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

[MDSS]

The Latin cognate was Terra Mater ("Mother Terra" or "Mother Earth"). In most latin countries, some variant of "terra" is still the name for our world.

Terra actually (the T is important)
well, Terra means Earth, just like in english, and I belive both may have a similar origin: for the 1000 years that composed middle age... actually, for 1300 years if you add to it when the roman empire united the majority of europe under a same standart... the main language were latin (just like it's english now, for the whole world) and therefore, most european nations called our planet Terra, like the romans, but translating it for their own languages. so, basically, if the 14 thrhones have a originated from a same event, probably somewhere in the past your world (or the part of it you are focusing on) shared a common language, which probably had a name for it. you may keep the name of the original language, or translate it for the language of the nation you intend on focusing on...

some tips:
I-take a name it have on our world, and write it backwards, see if it looks like a good start (earth->htrae; Terra->arret...)
II-with time, names tend to change, specialy if knolodge isn't passed down by written means, even more if the name was given in another language (htrae->threa; arret->ahet...)
III-if the name had some obvious meaning (earth for example) it tends to stick to it... even if later on it's discovered not be exatly true
(Earth for a planet which is mostly water, River for a nation that survived a millenia on a oasis-like river along a desert, even though the desert may be small when compared to the whole world)
IV-in a last stance, if the majority of the know world share a same religion that gives a special name to the world, even if that religions fades away with time, the name tends to survive (midgard->middle earth->média terra->mediterrâneo->mediterrain)

[Neptondoodle]

I know this thread is like, five years old now, but I did wan to mention

I have made plenty of worlds, all with different names and reasons. The first was "Kinval" I just liked the name. It was very standard fantasy aside from it's technology being at a carolingian/post-roman empire period. Orcs, men, elves, goblins, very clear gods and demons, etc. The big twist at the end of the campaign I ran was that the gods were just as conniving and unpleasant as the demons and ended up trying to destroy their own messiahs (the players) when they got close to the truth. Anyhow, the name was a generic fantasy name, I am sorry to say.

My best world to date is "The World of Rat & Dragon" I'm the overauthor with a bunch of other friends all writing for charachters in a 14th century era fantasy realm more similar to the late middle ages. All magic extinct aside for a distaint continent that was closed off centuries ago, etc. The main story is a civil war in a sort of medieval britain based on the Wars of the Roses. Charachters on all four or so sides. Anyhow. The places in the setting were as follows

Saalim, or the Levenent was the desrt region, a continent south of the european type continent. The Levenant due to being influenced by The Crusades, it had a lot of Crusader expys, even a sacred city in it. The name "saalim" was actually my little cousin's name for his imaginary desert world filled with Bedouin stereotypes. While Saalim of the setting was far more like israel/iraq/turkey, it was still a middle eastern type zone.

The other area was "The Shadowplace" based off of my cousin's imaginary worlds again. That was their name for their mother's craft room where they couldn't play with their toy soldiers.

The final (primary) area was Norvath, which was named because it, being the europe type area was in the North. Other places within it included "The Thunderbow" with a lot of thunderstorms, the Huntlands, an area of forests, the Ironlands, an area of mineral rich mountains, Stormlane, called such because storms swept in form the sea frequently, and plenty more. There were 21 holds in all.

[Annarkey]

Hey! So I don't know if this will be much help, but I really want to hit my five post minimum and it's one of the few things We actually did with my homebrew map. When my friend told me what he was looking for in a world, and what kind of campaign he was going to brew, the place names almost wrote themselves for me. To explain, while it is a legitimately made campaign, it is structured so it is full of tongue-in-cheek references to it being a game and has an interesting mix of humor and seriousness that is hard to explain if you do not know the DM. Therefore many of the place name, for instance the continents are Dankia and Memeius after the term Dank Memes, the DM's name is Dylan so the primary empire is Dylanium and the capital Dylanith, since he created the world. Clearly it is far from the most realistic or accurate way to name places, but I feel at least that they mirror the world well.

[AlamoFiteCat]

At first I try to relate each area and the people that inhabit it with a certain language, religion, politics, cultural background etc.

For an example I have this country that is predominantly homogeneous in terms of racial/national diversity, like the majority is 80%. If they are a warlike, dominant people this means that all minorities will probably have their cultural heritage oppressed and thus, most of the places will have a similar morphology.

Another example will be a small and relatively young country which still does contain a majority of at least 65-70% but was conquered by another country at least 500 years ago and only recently gained it's independence. This means that other than the native majority deciding the names of places there will be many "residual" toponyms still named in the manner of the conquerors.

A third example would be a heterogeneous society which can have many different concepts of naming. Names can be determined as a cultural mix if the people live in harmony or different parts of the country will have different background for their respective toponyms.

