Ideas for town names?

[Magus]

Where can I get names for towns in my stories? This has always puzzled me.

[jtaylor]

I like to use a descriptive feature of the area when thetown was founded. For example, Dublin Ireland got its name from a black pool that was formed from the river nearby. Dubh Linn in gaelic translates to black pool. As the viking and english invasions took places of the years the name changed to Dublin. I try to make a history for a place and evolve the name into it's present form.

You could also use the name for a town founder or hero method.

[blgarver]

Well, this is kind of like the issue of naming characters.  

When I name towns in my stories, I usually just start rambling off words until something sounds good.  Then I use that.  

Depending on how big a part the town/s play in your story, they could very well act as characters, also, and should probably have a name that fits the character of the city.  A bright, clean town with well mannered citizens probably wouldn't have a name that sounds foul and uninviting.  Can't think of any foul and uninviting examples at the moment, though, but you get the idea.  Unless, of course, there's some special circumstance that's part of the backstory/world that explains a nice city to have a nasty name, or vice versa.  

Anyway, you could also simply name the cities for physical characteristics.  Cities in the real world do that.  Salt Lake City, for example.  

I know Neil Gaiman used the name Wall for the town in "Stardust."

Or just look at a map for some inspiration.  An atlas.  I always thought Europe had cool names for things.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Well, this is kind of like the issue of naming characters. 

When I name towns in my stories, I usually just start rambling off words until something sounds good.  Then I use that. 

It's also like the issue of naming characters in that people and towns from, or at least founded by, the same culture, should sound like it.

A bright, clean town with well mannered citizens probably wouldn't have a name that sounds foul and uninviting.  Can't think of any foul and uninviting examples at the moment, though, but you get the idea.  Unless, of course, there's some special circumstance that's part of the backstory/world that explains a nice city to have a nasty name, or vice versa. 

If it's of any age, it's had history, and is very unlikely not to have felt different at different times. If it's of any size, different parts of it will feel dfifferent.

Anyway, you could also simply name the cities for physical characteristics.  Cities in the real world do that.  Salt Lake City, for example. 

Start with something like that and distort it though the languages of everyone who's conquered it since....

I always thought Europe had cool names for things.

That comes from having lots and lots of different languages and culture and history.

[Dom]

Where I am, in Illinois, a lot of the suburbs are named for people, usually founders or relations of founders of the town.  Wheaton was named for Jesse Wheaton, I believe Naperville was named after a founder with the last name of "Naper", and they tacked "ville" on the end.  I heard Carol Stream was named for someone's daughter Carol (and most likely a stream!).  There's Downers Grove (someone's grove), Bollingbrook (someone's brook), Evanston (Evan's Town I bet it evolved from), Barrington (Barring's Town?), North Chicago, West Chicago (both named after the bigger city of Chicago), Glen Ellyn (a glen, named after Ellen?), and so on.

At work, I came across someone from "Knob Lick".  The 12 year old in me thought the name was very very funny.  Wikipedia says it has something to do with a salt lick.

I also like to look at the names of foreign towns--the Wikipedia has a lot of local lore put in by interested people, so you can find small town names from Germany, or Norway, or wherever.

All that said, I'm pretty bad with towns...I don't have any "major" cities in any of my writing.  So even when I find a name, it doesn't stick because the town doesn't grow and take character in my mind.  Heh.

[SoulCatcher78]

There's always the Rand Mcnally *sp?* Atlas...if nothing else you'll discover that even if you think no one would ever go for it, towns like the aforementioned Knob Lick *snort* and Monkey's Eyebrow still exist and will probably never be changed.  The moral of this story is that no matter how silly it sounds, someone will think it's a good idea.

See also http://www.floydpinkerton.net/fun/citynames.html for a mighty fine distraction.

EDIT: Eyebrow rather than Elbow.

[Steelpoodle]

Look at small towns and transpose two towns names.  Near me would be Bone Gap and Gas City so you could get Bone City/Gas Gap/Gasbone/Gap City etc.  Then try removing or adding one letter to change the pronunciation of Gasbone to Gasebon or Bongase.  The variations are endless and can lead you to creating a systemic methodology of naming by using the same technique for all areas within a defined area/entity in your work.

Just my $.02.  I am not an author but I have thougt about this quite a bit. 

JP

[Wolfeyes]

It depends on the story your writing.

For me, I tend to write in the fantasy world so I tend to use a bit obscure names that I think fit. For example, one of my worlds is named Illyria and that's a real place that I know even Billy Shakespear used as a far off, mystical place. Or I take a name just twist it a little (taking "Libya" and making it "Lybree") or as someone said, naming it after a person is always a nice way. For example, a town I have is called "Casimir" (since the meaning fits the town) which is the name of a person in real life surprisingly.

[prime_spirit]

Base your town names on the culture surronding your area, prominently on the language used by the people there. I agree that it's easiest to name towns after prominent person or a local landmark. You can base it on a history and you don't have to be so serious about it. I mean, look where I live, Kuala Lumpur, the internationally known heart-centre of Malaysia (shopping, eating, business, foreign-exchange, telecommunications, satellite broadcast, etc).

It literary means Capital Mud.

...FYI, Capital Mud was so-called because of the rich tin mining places around the outskirts back in the old days. It requires lots water to erode the hills.