Town and city name generator

Names for the places your characters come from: English-sounding towns built from real place-name parts, Norse settlements, fantasy towns and great cities with their titles.

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Kind of place

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Built from real English place-name parts. Some results are real places; check before you use one.

Shortlist

Press the star on a name to keep it here. The shortlist is shared by all of Feldar's name generators.

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How English place names work

Most English town names are descriptions in older languages, worn smooth. Read the parts and you learn what the first settlers saw. The English-sounding style joins a first element (a person, a tree, a color, a rank) to one of these endings:

Ending	Meaning	Real examples
-ton	Old English tun: farmstead, settlement	Brighton, Taunton
-ham	Old English ham: homestead, village	Birmingham, Nottingham
-by	Old Norse: farm or village, common where Danes settled	Derby, Whitby
-thorpe	Old Norse: outlying farm	Scunthorpe, Cleethorpes
-wick	Old English wic: dwelling, trading place	Warwick, Norwich
-ley	Old English leah: woodland clearing	Bexley, Henley
-bury	Old English burh: fortified place	Canterbury, Shrewsbury
-chester	Old English ceaster, from Latin castra: Roman fort	Manchester, Winchester
-ford	A river crossing	Oxford, Stafford

Prefixes such as Little, Great, Upper, Nether and Market, and Latin Magna and Parva (great, little), separate villages that share a name. Some results will be real places; check a map before you use one, and use that as a feature if you want a real-feeling setting.

Fantasy towns, northern settlements and cities

Name	What makes it work
Moonfall	A fantasy compound: landscape or weather plus a landform.
King's Ford	A possessive: someone's crossing, rest or watch.
Thorsfjord	Norse: -fjord is an inlet; -vik a bay, -holm an islet, -dal a valley.
Kolholm	Norse: a short first element and a geographic ending.
Corum, the Walled City	A great city with a title, as old cities collect them.
Port Karum	A city named for what it does.

Tips for naming places

Places are older than people. A town name often comes from a language the current inhabitants no longer speak. Mixing an older style for towns with a newer one for people gives a world depth.
Name by function. Fords, ports, forts and markets were named for what happened there. Ask why the town is where it is.
Keep a map list. Names on one map should share a language region by region, the way English and Norse names cluster in different parts of England.

Questions writers ask

Are these real town names?

The English-sounding and Norse styles are built from real place-name parts, so some results are real places, especially short ones. The fantasy town and city styles are invented.

What does the ending of an English town name mean?

Usually a feature of the land or the settlement: -ton a farmstead, -ham a homestead, -by a Norse farm, -ley a woodland clearing, -bury a fortified place, -chester a Roman fort. The table above lists more.

How do I name a fantasy city?

Start with one invented root, then give it what real cities collect: a title (the Walled City), a function (Port), or a status (Free City). The great cities style does this.

Can I share a list with my players?

Yes. Copy a link to these names opens the same list for anyone.

Keep your map and your manuscript together

In Feldar each town can be a Location card on the Canvas, linked to the characters who live there and the plot beats that happen there, beside the pages you are writing.

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Keep reading

Free tool Word counter for writers Words, pages and reading time, with novel lengths by genre. Guide How to outline a novel A full worked example and a free template. Feature The Canvas Characters, places and plot beats as linked cards.