Naming Places

Hey guys,

A friend of mine was asking me for help naming a city so I thought that it was a good basis for a post so here we have it: a post on naming places.

Cities

Cities are the most basic of settings: most stories take place in a city or near a major urban hub and that hub needs a name.

Some great tips that I've compiled are:

• New (Insert name of existing city here) - The reason I love this one so much is because it's easy to punch out a name fast if you need it. For instance, when they were naming the new world they came up with places such as "New York" (F.Y.I. New York city was originally named New Amsterdam). A fictional example of this method is the animated series "Class of the Titans" which I loved. The city's name was "New Olympia". Pick any city name, ancient or current, plop "New" in front of it and you've got a city.
• Suffixes - I love suffixes. There are so many to choose from because so many languages have variations that apply here. Examples: Russian "-grad" as in "Stalingrad", "Volgograd" and "Leningrad". German "-burg" as in "Hamburg", "Lauenburg" and "Aschaffenburg". English "-ham" as in "Nottingham", "Birmingham", and "Rotherham". Swedish "-holm" as in "Stockholm", "Ängelholm", and "Katrineholm". Just to name a few.
• Names - Combining any name with the suffixes above works well. For example: "Leningrad"- Lenin was a leader in Russia from 1917-1924.
• Folklore names - I especially like this one. In Alberta there's a town somewhere called "Orion". Greek mythology buffs such as myself will know that Orion was a hunter whose image was put in the stars by Zeus.
• Any combination of these options works well.

Provinces, Counties and Regions

In Canada alone there are several ways of naming our provinces. For example:

• Aboriginal words: "Saskatchewan" - swift flowing river
• People's names: "Alberta" - named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, daughter of Queen Victoria
• Physical location: "Northwest Territories"

In America, Native American naming schemes are common: "Dakota", "Alabama", "Alaska", "Kansas", and "Minnesota" to name a few. As well, the "New _____" scheme is popular: "New York", "New Jersey", and "New England" (although this last one is more of a territory, it's not an actual state).

Alternately, regions can be given any name and then add a geographical noun at the end. "Rhode Island" or "Long Island" for example.

Some provinces share a name with a city within the province: "Berlin, Berlin, Germany" or "Québec City, Québec, Canada".

Countries

Countries can be difficult, but not impossible. Here are some options:

• Aboriginal words: "Canada"
• Derived from a name: "Colombia", "America"
• Locations: "Ivory Coast", "Cape Verde", "Cayman Islands"
• "Republic of ________"/"Democratic Republic of ________"/"Federal Republic of _________" : "Republic of the Congo", "Democratic Republic of the Congo", "Federal Republic of Germany"
  
• "_________ Federation" : "Russian Federation"

If none of these work for you, you can try what I usually do: play around with sounds and syllables to get yourself started and then try tacking on something to round it out:

• "-land"
• "-ia"
• "-stan"

This is how I came up with "Klashiva"; I messed around with syllables until I found something I liked.

Place names are really very easy to come up with once you have the hang of it. If these ideas fail you, you can always try out seventhsanctum.com for more ideas. You can take they're ideas and mold them to fit your setting's needs.

I hope this has helped some of you out! Good luck!

Yours,
~Alexandra