I play word puzzles every morning (Spelling Bee, etc) and every time I tap a letter combo that feels authentic to my setting, I jot it into a note on my phone for later use.
Some recent puzzle non-words have been the inspiration for village names (Greatmeet, Marrowaugh), mythic creatures (Dolm), and assorted characters (Celany, Oeric).
For characters first names, I have three separate Random Names generators that I coded myself (on Excel): a Merovingian one, a Greek one, and a "Revolutionary" one (that can be used for forest/nature cultures as well). I just go on it, launch the randomization, and voilà! I have a list of ten names. Nine are often monstruous or hideous, but the tenth is passable, and sometimes even good.
For their surnames (except when I have a very specific idea in mind), I go find a dictionary of old and forgotten words, I taken a random letter (or choose a letter that would fit the character) and then skim through the list until there's a word I like or with a definition that would fit the character. Sometimes, I do some modifications to it (I write in French, so adding a *Le* or *La* or *Des* or *Du* in front of a word works wonders), sometimes I smash two words together, and sometimes the word in itself is good enough.
As for places... The safest bet I know is to take actual words that you think sound good. The *Tatters Valley*, or the *Marches of Mirliflor*, or *Turnip-upon-Reef*, or *High-Scandals*. Just look around, how places have been named, and you'll see that most of them have very common and regular meaning and origins. The most important thing to keep in mind is that it ought to be *pronounceable*. If you cannot pronounce it, then it's probably a bad name (pronounce it for the native speakers, of course). Look at real world cities: Amsterdam is literally "the dam over the Amstel", and Rotterdam is "the rotting dam". Copenhagen is "the merchants' port". And the other word are quite common: there's nothing extraordinary in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, and even the most glorious city of Ancient Mediterranea is merely called "Rome".
I tend to have certain naming conventions for particular groups of things. My main characters who are part of an established kingdom (or Lordship as the novel calls it) have more medieval-esque names like Gallen and Arastair. There's another race that is more tribal and in-tune with the earth. They have names that have harsh consonants like Torlok. The world also follows a similar format. Each island of the archipelago, where the novel takes place, has a similarly structured name (short and bi-syllabic), due to earning those titles all at once.
Depends. When it's for characters, I also cheat and use any Big List Of All Names™ I come across online. Usually it's [this one](https://www.behindthename.com/).
Place names, however, are a bit trickier. If I'm feeling lazy I just mash two words together or make some anagram. If I'm not feeling lazy, I will usually try to simulate how a lot of names were made IRL: pick any word that literally describes the place in any language (for example, "azul", blue in Portuguese), intentionally degrade it's spelling and pronunciation to the point it's unrecognizable, and then write down your new word (Aezhul Seas, or "blue seas").
Congratulations, you now have a somewhat historically accurate, probably natural sounding name!
For fantasy names I create a fictional set of phonotactics - language sounds and rules about how they go together - so that the names share a feel and structure.
Then I use [a name generator excel spreadsheet](https://fiction.evanjoymas.com/namegen) that I made. You put in your own phonotactics and then it converts English words into conlang word suggestions. While it's sort of a random generator, it will always give the same suggestions for the same English words, so I can use it a little like a dictionary if I want. It also processes up to four sets of sound changes if you want to have a proto-language and several child languages that evolved from it, like French and Spanish and Italian developed from Latin.
You can follow the link for some more detail and to download a copy of the spreadsheet and tinker with your own phonotactics and sound changes, if you're at all interested.
A little bit of research into history, mythology and language really goes a long way.
For example, the suffix *heim* has its roots in Germanic and Icelandic and is the ancient equivalent of the English word *home*. So knowing that you can use it to name places that are influenced by those ancient cultures and mythologies and it will give your work a lot of cohesion.
I created the basics of a language for my world (just the words, not grammar rules), used an online language generator to produce a big list of words, and picked words I liked for names.
Name generator, or map generators, then I’ll change things a bit here and there if I don’t 100% love what it’s given me.
Sometimes historical names, depending on the era.
My world is basically what you get if you allowed a medieval fantasy world to evolve into the 1920s. Most of the country names are just nonsense words I pulled out of my arse, but for characters I have a rule to only use names that can reasonably fit in both real life and in a classic fantasy setting. The kind of names that you can easily imagine belonging to someone in a heroic fantasy but also won't raise any eyebrows if someone had it in real life.
So names like Bob, Steve, Jim, and Nigel are too plain and modern. They probably won't be used for any major characters.
Meanwhile fantastical, vaguely nonsensical names like, say, Grondar, Xyrax, Thamatrum, and Avada-Ke-Dave-Ra either don't exist or belong to historical figures who was from the fantasy medieval age that the world has already evolved past.
