McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Ideas for town names?

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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. ;)

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