Place Name Suggestions?

[MaxKaladin]

When making a world, one always has to name things like hills, mountains, forests, rivers, and so on. I thought I'd throw some out and solicit suggestions from others to make the job a bit easier for everyone. If anyone knows of a list of this nature, please post a URL. Thanks.

Crownwood
Bloodwood
Ironwood
Misty Thicket
Red Hills
Silverleaf Forest
Bone hills
Westmounts
Ogre's Run (River)
Wrecker's Point (wreckers are people who intentionally lead ships onto rocks to salvage the wreck)
Silkwood

(heh, you can see why I'm looking for others' suggestions!)

 

[Crothian]

Look to the real world for how things get named. Cities are often named for people. My home town of Pickerington was named after the Pickering Family, and Columbus is named after that famous explorer. The county I was born in Fairfield, was named after it's fields believeit or not, and the current county is named after another famous person, Franklin.

Many names are variations of another language. You'll see that a lot in Ohio as we destroy the native Americians language.

I know your looking for a list, and I don't have one for you. I just hope these delve down naming lane helps though.

 

[Illrein]

In my games, I have a system for such nomenclature (depending on what the object to be named is, its origin, descriptors, and effect on the world), except for a bounty hunter campaign I'm running, in which I used the last names of musical artists for the starting cities (Kiedis, Cantrell, Umbarger, Reznor, Farrell, Frusicante). I create names using unique combinations of letters, such as "Rhi", "Thi", "The", Rim", "Ine", "D'Ma", "All", "Ron", "Lit", etc. to make words like "Thillit", "D'Mal", "Therin", etc. Of course, when all else fails, you could use a fantasy name generator or names from mythology. They're always useful.

 

[Block]

When I need to name cities, rivers, mountains, islands, etc., in my D&D world, I also look to the real world. When I run out of ideas, I open up an atlas and use the names from an area of the real world for the D&D world. The D&D civilization or society doesn't have to mirror the real world society, but this gives a certain consistency to names in one geographic area in the D&D world.

 

[Buttercup]

I use foreign language dictionaries to name places and NPCs. I use a different language for different parts of the globe. I recommend that you use languages that your players aren't likely to recognize, such as Romany and Urdu rather than, say, German and French.

For example, I've just named a village Nifilyapa, which is Romany for Bad Luck. And bad luck is exactly what the players will find there....

 

[Howling Coyote]

You could always use the Everchanging Book of Names.
I use it all the time and it really rocks.