How do you name your World? (Or nations, etc., for that matter...)

[Heinrich Zweihänder]

I name my fantasy world just "World" in different languages. As I'm not a philologist or linguist, I just use existing languages in the Middle Ages to represent translations of the actual languages they use.

this actually replicates the way we use names in the real-world. Referring to the nearby big city as "the City", the big river becomes "the river" and so on.

You're definitively right guys. I believe Earth, Terra, ... are lately names from Galileo's times when people realized "earth" or "the world" was actually a planet like any other and they decided to name that planet somehow. In Japanese it is even more clear this is a late concept: they call it 地球, which means "earth ball".

I believe in ancient times "the world" was named "the world". Why would someone needs to find another name ? There's only one world in the mind of people then. It's obvious which one it is.

Similarly, "the moon" refers to earth's moon. "Satellite" came also later, when people observed satellites and realized the moon was a satellite like the other.

[Zirojtan]

The fantasy world I'm working on has no name yet, but when I do name it, it will probably be something along the lines of 'earth'; just something pertaining to the very fundaments of nature on which human and humanlike cultures depend. Then I might translate this into the different tongues of the world.

The nations, however, have names. Weird names just enter my head, and if I like the sound of them, I use them for whatever region they suit. A few of the languages in my world are under development and they are never based solely on one real world language, so pretty much everything sounds pretty 'foreign' and yet, at times, familiar (since I don't really try to invent new phonemes, haha). At any rate, most of these names popped up before any of the languages had been defined at all, so I retroactively give them meaning, using the names to 'activate' the vocabularies.
Also, the larger or more important a region is, the more likely is it that I will try sticking to names that are easy to remember and to pronounce, while truly complex names still are viable for less 'central' locations.

Apart from that, I'm highly 'simulationist' in that I really don't care whether English speakers or (as in the case with most of my friends) Swedish speakers find the names challenging.
To illustrate my perspective: I have a hard time pronouncing (or merely grasping the fundamental ortography of) for example Romanian, even though it is an Indo-European language with a lot in common with, for example, Italian, French and Latin (all of which are languages we come across frequently for a number of reasons). On a completely different level we have the vast majority of languages that aren't even remotely related to English or Swedish.
Thus, I believe that in a 'realistic' fantasy world it is nigh inconceivable that all of the place names would be easy to grasp for the average person.
Personally, I feel that for example Al-Qahirah is much preferrable to Cairo (one and the same). I have names like this in my world (not Arabic, but distinctly non-European). The Q represents a phoneme in its own right and to replace this with something more 'Germanic-friendly' makes zero sense in a fantasy world, I think.

I didn't mean for this devolve into a linguistic discussion but there you have the basis of my perspective.
If I want a name to convey a 'cold' feel, I don't have to look to ancient Norse or Greenlandic, because the very sounds of a name (that I can make up instead of assembling from real world names) can convey it. If, on the other hand, I specifically wanted to convey an unmistakably ancient Norse feel, well... I wouldn't.

I am in complete agreement with this post.


My fantasy book series involves someone from Earth traveling to the world of Eurydice, and so I have gone to great lengths to describe the biology, the anthropology, and the philology of the world.


For obvious reasons, it would definitely be a little difficult for the protagonist if nobody spoke English, and there would be an entire first part of the book that would be spent in confusion trying to learn the local language where he's at. I mean, it's possible to learn a language through immersion this way, it's how I learned Scottish Gaelic, but it's difficult and time consuming and it would take away from the story. For this reason, I have come up with an elaborate justification as to why English is spoken at all on Eurydice, even if it is done so in a different form (no Latin words or morphemes).


The languages in the world sometimes descend from languages spoken on Earth (as my protagonist certainly isn't the only person to have traveled to Eurydice), such as the Parnaslo languages and the Polavian languages (descended from Proto-Dravidian and Pre-Proto-Celtic, respectively), but by and large are not affiliated with languages from Earth, and are not going to be easy to pronounce for my readers or for the characters. For example Ha'axli'misiniuxn (pronounced: χəʔaɬɪʔmɪsɪɲʊχn) was the first Prassian dictator to have his entire country bought out from under him by Klaliś Tolororþin (pronounced: klɑlɪʃ tɔlɔɾɔɾθɪn) during the Prassian Unification.


