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

[cypruss11]

I don't like to worry about names.

I have a rather simple way of naming places
I close my eyes and the first thing that pops in my head, possibly the second, is the name of that place.

My latest world Queinthas is still just a sketch on some paper so i don't need to worry about names much
(Not that most of my maps have ever gotten further than a sketch)

[Tyo Solo]

I've kind of copped out on this. I figured there are pleny of good languages and place names in the world, and I agree that the names of places should have meaning.

I order to make my places/languages meaningful and consistetnt, I've created a cipher that will transform any input language into my world languages. I use English as my "common tongue" because it's my first language, but for place names and incantations, the cipher comes in handy.

For example:

In english, Germany is Germany, but in German, its Deutschland.

My cipher would therefor output:

Valnery (Translation from English)
Daogsĵherd (Translation from German)

Therefor to outsiders, the country would be the former (with the etymology remaining intact, albeit with an alternative alphabet), and the latter to those who speak it's language.

There are a couple of extra rules in there to replace common doubles with alternative letters, i.e. "Balloon" would become "Pehir".

I think the important things are consistency and meaning, and this is the way I have got round them.

Cheers

Tyo Solo