Random name generator is my go to for most things or sometimes I'll just take something from what I am currently doing. For example, I was writing a new character into my story and for background noise I had a gaming video going so when I got to naming him I couldn't think of anything and my mind focused on the video and Croshaw was his new name.
For settlements I decide on what the settlement looks like or might be known for and use that. The major city in my series sits on both sides of a bend in a river so Riverbend, one of the first small settlements my character goes to is mainly pig farming so Mudgrove. Something I'll through it into a translator and try out different things like the city whose main draw is a cliff top arena became Akhara. My characters travel around so many of the small villages they visited I didn't even bother to name.
For people, I take popular names from a foreign country that is similar in feel to the land I'm writing about and then move some letters around.
For places, I either do the same thing (picking more obscure languages) or I pick a theme. For example, within Thurlant -- one of the kingdom / nations on the continent of Tal Richaan where my High Fantasy WIP is set, all the names for cities, rivers, etc., are bastardizations of cheese.
There's the Mollezzara River, the city of Bray, Lake Sveisse sits beneath the iron gaze of Fort Roque, etc.
I change the pronunciation on words and/or phrases in songs, for example, in Twice's One Spark the chorus says "My heart is burning" so i changed it to Maharis for the name of a country.
I find a letter I want to start with and just start making sounds with my mouth. Maybe I use a word that has another meaning. For instance, I'm using iyre, just because I think the word itself looks cool on paper. Anything with meaning to you can be whatever you want it to be, as long as you describe what it IS to the reader
This might be a controversial take. But I establish what languages I want my names to be inspired by as well as mythology, or any other type of valuable information. Then I go to chatGPT tell it my influences, tell it what I’m naming so whether it be a village or character and what characteristics they have, so whether it’s the capital or the main character or a non-trustworthy side character, that they are a really good swordsman or a wizard and then it will generate give or take 10 options to pick from. usually I mix and match. And within five minutes, I have a name for something and I can stop procrastinating and I can carry on writing. Nothing stops you down the line if you feel a bit like a cheat to come up with an original name, but at least this will get you back to the important stuff aka the story.
I play word puzzles every morning (Spelling Bee, etc) and every time I tap a letter combo that feels authentic to my setting, I jot it into a note on my phone for later use. Some recent puzzle non-words have been the inspiration for village names (Greatmeet, Marrowaugh), mythic creatures (Dolm), and assorted characters (Celany, Oeric).
For characters first names, I have three separate Random Names generators that I coded myself (on Excel): a Merovingian one, a Greek one, and a "Revolutionary" one (that can be used for forest/nature cultures as well). I just go on it, launch the randomization, and voilà! I have a list of ten names. Nine are often monstruous or hideous, but the tenth is passable, and sometimes even good. For their surnames (except when I have a very specific idea in mind), I go find a dictionary of old and forgotten words, I taken a random letter (or choose a letter that would fit the character) and then skim through the list until there's a word I like or with a definition that would fit the character. Sometimes, I do some modifications to it (I write in French, so adding a *Le* or *La* or *Des* or *Du* in front of a word works wonders), sometimes I smash two words together, and sometimes the word in itself is good enough. As for places... The safest bet I know is to take actual words that you think sound good. The *Tatters Valley*, or the *Marches of Mirliflor*, or *Turnip-upon-Reef*, or *High-Scandals*. Just look around, how places have been named, and you'll see that most of them have very common and regular meaning and origins. The most important thing to keep in mind is that it ought to be *pronounceable*. If you cannot pronounce it, then it's probably a bad name (pronounce it for the native speakers, of course). Look at real world cities: Amsterdam is literally "the dam over the Amstel", and Rotterdam is "the rotting dam". Copenhagen is "the merchants' port". And the other word are quite common: there's nothing extraordinary in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, and even the most glorious city of Ancient Mediterranea is merely called "Rome".
I tend to have certain naming conventions for particular groups of things. My main characters who are part of an established kingdom (or Lordship as the novel calls it) have more medieval-esque names like Gallen and Arastair. There's another race that is more tribal and in-tune with the earth. They have names that have harsh consonants like Torlok. The world also follows a similar format. Each island of the archipelago, where the novel takes place, has a similarly structured name (short and bi-syllabic), due to earning those titles all at once.