Obviously these names, especially the first one, aren't going to be all that easy for readers to pronounce, and neither will the names of important characters in the first book, like Karáxos (karáɕɔs), Ackpräd (ʌ́tɕkpʰɾæd), Óroxek (ɔ́rɔɕɛkʰ), Xexyre (ɕɪɕýre), and Cyris (tɕýɾɪs). But that's just the natrue of the beast, in my opinion. In order to make my world as believable as possible, especially in the context of someone from Earth visiting it, I think it's the best way.


Now, how I come by these names is actually really random. In the past few days since I joined this forum, I've found one of the fantasy name generators to be particularly useful, and actually three out of the five aforementioned character names in the first book come from it. In the past though, I've done a lot of things. Sometimes I'll go to Mark Rosenfelder's Metaverse and look at random numbers from different languages and compound different parts of them or change the vowels/consonants up a bit or even use them backwards. One name for my book series at least was made in this way - Irunjik, who is the Turanese conqueror of what used to be Greater Parnasla (a historical figure in the books). I want to say that it's based off of a number in a South American language? I'm not really sure. Multiple names for characters that will appear later in my alternate history timeline 'The Fox and the Ptarmigan' were made this way as well, such as the royal title 'Haroapo', which will be used in the Patpatarangi Empire on the Pacific Coast of North America, and Patpatarangi names like Namwan, Nenjepar, Morambo, Drijare, and Upoirarai.


Sometimes I also use compounded, chopped, and/or metathesized phrases from languages that I speak. The placename Ś’oqlarínathś (ʃʔɔqɬəɾí:nəθʃ) is actually from the Scottish Gaelic phrase "seolta ri sionnach" which means "sly as a fox". The name Óroxek, who is the grandfather of my protagonist's love interest interest in the first book actually gets his name from the Spanish word 'tesoro' spelled backwards. It was originally Óroxet (the /x/ corresponding to the fricative sound in the Drucpel language), but I only recently changed the /t/ to a /k/ when speaking the language to myself on the toilet when I decided that final /t/'s become /k/'s in Central Drucpel dialects because I liked the sound better. That came from the name of the gas station. Then of course the art of rsesu (pronounced: ʂɛ́su: ), or traditional Prassian tattooing, comes from "users" spelled backwards with the /s/ and the /r/ reversed according to Prassian spelling of the retroflex fricative. I got it off a sign somewhere.


The name of the region of Pras comes from Prussia, and the city of Zraice (dzɾɔɪtʃ), in the region of Polavia in the Province of Lesser Svipur comes from the Thracian word Zrayka. I'm not quite sure where Svipur came from, but Polavia is based off of Colovia, as these books were originally being written for the Elder Scrolls series until somebody beat me to writing a book for them... now it's my own thing.


I'm kind of all over the place with my naming, as you can see, but it's gotten me pretty far in the process. I say don't be picky about where you draw your inspiration. It could be from a street sign, an instructional sign, something you misheard, baby talk, etc. Just let it come to you.

[Jalyha]

Hi everyone

This one topic I should be fairly good at.

How I name my worlds... well, I usually don't. Not at first. If you think about it, all the words for "Earth", in almost every language, mean "dirt" or "men" or .... something along those lines. No one gets creative with naming until there's *something else to name*.

OUR world is "dirt", but other worlds are GODS. Mercury, Mars, Saturn...

We got a tiny bit more creative with those.

There's a little more variety with Nation names, since we discovered other peoples before other planets. And the smallest things have the greatest variety in naming.

What most people don't consider is that no one person names everything in a world. (Or the world itself). Naming things is easier once you know *who* is really naming it. Is it a group of settlers in an unclaimed territory? They will probably name their new home after someone famous, or themselves, or the landscape. So you get names like "Golden Valley" or "Oakdale" (In their own language, of course). Is it a conquering army? They'll name the place after themselves, or their ruler, or their home. "New Amsterdam".

