What is the name for a female fox?

The name for a female fox is vixen. The word is the standard English term used for an adult female fox, especially in wildlife writing, hunting vocabulary, and traditional animal lore.

A male fox may be called a dog, tod, or reynard, while young foxes are commonly called cubs, pups, or kits. These labels are vocabulary distinctions rather than separate species. The red fox, the species most people picture, belongs to the dog family Canidae and is found across much of the Northern Hemisphere, with introduced populations in Australia and elsewhere.

“Vixen” also has a second, figurative use for a sharp-tempered or striking woman, which can make the animal meaning seem less obvious. It is also the name of one of Santa Claus’s reindeer, but that fictional reindeer name does not change the biological term. In fox biology, a vixen typically gives birth after a gestation of roughly 52–53 days, producing a litter of kits in a den.