Printable View
Do any of you have a list of place name conventions? What I mean is the prefixes, suffixes, and extra bits that tend to be incorporated into different categories of place names.
For example
_____ville
_____ City
New _____
Point _____
_____ Canyon
_____ Sea
Lake _____
and so on...
I've found, in the past, some generators, but I'm wanting to work with my own setup for naming thousands of places.
Never thought about that but I'll throw in a few that I just thought of:
___ Hill
___ Fort
___bend
___ford
___ Vale
___wick
Le ___
La ___
el ___
Las ___
Los ___
[insert color here] ___
[insert descriptive adjective here] ___
[place] of [noun/emotion/verb] (like Hill of Oaks/Sorrows/Killing)
Just a few off the top of my head; gonna put these into a document and keep that handy.
If you're naming thousands of places it might be easier to write a simple program with a C++ compiler or something to generate exactly the number of names you need with a bunch of preconditions, such as the ones mentioned here, and some consonant sounds/words to work with. This can also work for conlanging (for coming up with base words for your language) if you're doing that for your world.
That's my plan, though as a non programmer, I'll likely muddle something up in Excel or Access.
Here's my first attempt at a random name (ok...chain of phonemes) using Excel (xlsx format, sorry)
It's based on these phonetic sounds:
a
ah
aw
ay
e
ee
er
i
ie
oh
oi
oo
ow
u
ue
uh
ur
b
ch
d
f
g
h
j
k
l
m
n
ng
p
r
s
sh
t
th
xh
v
w
wh
y
z
zh
A given name may have 3-6 sounds (if I did it right) which will be in the form of:
CVCVCV
CVCVC
CVCV
VCVCV
VCVC
VCV
(where C is a consonant sound, V is a vowel sound)
Here are a few of the generated names...
l-oh-zh-ue
d-ur-z-a-h
y-ay-m-oi-j
j-i-f-ay-j-ae
b-er-v-oi
j-uh-r-ur
aw-l-u
u-p-oh-t-oo
r-oh-g-ee
th-ue-th-ah-k-ue
n-ie-ng-ur
sh-er-f-oi-xh
oo-sh-oh-wh-ue
w-ae-zh-oh
f-oh-ng-aw-wh
m-ah-p-u
z-ee-v-ee-t-ae
aw-n-u
ae-sh-oi-zh
b-ae-w-i-th-oh
aw-r-ow-p-u
g-ay-f-ae-k-oh
j-ah-w-a-h-a
h-ie-k-uh
v-a-b-uh
ay-l-ay-v-uh
f-ay-z-oi-ch
y-ee-ng-ae-sh-ae
ow-ch-oi-g-ue
ae-g-a
ay-th-oi-y
b-ow-p-oh-l
p-uh-f-oi-zh
m-aw-sh-oo-n-ae
z-oo-j-ue-k-oh
n-uh-ng-ee-ch-oh
ae-h-uh-m
n-oi-s-er-h-oi
ah-xh-er-ng-i
ow-y-oo
ng-ow-b-ur-j
k-a-th-uh-f-oh
ie-f-ur-l
m-ee-ch-uh-k-ah
th-oi-m-ah-d-oo
sh-ae-l-ie-d-a
ah-b-ah-v-aw
y-ie-s-ie-t-er
b-ee-m-ow-xh-er
ch-uh-ch-ah-z
aw-r-ue-n
w-aw-b-ur-z
b-uh-wh-ae-j-ay
oo-m-ue-wh-ee
r-ow-k-ie-sh-i
z-i-n-a
ue-r-ee
b-i-t-ue
zh-ay-l-oh-w-oh
g-ue-z-er-wh-oi
p-oh-t-u-b
ch-ah-z-er
a-v-uh-w-a
j-ur-m-ue-s
d-ow-zh-oi-g-ae
b-ae-t-ue-f-a
ah-b-oo
sh-ur-wh-er-z
ch-i-h-ay-k-ee
aw-j-er-z
uh-h-oh-v-a
j-uh-b-oo-w
n-oo-xh-i
t-uh-f-er
w-i-l-ae-ng-ur
t-er-f-a-l
zh-uh-p-ow-th
g-oh-ch-aw-w
a-d-ur-sh
ue-r-uh-z
ow-j-ie-xh-a
xh-ay-f-u-wh
u-h-ur-f-aw
sh-ay-p-i
y-i-l-i-d-ie
ch-ow-j-ah-sh
ch-oo-w-uh-v-er
b-ie-j-i-zh
v-oi-m-ae-l-oi
oh-r-ie
r-u-h-ae-n-u
f-i-ng-ee-r
th-ie-n-ee
s-uh-sh-a-k
Some quirky ones that use or can think of
___ Wall/Bastion/Citadel
___ Springs/Pond/Bank/Stream/Falls
___ Pit/Burrows/Mine/Quarry/Shale
___ Vale/Glade/Meadows
___ Gap/Pass/Walk/March
___ Fort/Keep/Tower/Watch/Post
___ Berg/Borg (just means town)
___ Point/Bay/Harbor/Moor/Bank
___ Camp/Outpost/Tradepost
___ Meet/Mark
___ Valley/Ridge/Mount/Crag/
___ Briar/Fields/Delta/Grove
That's all i got for now off the top of my my head, i will look into it more an come back tommorow.
I gave a big discussion on this waaaaaaaaaaaay back:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...46&postcount=6
For generators, I'd suggest using NBOS's Inspiration Pad. It's free, and fairly easy to create generators for. There's also a program — I have a hard time finding it these days — called Lang Maker that was useful for creating fictional languages. It was set to do what you did in Excel.
I tend to use generators myself, pick and choose the ones I want and tweak them a bit so that they feel more like they belong in my world. It's shamelessly easy.