Hey there, I'm a fairly new DM and one thing I am struggling with is the names of places. So I'm asking for help of any kind from simple names to kingdoms with losts of lore I'd love the help and hearing from fellow dnd nerds is always fun.
My main tactic is usually just to steal names from historical cities/kingdoms and change them a little bit making names like Versirvious, the Phandatic Leauge, and Merciah. Another tactic is to just take words from another langue and use it as a name. For example in one of my campaigns a character is from the Kartoshka Mountains (Kartoshka means potato in Russian) and in another campaign the continent they are on is called the Velterland (basically German for "world land").
I hope these help! Feel free to use any of the examples I gave in your campaigns :)
I like taking languages (like above), but also make some easily. I do this by choosing a distinct feature from the town/city etc. I then put it with something else. E.g the elven city is in a forest of pale white trees with light pink, orange and blue leaves. I would take pale wood, and then it is a city. But pale wood city doesn't sound good, so just Pale Wood is fine.
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'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
you can also merge dumbell's and bramble's ideas. take a word in english that is a feature in your town (like mountain for a mountainside town, river, hill, mill, forest, oak, etc)...and google that word in 2 different languages - then smash those two words together to get your name.
DDB uses and promotes Fantasy Name Generators (offsite link) for random character names. The site includes name generation for many things including cities, towns, and countries. From a quick glance, it also looks like they have town names based on themes (like a Winter-themed town name generator).
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
i dont know if you changed the word on purpouse but the literal translation would be "Welt Land" but i have to say your modified version rolls off the tounge a lot better.
I occasionally use Donjon, a great website with 5e support tools. If you haven't found it, you should at least give it a look to see what they have, which includes fantasy name generators.
BTW, for characters I use musical terms to name Bards. I use genus and species of plant life to come up with names of Druids. I come up with names of geographic features or outdoorsman terms to name Rangers. I usually use biblical names for Clerics. I use prominent historical figures for Paladins. I use animal references for Barbarians. I use underworld terms, typically something that screams Alias, when I name Rogues. For Fighters I use biblical names or prominent historical figures often. But when it comes to the other Magic Users, I gut stuck with something fanciful that has little relation to anything.
Good luck.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I combine two words that describe or relate to the place for towns and small cities. For kingdoms, I recommend coming up with a name that is either another language, fits with the ethnic populace, or just sounds cool.
Town/City Ex: Seastone (A fishing town surrounded by cliffs), Lindgrove (A small but durable town located on the edge of a wood), Whitespire (A white colored fortress that is home of one of the great elf-lords), etc.
Kingdom: Lux (A rainforest kingdom that is mostly jungle, but the inhabitants despise evil), Mancor (Because the 'Mancorian Guard' sounds cool), Massai (A poweful empire that is similar to China, except they are capitalist, not communist), etc.
Something that have worked for me is narrowing down my inspiration to a specific filled/subject. For example, in my homebrew setting I have a bipedal mouse folk and to make the naming (and languages) easier, I have narrowed down the inspiration for names/words to different kinds of cheeses and the process of making cheese (trust me, there’re a lot).
Forcing yourself to be limited in this way can be extremely helpful, since you will know where to look for information. In my case it’s a google search of cheese and a couple clicks away.
I usually combined this method with some of the other suggestions already given in this thread.
Inspiration can come from the strangest places. Ive used actual town and city names (ones that I see while traveling), I've used translations from different languages, I've even made up a name purely for a dirty pun: my homebrew setting has a place called Baetor - controlled and run by an elected "master"....
The master of baetor
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Change the name of a nice place to have a nickname that sticks.
From the Tolkeinverse or whatever it's called: Wilderland became Mirkwood. (Northern Dorthonion was also nicknamed Mirkwood back in the 1st Age.)
Some place with a very pretty name like Medshä'ymilee, now afflicted with some kind of magical blight, could be merely called something meaning the opposite of whatever the original name was supposed to be... Like Gloomweald or something - something that the locals identify regardless of the original word (which probably meant something like the friendly forest or something).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
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Hey there, I'm a fairly new DM and one thing I am struggling with is the names of places. So I'm asking for help of any kind from simple names to kingdoms with losts of lore I'd love the help and hearing from fellow dnd nerds is always fun.