Usually, though, in young worlds/societies, places don't have names at all. The farmers call the nearest village "the village", the villagers call the next village, "the village down the road". Names are for distinguishing one place from another. When there aren't many places, there's no need for names.

After a few generations, people start using surnames and titles for themselves but those surnames are derived from descriptions, Like "Michael John's Son" or "Bill the Smith". After a few places crop up, they describe them, or nearby landmarks. "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave" (Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch = a real place) Usually the actual names are shortened, or mangled, versions of the description. (Llanfair PG for the above).

And when a land is conquered, the conquerors may/may not change the names. Even visitors will muddy the naming waters.

So... I follow the trail. I don't go all out and invent an entire language for my people. I do invent some basic rules for their language, and a few words/phrases within those rules.

When I start a new character, I think about who he/she is, and what mom would have called him/her. When the character goes to a new place, he doesn't always know its' name. So I let him observe the people there, and I think what *they* would call the place. Once I know that, I can go back and fill in the name.

Nations and Worlds- that's all a matter of who is the dominant culture, or who is in power in the realm I'm fixated on. It doesn't matter what another culture calls their country if no one where I live knows what that is. I'm in the USA. I have to speak English here to be understood. So...


That's how I name things in my writing. I follow the bread crumbs. The same should be true in any medium. Even mapping.

If your map is commisioned by the Mayor of Mozzerelli, in the land of Cheesy'Bread, you have to name *most* things in Cheesish. Not everything. Some of the cities in Anchovi will be known by their anchovian names. But not the BIG stuff. Not the oceans, continents, the planet. Those are Cheesish, because your map is Cheesish. If the Emperor of Anchovi commissions the map, it will be in Anchovian.

I guess that makes Maps a bit more lenient... once you name your world in a novel, you're kind of stuck with it.

[Mermaid Shayna]

I was actually just naking a doodle for the outline of a continent for a graphuc novel/manga-type story. It ended up looking a lot like the head of a eagle, so the name was obvious. The hook of the beak created a bay and stuff like that. I have to figure out scale, too, but I'll post an image later (I'm on my phone.)

[IrmaZwart]

At first I just made up some random names without even thinking of how these names were created. But now I read this thread, I totally am going to change all my names, they need much more attention. Thanks!

[Gamerprinter]

Kind of a funny story. When I first started developing my Japanese horror setting for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Kaidan. I was initially developing it for the CWBP (Community World Building Project) here in this forum. I had initially called my island chain, the empire of Asahi - since Asahi is Japanese for 'risng sun'. The problem is, that most people who don't speak Japanese, only know of the word Asahi, as a particular brand of Japanese beer. Not that I was afraid any kind of copyright issue, as Asahi is just a word and not a made-up product name, but I really didn't want to associate my game setting with alcohol...

So I started researching more deeply. Interestingly, I learned there was a Japanese story telling game played by samurai in the 15th century, called Hyakumonogatari Kaidan Kai - which means a collection of 100 ghost stories, with Kaidan meaning "ghost stories". The way the game is played, 100 lit candles are placed in a circle on the floor. All the participants sit inside the circle, while being watched by an audience outside the circle. Each participant tells a short ghost story, odd occurence or creepy tale and at completion wets his fingers and extinguishes a candle. Since there were usually only a half dozen or so participants, each had to tell a couple dozen tales each. Once all the candles are extinguished, it was believed that the story telliing and candle extinguishing was some sort of arcane ritual that summoned a demon to visit the players. The game was a test of courage played among samurai, although being very popular the game spread throughout society and lasted up until the arrival of Americans and the end of Shogunate Japan.

Since my intended setting was both feudal Japan based, and Asian horror, choosing Kaidan as its name seemed appropriate. More than that, however, naming a Japanese flavored story telling game, using the same name as a Japanese story-telling game that is hundreds of years old seemed too good to pass up. As kind of a reincarnation of an ancient Japanese game. Notably a twisted form of reincarnation is one of the built in mechanics of the setting - so Kaidan is almost custom designed to be the perfect solution.