After I decide the concept by which the places will be named I will look up different languages, both existing in the real world and from fantasy and start brewing names based on words from the said language.

[Applejack]

What I see alot is that people either go too deep into fantasy names all the way, or too generic.
I myself took an approach a la Game of Thrones.
Westeros has those fantasy names, and generic ones, but that doesnt make it bad at all,
it makes (certainly non-fantasy readers) feel more familiar with the shizzle,
and with the right touch it can easily be made into realistic yet creative a la fantasy.
Look at names like Vale of Arryn or Winterfell, Harrenhal, King's Landing, or the fortress of Dragonstone.
Or a river called the Trident (for it splits into 3 branches reminiscent of a fork or trident)
Or a mountain(range) called the ''Mother of Mountains'' or the Frostfangs.
Such names are cool and make it less confusing and more realistic.

Now, if a fantasy word would contain only such, words containing real words, that'd be a bit lame.
But now look at Essos: Volantis, Meereen, Qarth, The Rhoyne, Krazaaj Zasqa.
and tons more.
martin also combined those mythic, creative names with the ''faraway lands'' or the lands outside of where the action takes place,
making it even more exiting. You'd wanna know more about those weird lands with those strange cultures and animals and Gods.

Lets say you got names like Yaratze.
It's a river for example.
And they travelled from Jugukuuluu(estonian-ish words, check out that language man) across the Toaitatar Plains toward the Yaratze.
To me (and many other readers) its just kinda meh.
it doesnt tell the reader anything, unless youre gonna explain the reason (if there is one) behind it. not only does that make it more boring
and slow, it's also gonna haunt you. And if there's translation for it because they have their own language, well, nice, but still. Keep it a bit down.
And it could go outta control, cuz creating your own language aint easy)

I'm a great fan of geographical names that got a ''realistic'' naming.
The Sloshing Snake or (got's) Blackwater Rush say alot more than the ''Yaratze''
Might be hard at words but eventually creative names come rolling out.
But don't completely leave the fantasy namings out.
I also got this part in my world where the namings are fantasy like, with exception of many geographical names.
What I also tend to do, as it makes it even more realistic: if you have a kingdom where they speak this language, have this culture, don't
create the names in such ways that they are completely different)

Like the town called Gossgaram is nearby Uilyakilithix.
Cmon guyssss.
If it was Gossgaram is near Motuggan, that's better.
I'd save that other name for another land, far away.
It gives the reader a sense that there's this culture, with similar names and ****.
In Greece, one island called Lesbos, the other one Mykonos, Hydra, Ikaria, Ios.
Like, oooh look. thats typically Greek.
You'd want that in your story too i guess?
if youre a fan of worldbuilding its pretty much a must imo.
I've got this desert region (although currently under occupation by a neighbouring empire) where many
towns and cities have the z and us and y in them.
Kayunus, Kososur, Talitaker.
Another region might have many names like Hrasar'Ta, H'ururge or whatever ****.

One name I liked alot was the Spine of the World, a mountain range, (forgot what series)
It's really creative yet gives a realistic feeling.
It tells you that its certainly a major mountain range, like the biggest of the world.
And probably very steep, theories and imaginations come to mind.
Whereas if it were called the T'aalam Mountains or simply he T'aalamis.
Its your own call, but the latter one is much...less memorable and interesting.

So just keep your namings and **** mixed and ordered.

[Naima]

Starting from your little intro... I took a similar route and I went to the roots of German Celtic and Latin lanfuages picki g the Indoeuropean word Tersā... little alteration and I called it Thersis.

[keirdubois]

So... I've been thinking the past few days, since I posted the latest update to my "unnamed" project
How do you come up with the names for your worlds, nations, whatever? Why? Do those names mean anything to you, or to the people who populate your world? What does it mean, and why?

I've gone through years and years of several iterations of names with made-up words that had no logic to them, which I don't prefer to do anymore. I want to find some happy medium between the slog of making up entirely new fictional languages (Tolkein), which I'm not qualified to do, vs using English for "western" stuff and made up "exotic" names for "everything else" (GRR Martin), which seems too simplistic but alternately kinda accessible for lay audiences?

I'm currently sorta retconning/making up stuff that has some(?) logic(?), such as a region with medieval Iberian-style culture, called "The Orangelands" by outsiders but "Naran" by the native culture ("Naransi"). Naran being a diluted/derivative of the Spanish naranja. I've done the same for a Celtic-ish island chain called The Green Jewels, which ended up being "Glaseodae" which (if I remember right) is a corruption of something similar in either Irish or Scottish Gaelic.