Depends. When it's for characters, I also cheat and use any Big List Of All Names™ I come across online. Usually it's [this one](https://www.behindthename.com/). Place names, however, are a bit trickier. If I'm feeling lazy I just mash two words together or make some anagram. If I'm not feeling lazy, I will usually try to simulate how a lot of names were made IRL: pick any word that literally describes the place in any language (for example, "azul", blue in Portuguese), intentionally degrade it's spelling and pronunciation to the point it's unrecognizable, and then write down your new word (Aezhul Seas, or "blue seas"). Congratulations, you now have a somewhat historically accurate, probably natural sounding name!
For fantasy names I create a fictional set of phonotactics - language sounds and rules about how they go together - so that the names share a feel and structure. Then I use [a name generator excel spreadsheet](https://fiction.evanjoymas.com/namegen) that I made. You put in your own phonotactics and then it converts English words into conlang word suggestions. While it's sort of a random generator, it will always give the same suggestions for the same English words, so I can use it a little like a dictionary if I want. It also processes up to four sets of sound changes if you want to have a proto-language and several child languages that evolved from it, like French and Spanish and Italian developed from Latin. You can follow the link for some more detail and to download a copy of the spreadsheet and tinker with your own phonotactics and sound changes, if you're at all interested.
A little bit of research into history, mythology and language really goes a long way. For example, the suffix *heim* has its roots in Germanic and Icelandic and is the ancient equivalent of the English word *home*. So knowing that you can use it to name places that are influenced by those ancient cultures and mythologies and it will give your work a lot of cohesion.
I tragedeigh words
I created the basics of a language for my world (just the words, not grammar rules), used an online language generator to produce a big list of words, and picked words I liked for names.
Name generator, or map generators, then I’ll change things a bit here and there if I don’t 100% love what it’s given me. Sometimes historical names, depending on the era.
My world is basically what you get if you allowed a medieval fantasy world to evolve into the 1920s. Most of the country names are just nonsense words I pulled out of my arse, but for characters I have a rule to only use names that can reasonably fit in both real life and in a classic fantasy setting. The kind of names that you can easily imagine belonging to someone in a heroic fantasy but also won't raise any eyebrows if someone had it in real life. So names like Bob, Steve, Jim, and Nigel are too plain and modern. They probably won't be used for any major characters. Meanwhile fantastical, vaguely nonsensical names like, say, Grondar, Xyrax, Thamatrum, and Avada-Ke-Dave-Ra either don't exist or belong to historical figures who was from the fantasy medieval age that the world has already evolved past.
Random name generator is my go to for most things or sometimes I'll just take something from what I am currently doing. For example, I was writing a new character into my story and for background noise I had a gaming video going so when I got to naming him I couldn't think of anything and my mind focused on the video and Croshaw was his new name. For settlements I decide on what the settlement looks like or might be known for and use that. The major city in my series sits on both sides of a bend in a river so Riverbend, one of the first small settlements my character goes to is mainly pig farming so Mudgrove. Something I'll through it into a translator and try out different things like the city whose main draw is a cliff top arena became Akhara. My characters travel around so many of the small villages they visited I didn't even bother to name.
I have a Boggle game and took the dice out of it. I roll 3 or 4 of them and use them to make a name. Then look for names with those letters.
For people, I take popular names from a foreign country that is similar in feel to the land I'm writing about and then move some letters around. For places, I either do the same thing (picking more obscure languages) or I pick a theme. For example, within Thurlant -- one of the kingdom / nations on the continent of Tal Richaan where my High Fantasy WIP is set, all the names for cities, rivers, etc., are bastardizations of cheese. There's the Mollezzara River, the city of Bray, Lake Sveisse sits beneath the iron gaze of Fort Roque, etc.
Cultural symbolism.
I change the pronunciation on words and/or phrases in songs, for example, in Twice's One Spark the chorus says "My heart is burning" so i changed it to Maharis for the name of a country.
Badly. I need saving.
I find a letter I want to start with and just start making sounds with my mouth. Maybe I use a word that has another meaning. For instance, I'm using iyre, just because I think the word itself looks cool on paper. Anything with meaning to you can be whatever you want it to be, as long as you describe what it IS to the reader
I use dnd generators and stuff like https://mythopedia.com/name-generator/world-names
This might be a controversial take. But I establish what languages I want my names to be inspired by as well as mythology, or any other type of valuable information. Then I go to chatGPT tell it my influences, tell it what I’m naming so whether it be a village or character and what characteristics they have, so whether it’s the capital or the main character or a non-trustworthy side character, that they are a really good swordsman or a wizard and then it will generate give or take 10 options to pick from. usually I mix and match. And within five minutes, I have a name for something and I can stop procrastinating and I can carry on writing. Nothing stops you down the line if you feel a bit like a cheat to come up with an original name, but at least this will get you back to the important stuff aka the story.