What to Name My Citys?

[coldrifting 30]

Can someone help me with tips on how to name citys? I always have troble with it.

Thanks in advance.

[astronelson 339]

You can't really go wrong if you rely on nearby geographic features. City near a mountain? Go with something like Mount Olympus or Lucas Heights. River coursing past? Crimea River. Large body of water? Ellay Lake. You can name neighbouring cities by putting a "North", "South", "East" or "West" at the start or the end. You can also name cities based on what you have planned for them. Going to build a bridge and a port? Bridgeport. Is it a port in the south of your region? Southport. You can also name towns after people. Like the saxophone? Immortalise Adolphe Sax with Saxton. If there's a tile next door with a rise in it you can call that Saxton Hill.

If you still need more ideas, here are the most common place names in the US. No-one would really notice a few more around the place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_common_U.S._place_names

[Alejandro24 575]

At the first is something hard to try to name your cities. But at the end, is just easy. You can do what Astronelson are saying. Other options are to take names from reality, a common name, or a last name of a actor or musician person.

[haux 6]

I've started getting my city names (and mayor names) from episodes of "The Simpsons." Ogdenville, Capital City, Hank Scorpio, etc. Or just go to Google Maps and randomly zoom in on places. Open a phonebook. Go to a news website and write down names of cities there. That's what I do when I've run out of ideas.

[Yarahi 1,816]

There is an article in the Omnibus that will give you some ideas... Astronelson summarized most of it though

[jacksunny 741]

Type in City Name Generator on Google

  Edited June 16, 2011 by jacksunny  

[Yarahi 1,816]

Jacks: I'm so stealing that idea.. bookmark ahead

[starrman100 0]

Usually, I'll name the city based on the terrain. For example, a city with a river flowing in the middle of it I'll name something like Riverside.

[Vern 29]

Usually, I'll name the city based on the terrain. For example, a city with a river flowing in the middle of it I'll name something like Riverside.

This is what I do. I would take a name from one of the history books and mash with the terrain. Lo and behold we have Jefferson Flats or Sherman Hills.

  Edited June 16, 2011 by Vern  

[Mikeaut1 261]

Sometimes I will use Google or Bing Maps and steal some street names and turn them into names for my city!! There's a million and one ways to come up with some nice original and unique city names. One of my major cities I'm working on is named after one of my friend's last names!

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

Type in City Name Generator on Google

I never knew that existed.....

[whiteywhite 15]

the first thing that pops into your head.............

[RipRap 4,400]

Anything... You could name every city you want... It is up to your mind

Type in City Name Generator on Google

I'm soooo giong to use that <3

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

Something you could do is envision the game region as a metropolitan area--if you do this, then not all tiles have to be cities proper. Do this and keep the better names you get for those real cities, and use other names or phrases to name the villages, wards, towns, etc. that remain. If you go and check a detailed atlas (say, those of National Geographic or the ones included in some editions of the Encarta Encyclopedia, or even a road map of your area), you'd find some rather odd names for smaller communities.

[colcholl 43]

just recently on a new region, ive used gemstone names. like the Old English or Middle English name for Emerald is Emeraude.

try something random like that. its also educational

  Edited June 17, 2011 by colcholl  

[x493x 446]

Find a name of an existing something (building, street, city) and write it down then change, add, or subtract letters and you'll get a great new name from an existing one.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Among other things, the game is supposed to unlock your creativity. Use the terrain features of the city or region. If you are stuck, call it anything you like at the moment, e.g. "Gaffus Ghortis". You can change it later.

[ShadeSigma 16]

Sigmatron

[jacksunny 741]

And if your still stuck, and don't want to use the random city name generator, just name it after yourself. My region's biggest city is Jack City

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

OK, if you are really stuck, here's an example:

Some are rather obvious, some are of existing places (Kananaksis), some are from history (Market Garden), some are from literature (Osnome, Norstillia). It is like every other form of writing. Write what you know.

[coldrifting 30]

Thanks for the help guys. I decided to name a city-region Riverton. Im currently workining on Central Riverton and Upper Riverton.

[haux 6]

I wonder if I'm the only person who makes a different mayor for each city.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I wonder if I'm the only person who makes a different mayor for each city.

I used to do that, but then I figured that since I was the local god, I'd run the cities. Where possible, you should always cut out the middle man.

  Edited June 17, 2011 by A Nonny Moose  

[Joe 90 358]

just recently on a new region, ive used gemstone names. like the Old English or Middle English name for Emerald is Emeraude.

try something random like that. its also educational

Or by extension, if you don't like or want a mundane name, hit the online translators.

"Big Hill" becomes "Granda Monteto" in esperanto or "Mkubwa Mlima" in swahili.

[WillR116 60]

Or what I do is, since I decided to make all mine gaelic, went to an english to gaelic translator and typed in a random word or two and made them into the names of my city, in english my country is "Republic of Brave World" but Calma Domhain sounds alot better no? Try some random language based off your city names, except the ones I'm bringing in from some other region (Davis Park, Winford, Defers City, Ortiang) All my original cities exclusive to this region are in Gaelic, even my spanish territory is named in Gaelic Or just think of some gibberish or something (Ortiang) and figure out how you would write that.

Will

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Name after Simtropolis members! Fort Yoshi!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I hereby give permission to everyone to use Moose Factory. It is actually an native reservation near James Bay.

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

Name after Simtropolis members! Fort Yoshi!

Cool idea there!

[XpirAment 0]

Here's what I've done for a few years now: Author+County.

I have a bookshelf in front of me. And since the cities are square, I treat them like counties. So in my regions I end up with, e.g.:

• Irving County
  
• Rand County
  
• Sinclair County
  
• Butcher County
  
• King County
  
• Mumford County
  
• Orwell County
  
• Camus County
  
• Dalby County
  
• you get the idea
  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Today, just for fun, I used the translator trick. I now have a city called Crystallsee. German for Crystal Lake. A small resort community with three beaches and a yacht club. It is already profitable.