around Resurrection Cemetery near Justice, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
• Lady in Red
• White Lady

• Vanishing hitchhiker
• Deogen, or "De Ogen" or "The Eyes", is a ghost believed to haunt the Sonian Forest in Belgium. It is often seen as figure in the form of fog followed by smaller shadow figures.

South America

• The Silbón, a legendary figure in Colombia and Venezuela, described as a lost soul.
• La Llorona, a ghost of Latin American folklore who is said to have murdered her children.
• Sihuanaba, a shapeshifting spirit of Central America who lures men into danger before revealing her face to be that of a horse or a skull.
• Sayona, a Venezuelan vengeful spirit who appears to unfaithful husbands.

  Oceania

• Frederick Baker of Princess Theatre, Melbourne
• Monte Cristo Homestead of Junee, New South Wales; allegedly Australia's most haunted house.

Literature

• Banquo from William Shakespeare's 1606 play Macbeth
• Hamlet's father from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.
• The Flying Dutchman, originally from A Voyage to Botany Bay by George Barrington.
• The Canterville Ghost of Oscar Wilde's popular short story of the same name.
• Charles Dickens novel A Christmas Carol
• The Dead Men of Dunharrow in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Also the Nazgûl in the same work; nine former men resurrected as wraiths to do Sauron's bidding

  Popular culture

• Boo, an enemy in the Mario series of games.
• Ghosts are often shown as hostile characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog game series.
• The ghosts at Hogwarts:
• Casper the Friendly Ghost and his Uncles, The Ghostly Trio also known as of Fatso, Stinky, and Stretch.
• Danny Phantom
• The Gay Ghost, later renamed the Grim Ghost, is a DC Comics superhero.
• Beetlejuice, Adam, and Barbara Maitland of the film Beetlejuice, and "by himself" in his own animated TV series.
• The Bell Witch
• "The Black Pirate", aka Jon Valor, is a DC Comics character.
• Gentleman Ghost is a DC Comics supervillain.
• Ghost, the superhero from Dark Horse Comics
• The Ghost Rider, also known as the Night Rider and Phantom Rider, is the name of several supernatural antiheroes from Marvel Comics.
• Ghost Roaster, a Skylander in the Skylanders series.
• Homer the Happy Ghost, a fictional character published by Atlas Comics in the 1950s.
• Kayako Saeki, the onryo, and her homicidal husband Takeo Saeki, the evil yurei, from the film The Grudge.
• LeChuck of the series of graphic adventure games Monkey Island
• The Little Ghost Godfrey, known as "the ghost who wouldn't haunt", a Swedish children's book character.
• From the television series Charmed, characters: Penny Halliwell, Patricia "Patty" Halliwell
• The Ghosts from Pac-Man, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde and Sue.
• The Phantom of the Opera, also known as Erik and "The Opera Ghost", the antagonist of the novel, The Phantom of the Opera and Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End musical of the same name. However, he is not a literal ghost.
• Timmy the Timid Ghost, a comic book ghost.
• The Twins of The Matrix Reloaded, henchmen of the Merovingian who can move through solid objects.
• Lonesome Ghosts, ghosts from the Mickey Mouse series and short of the same name.
• Slimer from Ghostbusters
• Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost, a comic book and animation ghost related to Casper.
• Emily, a ghost from the single volume graphic novel Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol
• Billy Joe Cobra, a ghost from the French/British animated television series, Dude, That's My Ghost!.
• Spectra Vondergeist, daughter of the ghosts from Monster High.
• Omiyo, or Ghost-chan, a ghost that haunts the Hinata family's basement in the anime Keroro Gunso.
• Agatha Prenderghast, a character from the stop-motion animated film, ParaNorman
• The Flying Dutchman, a pirate ghost from SpongeBob SquarePants.
• Captain Daniel Gregg, a sea captain from the novel, The Ghost of Captain Gregg and Mrs. Muir, later adapted into a film and television series.
• Sam Wheat, a character from the 1990 film Ghost.
• The ghosts in the show Ruby Gloom:
• Reverend Henry Kane and the other ghosts from the Poltergeist film series
• Ghost Princess from the Cartoon Network original series, Adventure Time
• Nicky, Tara, Mr. and Mrs Roland and Phears from the Mostly Ghostly franchise
• High-Five Ghost, a friend of Muscle Man from Cartoon Network's Regular Show.
• Carrie Krueger, an emo ghost from Cartoon Network's The Amazing World of Gumball.
• Phantasma Phantom, a laughter prone musically talented ghost girl from the movie Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School.
• Annie Sawyer and Alex Millar from the television series Being Human, and Matt Bolton from the spin-off Becoming Human.
• Hugh Crain from the novel The Haunting of Hill House, the novel's 1963 film adaption and the 1999 remake.
• Snare Drum From Meshuggah's "Marrow".
• Marion and George Kerby, ghosts who haunt Cosmo Topper in the two novels by Thorne Smith, the film Topper and its sequels Topper Takes a Trip and Topper Returns, and the television series Topper.
• Mettaton and Napstablook from Undertale. The former is a ghost inside a robot body and the latter is Mettaton's cousin, who makes "spook remixes".
• Archibald Corduroy, Ma and Pa Duskerton and the unnamed lumberjack from Gravity Falls
• Tenkuuji Takeru, protagonist of Kamen Rider Ghost. The ghosts of fifteen significant historical figures also appear in the series as power-ups and plot devices, with more appearing in related movies and side-stories.
• The Snapchat ghost icon
• Reimi Sugimoto, her dog Arnold and, later, Jean Pierre Polnareff from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
• Marty Hopkirk, the deceased partner of Jeff Randall, a struggling British private detective who generally is the only living person who can see and hear him, in the BBC series Randall and Hopkirk aka My Partner the Ghost in the USA.