Naming Places

[stormiel]

One way I name places in my stories is by using maps and coming up with names based on or similar to the names I find on the maps. I also use variations of star names too.

Actual Names:

Gischala
Anaharath
En-rogel
Mahaena
Rakiraki
Er Rai
Alnitak

The names I came up with using these (pronounce any way you like):
Gesh-Hareth
En Callea
Anitack
En Raen
Rakear

I recommend looking up any names you come up with to make sure they aren't offensive, or already taken. As far as I could find the names I came up with aren't offensive or taken.

How do you all name the places in your stories?

[Bethany J.]

I like your method, and the names you came up with are great! I don't have any particular method...I just pull names out of my brain and adjust as I see necessary. A few are drawn from the language I've invented. Some names I've come up with...

Tethica Lonad
Umania
Monaina
Son Lureth
Rauthuria
Kormadak
Dahlineth

[Kessie]

A lot of times I just use the Fantasy Name Generator over at rinkworks.com. Before Google changed it, I also took names from the capacha on Blogger. Capacha provided me with Julosa, Skeldril, Laroba and Psellugu.

I also have to be able to pronounce them. I always have the threat of there being an audiobook made in the back of my mind, and I need to be able to pronounce my own words. I'm notorious for mispronouncing words. :-p

[Bethany J.]

Kessie, I really liked Julosa!

I'd love to have an audiobook, myself, because I like pronouncing all the place names and foreign languages I invent. I've recorded several clips of the language.

[rjj7]

One thing I've started doing is picking a foreign language that I like the sound of (I'll use Welsh as an example), and then doing a weird combination of two words that both describe the character/place I'm naming. For example, the web translator I use says that the Welsh word for "twisted" is "dirdro" and "understanding" is "dealltwriaeth". I thus might name a character who had a twisted understanding of the world (or the important issue at stake in the story) Dirdeall, or possibly Drowraeth. Alternatively, I might look up the Welsh word for "incorrect" (which is "anghywir") and come up with Angwriaeth or Angdealth.

Of course, I'm not sure how favorably the Welsh would look on me mangling their language, but hey, it looks and sounds a lot better than trusting to my own inspiration. It even allows for a certain level of similarity between the feel and sound of different names, thus making them seem more like they all belong to the same language/culture.

[This Baron of Mora]

I've yanked names occasionally of maps if I recall, but I do it in such a way as to make myself forget generally though its of old maps from like the Carta Marina 1539. More commonly I browse through various languages vocabularies (always germanic) and take or modify good ones though often not used as place names, my requirement on these is that when saying the word it must invoke its meaning on you.

Mostly though I just make up terms either specifically for something or generally (in the latter's case I then find the meaning it invokes). One example I'll share is Mora (hence my name) which I took off the Carta Marina and whence comes my namesake here, I do however often modify the term over time thus Mora becomes Morhea et cetera.

[metalikhan]

How I name places sometimes depends on whether I'm also making up language(s) for whatever milieu I'm writing about.
(Love that Dictionary of 26 Languages in Simultaneous Translation for my language creation starting point! Like a paperback tower of Babel. ;D)

I also use place names in plain ol' English or actual names if the story is in a definite historical/geographical setting. The latter doesn't require much creativity, but it does require solid research and fact verification, especially when using real street, building, and/or institution names.

But I pay especially close attention to naming if the place itself plays a critical role. In one story, the place name affects the perceptions of the character as his condition deteriorates. He slips from knowing the place as a destination to perceiving it as a person waiting for him. In the paragraph where that transition is complete, he goes from calling it the capitalized proper name to calling it by the common uncapitalized name.

[waldenwriter]

I don't really have a method. I just make up names as I go. Or take them from stuff I read - the name "Walden" for my fantasy world I basically stole from Henry David Thoreau, who wrote a famous work by that name.

[stormiel]

Its really fun to pick the brains of writers. Thanks for all the replies.

[rjj7]

I'll agree with you on that point. Good fun all round.