My main tactic is usually just to steal names from historical cities/kingdoms and change them a little bit making names like Versirvious, the Phandatic Leauge, and Merciah. Another tactic is to just take words from another langue and use it as a name. For example in one of my campaigns a character is from the Kartoshka Mountains (Kartoshka means potato in Russian) and in another campaign the continent they are on is called the Velterland (basically German for "world land").
I hope these help! Feel free to use any of the examples I gave in your campaigns :)
I like taking languages (like above), but also make some easily. I do this by choosing a distinct feature from the town/city etc. I then put it with something else. E.g the elven city is in a forest of pale white trees with light pink, orange and blue leaves. I would take pale wood, and then it is a city. But pale wood city doesn't sound good, so just Pale Wood is fine.
'The Cleverness of mushrooms always surprises me!' - Ivern Bramblefoot.
I'll worldbuild for your DnD games!
Just a D&D enjoyer, check out my fiverr page if you need any worldbuilding done for ya!
you can also merge dumbell's and bramble's ideas. take a word in english that is a feature in your town (like mountain for a mountainside town, river, hill, mill, forest, oak, etc)...and google that word in 2 different languages - then smash those two words together to get your name.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
A rather comprehensive list of free WotC D&D resources
Deck of Decks
DDB uses and promotes Fantasy Name Generators (offsite link) for random character names. The site includes name generation for many things including cities, towns, and countries. From a quick glance, it also looks like they have town names based on themes (like a Winter-themed town name generator).
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
i dont know if you changed the word on purpouse but the literal translation would be "Welt Land" but i have to say your modified version rolls off the tounge a lot better.
Yeah, I have some players that speak German so I needed to be a little bit sneakier with my stealing
I occasionally use Donjon, a great website with 5e support tools. If you haven't found it, you should at least give it a look to see what they have, which includes fantasy name generators.
BTW, for characters I use musical terms to name Bards. I use genus and species of plant life to come up with names of Druids. I come up with names of geographic features or outdoorsman terms to name Rangers. I usually use biblical names for Clerics. I use prominent historical figures for Paladins. I use animal references for Barbarians. I use underworld terms, typically something that screams Alias, when I name Rogues. For Fighters I use biblical names or prominent historical figures often. But when it comes to the other Magic Users, I gut stuck with something fanciful that has little relation to anything.
Good luck.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
ice wind dale (ten towns)
mirabar
luskan
kingdom of many arrows
mithral hall
(some of my favorite)
I combine two words that describe or relate to the place for towns and small cities. For kingdoms, I recommend coming up with a name that is either another language, fits with the ethnic populace, or just sounds cool.
Town/City Ex: Seastone (A fishing town surrounded by cliffs), Lindgrove (A small but durable town located on the edge of a wood), Whitespire (A white colored fortress that is home of one of the great elf-lords), etc.
Kingdom: Lux (A rainforest kingdom that is mostly jungle, but the inhabitants despise evil), Mancor (Because the 'Mancorian Guard' sounds cool), Massai (A poweful empire that is similar to China, except they are capitalist, not communist), etc.
There is no dawn after eternal night.
Homebrew: Magic items, Subclasses
I know I'm not the only one who has fantasynamegenerators.com bookmarked...
Something that have worked for me is narrowing down my inspiration to a specific filled/subject. For example, in my homebrew setting I have a bipedal mouse folk and to make the naming (and languages) easier, I have narrowed down the inspiration for names/words to different kinds of cheeses and the process of making cheese (trust me, there’re a lot).
Forcing yourself to be limited in this way can be extremely helpful, since you will know where to look for information. In my case it’s a google search of cheese and a couple clicks away.
I usually combined this method with some of the other suggestions already given in this thread.
Not by far!
Inspiration can come from the strangest places. Ive used actual town and city names (ones that I see while traveling), I've used translations from different languages, I've even made up a name purely for a dirty pun: my homebrew setting has a place called Baetor - controlled and run by an elected "master"....
The master of baetor
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/
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Change the name of a nice place to have a nickname that sticks.
From the Tolkeinverse or whatever it's called: Wilderland became Mirkwood. (Northern Dorthonion was also nicknamed Mirkwood back in the 1st Age.)
Some place with a very pretty name like Medshä'ymilee, now afflicted with some kind of magical blight, could be merely called something meaning the opposite of whatever the original name was supposed to be... Like Gloomweald or something - something that the locals identify regardless of the original word (which probably meant something like the friendly forest or something).
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.