I've been doing that thing with names where the English name is large and the fictional name is smaller/underneath it, but I'm thinking about reversing that. I don't feel like a detail freak about this stuff—I'm not the linguist (or, really, the hard-core fantasist or gamer) in my family—but honestly seeing the simple Westerosi place-names was kinda liberating for me. I don't want to create something that's a turnoff because of illogical or weak names.

[seusomon]

I know this is a really old thread, but...

The inhabitants of a world will likely only name it if they have a concept of other worlds from which it needs to be distinguished. On Earth, this mostly awaited the advent of scientific astronomy, when the planets were recognized as being other worlds. The Germanic "Middle Earth" which Tolkien used referred to it being between the world of the gods and the underworld. Latin "Terra" was not used as the name of the World: I've never seen a world map with this title. Instead, most old maps in Latin were titled "Orbis Terrarum" (Globe of Lands) or some variation. Greek Gaia was a personification of Earth as contrasted with Sea and Sky, not the name of the World as a whole.

So if you need an endonym for the world itself, you first need to ask about the cosmology of its inhabitants, and why they would think of the world as one of several.

[TurtleSoup]

I name my map using a rule-set I come up with for each country, depending if it's a conlang or a mashup of cultures, I try to keep a formula to what I do, but usually I search for evocative words, if I make something lovecraftian, I consult a "wordcount" database of lovecrafts most commonly used adjectives, a glossary of what may be described "lovecraftian" and then I get to work with these pieces of the puzzle, now ofcourse I like to cut corners on these "puzzle pieces" and end up with a "collage" but I always make sure to lay out the rules before I go about breaking them.

[Tiana]

In my most distinguished and long-term example of "what are the planets named", they are both named after their associated god/goddess who is mythologically responsible for crafting the planet, for as much or little as that is actually true. One example is Almaera which is an Ekaeli word, based off two Malelri words, Alma (possibly even Al Ma) and Era. Era means land. Alma means shadow (and might have originally broken down to be like Light Dark) and shows up in many people's names. Why is it the "Shadow Land"? Because it was mythologically MADE by Malelri as a copy of the other planet which is habitable as well, Carmen. Carmen is named after the ancient goddess Carmenjia (who is not actually the same person as Lady Fate, the governing well known well branded goddess who borrowed the name Carmenjia). The jia part humanizes it. Carmen now refers only to the land of the planet or the personification of the goddess of the planet, but you would not call her Carmen to her face, you would likely call her Lady Fate or Carmenjia, or if you're in the know, you'd call her by her given name granted by her mother and her father's surname, Iydra Shovak.

On Almaera, at least the section we most commonly write, we would base the names off the Ekaeli language OR the predecessor Malelri language which uses only single syllable simple words which have ostentatiously many meanings for a single sound with the specificity derived by telepathic connection. Not useful, but this results in some places, such as "Dau", which... might have meant south or water or waterfall or land by the waterfall. Or the "oth" ending, which turns it into the name of a city will be applied. There is Endoth, which is "End" + "Oth", End likely originally meaning "mountain" or "rock" or "by the mountain" or "in the air" but now it literally is just "mountain city".

Estavan has its own languages. Nomadic Almaera does not have defined place names, but instead defined territory owned by certain tribes, whose names will reflect their primary territorial claim. Such as "Westvale".

Carmen was originally populated by human colonists, a very long time ago, and its names loosely reflect its ancient history as a colonized world, with a selection of them having clear nods to their origins, and others having shifted into local conlangs. Some of this is shown in our editing process, where "Mudville" became "Cairavaire" as we used the region more and eventually decided to give it a proper name. Others are certainly still in their original spirit. "Potatoma Shire" was the first draft but now it's on the map as "Potatomashir". It has not evolved much. It is 100% canon and will likely always remain.

So if I were to name a new place there, I'd likely give it a cute English colonist pet name and then devolve it over many many generations of repeating it to see where it falls apart to simplify it a bit.

The two planets can see each other in the night sky and have had past space travel connections before that technology sort of went down the tubes (teleportation developments sort of ruin space travel), so it was necessary the planet as a whole be named, even though devolution has resulted in Almaeran continents being very separate from each other. Even the largest continent being extremely divisive from north to south people still know that they're legendarily on Almaera's body replicating the entire other planet in the system (badly of course). The same language is spoken all over the world, to varying degrees of dialect so I'll generally begin by drawing on the bank of Ekaeli words I have to work with, or appropriate Ekaeli sounds, and then if the name is not in the "main stage" where that specific dialect it used, I'll evolve it a bit over time based on the rules we have for how, say, nomadic Ekaeli or Tavaroth Ekaeli functions versus "contemporary Ekaeli".