Toponomy, or How to Name Places!

[Elterio Delgard]

I like to make a mini-language, just a few hundred words, making sure you have words for things like natural features, colors, Gods, common adjectives, etc. The you can convert your English names to more exotic-sounding names, but you have a pattern and a consistency you wouldn't have if you just made up random names.
For maximum consistency, you'd have to have some Religion, Culture, and History developed before you name most of your places.
Probably too much work for a quick map, but for a world you plan to spend a lot of time on, I couldn't imagine doing it any other way.

I agree, I did the same thing when naming geographical features on one of my map. What I also like to do is having a different way to name things with different civilizations in my world. With the Kastosian Empire, i just made random names with a tendency to use some combinations of letter more often than others. With the Assionian Empire, I made some words for their tongue in order to have a unique way of naming. With the Nalohosian kingdom, I just took names of cities in Britain and changed them. A variety helps also. However, naming is the part that annoys me the most... The ever ending struggle of "which name would be best" x.x

[CAPace09]

I really like this idea. To me, it seems almost a cop-out to have English be the de facto language of a secondary world. It makes sense to have characters speak in English so that readers can understand, but place names should remain in a conlang.

[POUTROR]

I really like this idea. To me, it seems almost a cop out to have English be the de facto language of a secondary world. It makes sense to have characters speak in English so that readers can understand, but place names should be remain in a conlang.

In my TTRPG case, since me and my roleplaying group are French people, I find it is sometimes okay to mix English with invented syllables for places and/or magical stuff. Rad-bro-zûl would be a very cool and very friendly demon lair, for instance. With English being a foreign language to most of my PCs, it makes it easier for me to create names with consistency.

Aside from being French now, for English readers it would not seem illogical to me that some places have names in English if the English in the book is to be a representation of the world language.

[Steel General]

A lot of times I will simply alter the spelling to make it look more 'exotic'. It's probably not the best way to do it, but it certainly is the easiest.

Ex. The name 'Kevin' could easily be turned into 'Khevan' or 'Smith' into 'Smythe' or 'Smiith'

[Diamond]

A lot of times I will simply alter the spelling to make it look more 'exotic'. It's probably not the best way to do it, but it certainly is the easiest.

Ex. The name 'Kevin' could easily be turned into 'Khevan' or 'Smith' into 'Smythe' or 'Smiith'

That's good, except when you go overboard with it, like the Horseclans books, or David Weber's 'Off Armaggedon Reef' series. Then it just looks silly.

[Steel General]

That's good, except when you go overboard with it, like the Horseclans books... Then it just looks silly.

Wow Horseclans books! I have a bunch of them somewhere in my house, haven't read those in years.

You're right though, he did go overboard at times.

[Diamond]

Yeah, I never really understood the purpose in the Horseclans books of doing that. I mean, if the names are spelled phonetically, why not everything else? When they go swimming, do they go in the whaater? Do they climb mowntens?

[NeonKnight]

Yeah, I never really understood the purpose in the Horseclans books of doing that. I mean, if the names are spelled phonetically, why not everything else? When they go swimming, do they go in the whaater? Do they climb mowntens?

Wouldn't that be WHAATUR?

[Aixelsyd]

I didn't closely examine the rest of the thread so I don't know if this has come up, but I like to keep in mind that people from different places call nations different things. Germany/Deutschland. Japan/Nippon. It can add a bit of interesting color to a fantasy world to have natives refer to their cities and landmarks as one thing and outsiders refer to them by another.

[Straf]

I've just read through this thread from start to finish and it is a fascinating topic. Thanks to all those who posted links to resources BTW

I saw that someone else has already mentioned the place names that say the same feature several times often from different languages or dialects. These are known as tautologies where parts that sound different mean the same thing. There are quite a lot of examples around the world. One of my favourites is the River Avon, with afon being the Welsh (and old Briton) for river. So it's the River River.

Another one is a place in Leicestershire called Breedon on the Hill. The Iron Age Celts, or perhaps some post Roman Celts, turned up and held a committee meeting, with each member submitting a suggestion on how to name this place that they've decided to set up shop around. Hilly McHillface was rejected on the grounds that it would make them a laughing stock. As it happened, so conservative were they that they settled on 'hill' but as they hadn't bothered to learn English yet they used their own language and called it Bree. Then some Germans came along and saw that they wanted in on the action and probably slaughtered the Celts but not before asking one of them where they were. Bree, said he, and was thanked with a seaxe to the throat. "This Bree" said the Saxons, "it's on a hill, let's call it Breehill" except they couldn't speak English either so they just called it Bree-don. Then some time later someone who could speak English turned up at this place they called Breedon and saw it was on a hill so they called it Breedon on the Hill. So that's how it became Hill Hill on the Hill.

These tautological references are not bound to the confines of our planet either. High up in the night sky it looks like someone has made a road of milk, so the Greeks decided to call it milky, only they didn't speak English so they called it Galaxias. We sometimes refer to this as the Milky Way Galaxy or the Milky Way Milky One. Suddenly Boaty McBoatface doesn't seem so crazy after all.


Naming is always a bit of a tricky one for me as I have to go back over the history of the place. I have decided that throughout history people have visited/invaded/conquered the land on several occasions and given it a name based on their own tongue. For example the first person to record it is an ancient traveller and chronicler who calls it 'island of the forgotten men' in his own tongue that gradually becomes shortened over time. But being out in a vast ocean and not easy to find it's sort of a mythical place to the inhabitants of the main continent. The name it is known as in the [story's] current era will likely come from the name of the last leader who found and conquered it. Given that I plan on a few groups happening on the place by accident I may be able to include a tip-top touch of tautological toponyms.