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.