Place name conventions...

[guyanonymous]

Do any of you have a list of place name conventions? What I mean is the prefixes, suffixes, and extra bits that tend to be incorporated into different categories of place names.

For example

_____ville
_____ City
New _____
Point _____
_____ Canyon
_____ Sea
Lake _____

and so on...

I've found, in the past, some generators, but I'm wanting to work with my own setup for naming thousands of places.

[Ascension]

Never thought about that but I'll throw in a few that I just thought of:

___ Hill
___ Fort
___bend
___ford
___ Vale
___wick
Le ___
La ___
el ___
Las ___
Los ___
[insert color here] ___
[insert descriptive adjective here] ___
[place] of [noun/emotion/verb] (like Hill of Oaks/Sorrows/Killing)

Just a few off the top of my head; gonna put these into a document and keep that handy.

[ironmetal250]

If you're naming thousands of places it might be easier to write a simple program with a C++ compiler or something to generate exactly the number of names you need with a bunch of preconditions, such as the ones mentioned here, and some consonant sounds/words to work with. This can also work for conlanging (for coming up with base words for your language) if you're doing that for your world.

[guyanonymous]

That's my plan, though as a non programmer, I'll likely muddle something up in Excel or Access.

[guyanonymous]

Here's my first attempt at a random name (ok...chain of phonemes) using Excel (xlsx format, sorry)

It's based on these phonetic sounds:

a
ah
aw
ay
e
ee
er
i
ie
oh
oi
oo
ow
u
ue
uh
ur

b
ch
d
f
g
h
j
k
l
m
n
ng
p
r
s
sh
t
th
xh
v
w
wh
y
z
zh

A given name may have 3-6 sounds (if I did it right) which will be in the form of:

CVCVCV
CVCVC
CVCV
VCVCV
VCVC
VCV

(where C is a consonant sound, V is a vowel sound)

[guyanonymous]

Here are a few of the generated names...

l-oh-zh-ue
d-ur-z-a-h
y-ay-m-oi-j
j-i-f-ay-j-ae
b-er-v-oi
j-uh-r-ur
aw-l-u
u-p-oh-t-oo
r-oh-g-ee
th-ue-th-ah-k-ue
n-ie-ng-ur
sh-er-f-oi-xh
oo-sh-oh-wh-ue
w-ae-zh-oh
f-oh-ng-aw-wh
m-ah-p-u
z-ee-v-ee-t-ae
aw-n-u
ae-sh-oi-zh
b-ae-w-i-th-oh
aw-r-ow-p-u
g-ay-f-ae-k-oh
j-ah-w-a-h-a
h-ie-k-uh
v-a-b-uh
ay-l-ay-v-uh
f-ay-z-oi-ch
y-ee-ng-ae-sh-ae
ow-ch-oi-g-ue
ae-g-a
ay-th-oi-y
b-ow-p-oh-l
p-uh-f-oi-zh
m-aw-sh-oo-n-ae
z-oo-j-ue-k-oh
n-uh-ng-ee-ch-oh
ae-h-uh-m
n-oi-s-er-h-oi
ah-xh-er-ng-i
ow-y-oo
ng-ow-b-ur-j
k-a-th-uh-f-oh
ie-f-ur-l
m-ee-ch-uh-k-ah
th-oi-m-ah-d-oo
sh-ae-l-ie-d-a
ah-b-ah-v-aw
y-ie-s-ie-t-er
b-ee-m-ow-xh-er
ch-uh-ch-ah-z
aw-r-ue-n
w-aw-b-ur-z
b-uh-wh-ae-j-ay
oo-m-ue-wh-ee
r-ow-k-ie-sh-i
z-i-n-a
ue-r-ee
b-i-t-ue
zh-ay-l-oh-w-oh
g-ue-z-er-wh-oi
p-oh-t-u-b
ch-ah-z-er
a-v-uh-w-a
j-ur-m-ue-s
d-ow-zh-oi-g-ae
b-ae-t-ue-f-a
ah-b-oo
sh-ur-wh-er-z
ch-i-h-ay-k-ee
aw-j-er-z
uh-h-oh-v-a
j-uh-b-oo-w
n-oo-xh-i
t-uh-f-er
w-i-l-ae-ng-ur
t-er-f-a-l
zh-uh-p-ow-th
g-oh-ch-aw-w
a-d-ur-sh
ue-r-uh-z
ow-j-ie-xh-a
xh-ay-f-u-wh
u-h-ur-f-aw
sh-ay-p-i
y-i-l-i-d-ie
ch-ow-j-ah-sh
ch-oo-w-uh-v-er
b-ie-j-i-zh
v-oi-m-ae-l-oi
oh-r-ie
r-u-h-ae-n-u
f-i-ng-ee-r
th-ie-n-ee
s-uh-sh-a-k

[Lathorien]

Some quirky ones that use or can think of
___ Wall/Bastion/Citadel
___ Springs/Pond/Bank/Stream/Falls
___ Pit/Burrows/Mine/Quarry/Shale
___ Vale/Glade/Meadows
___ Gap/Pass/Walk/March
___ Fort/Keep/Tower/Watch/Post
___ Berg/Borg (just means town)
___ Point/Bay/Harbor/Moor/Bank
___ Camp/Outpost/Tradepost
___ Meet/Mark
___ Valley/Ridge/Mount/Crag/
___ Briar/Fields/Delta/Grove

That's all i got for now off the top of my my head, i will look into it more an come back tommorow.

[NeonKnight]

I gave a big discussion on this waaaaaaaaaaaay back:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...46&postcount=6

[alaskanflyboy]

For generators, I'd suggest using NBOS's Inspiration Pad. It's free, and fairly easy to create generators for. There's also a program — I have a hard time finding it these days — called Lang Maker that was useful for creating fictional languages. It was set to do what you did in Excel.

[Ryan K]

I tend to use generators myself, pick and choose the ones I want and tweak them a bit so that they feel more like they belong in my world. It's shamelessly easy.