For the rest of my setting, I've tried to both stay true to using the Japanese language, and trying not to duplicate any actual Japanese city or place name - I didn't want to infer any connection between my fiction and anywhere in actual Japan. So all city names, place names, provinces use actual Japanese words. Even the people (NPCs of the setting) use actual Japanese last names, but I have again tried to avoid using the whole names of known Japanese historical figures or modern celebrities. On the other hand of the setting's fictional founding is based on an actual historical event that occured on April 15, 1185 - the final battle of the Genpei War in Japan. The tale of the last battle and the suicide of an entire imperial house as a result of that event was the causing curse that creates Kaidan. While Kaidan is based on Japanese history (at least this particular point), it is a fictional place that otherwise has no direct connection to Japan.

[Scoopz]

Not to belittle the epic tale of naming set forth before me, but I name all MY people/nations/worlds either ironically or satirically... or both.

[codechino]

In general, when I'm defining a world, I'll work through it all in order of scale. At each scale (starting at global), I'll just brain dump place names. At the global scale, this generally means I'm writing down names of continents, major landforms, or even major political entities. I do this alphabetically. Start with A, write down a random place name, move on to B, etc. I might do this a few times. I end up with some really terrible names but some great ones, too. Over time, you end up with a good list of place names for all kinds of scenarios. If I'm naming something that needs a more intentional-sounding name, such as Port SomethingSomething, then I'll either whip that up on the fly or modify names already on my list.

[Cee69]

I personally, use a mix of fantasy and existing. Sometimes I form the fantasy from the existing.

Given that I map mostly for stories and other projects I'm working on, my places have a whole history and what not. So, for example, when I'm working on a story that uses ancient Greece as a base, then some things can be tracked back to that time/world. Also, I think about what I name things. Whether that's a city, a building or an entire world. It needs to have meaning in my opinion.

For my world 'Kentro' (set in a fantasy galaxy), I looked up the word "center" or "middle". This is a world directly from the Greek language, given that I used ancient Greek as a base for this world. Kentro literally means center. I used that word because the inhabitants of that world really think everything revolves around them. They consider themselves to be the center of the galaxy.
Sometimes though, I just look up words with a certain meaning and brainstorm next on a fantasy word.

Currently I'm working on a world with several races, so the names will have different origins. Based on what background I give the creatures. For example, if I base a Dwarf society on old Germanic society, I will dive into that history and get my inspiration for everything related to my Dwarves from that time of our history.

I will never stop using my own imagination, but I will make sure that things don't get mixed up. Even a fantasy word must <i>sound</i> like it comes from the same language as the others. Whether that's a made up language or not, whether it's a fantasy word or not.

As for the order of naming things:
I don't really name things in a specific order, really but I usually start with the inhabitants of the world. Given that they in the end named their world, if you want to have a plausible story. If I use several races, there'll perhaps be several words for the same thing.
After that, I tend to run from big to small and back again. First the most important things/places/objects in the world and then work to the smaller, less important things.

Sorry for the long post, and I hope it's all clear :'D
~Cee

[AuthorParmain]

Names are interesting things. Consider the names you've given to objects and locations in your local life. Things don't get Names. People and living creatures do. In our culture Names are things reserved for souled individuals(what we also call animacy) whereas names are things you call things. This is why you can wiggle your toes in the earth and contemplate the future of Earth. This also helps illustrate that language is cultural.

How do I names things? Well, which culture is naming this object, and how do they classify it? Is it a magic True Name or is it just a label?

With labels I start with the culture that will name the object, then I determine how the object fits into their world philosophy. After that I name the object using phonetics that the culture would likely use. I also try to avoid anything that sounds too cool. (Things like Deathstar, Bloodfeast, and Nemesis are right out, as are most biblical references.)

With True Names I like to go the complete opposite and base it entirely on what sounds cool, though I avoid faux Latin like an accursed copy of Twilight bound in tortured flesh of Justin Bieber. Faux Greek on the other hand....