Japanese city name suggestions?

[Waterclaw 80]

I'm looking for unique Japanese names for cities for my current project, but can't think of much that doesn't involve the geography. My major cities aren't that unique in terms of geography, except for one that has lots of water. Does anyone have any ideas? Kind of stuck here :/

[SoloOne 20]

Ever try this site?

 

http://www.mithrilandmages.com/utilities/CityNames.php

[TekindusT 3,809]

When I'm down on city names, I try looking to maps of the area or culture my city is based on. For example, instead of a map of Japan, you can look for a map of Kyushu island. Let's get on the Miyazaki prefecture. Takachiho, a town on this area appeals to me. Got it.

 

The trick is to choose names that "sound good" but also that are unknown enough to look like original. That's how my very own Krasnoslobodsk or Al-Qurayyah were named. They are real world names, but they are really difficult to spot in a map, except if you really look for them.

[Prophet42 1,501]

Also, you can Google 'List of Japanese Cities' .That should at least get the creative juices flowing.

[jmsepe 2,038]

Hahaha. I'm taking my district names and other names from anime.

[Xander Dax 310]

MMM How about "Takao" or "Yamato"

[jmsepe 2,038]

MMM How about "Takao" or "Yamato"

 

WOW! Great coincidence, I actually have TAKAO district in my city.   (from Kazunari Takao in Kuroko no Basket)

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, in honour of a great Japanese Admiral who despaired of being listened to by Hidekei Tojo, how about Yamamoto?  And don't forget to call a sea district Minamata.

[Odainsaker 2,134]

I named mine Heian, with port districts of Fukuhara, Hakata, Yashima, and Sakai and even satellite cities of Hiraizumi, Kamakura, Teito, Miyajima, and Uji.
 
I guess I watched too much Heian Era and Genpei War taiga dramas:

 

Heian-kyou, the "Capital of Peace and Tranquility," is obviously the ancient capital today known as Kyoto, modeled through cosmological divination after the Chinese Tang Dynasty capital of Chang'an.  Kyoto, the seat of the Emperor and the court and the paramount city of ancient Japan, would be destroyed and abandoned countless times in the effort to unify the country.
Fukuhara, near modern day Kobe, was the "Dream Capital by the Sea" to which Taira no Kiyomori of the governing Heike clan forcibly relocated the court from entrenched Kyoto.  The aging Kiyomori's plans for the city as a window to the west failed, and Fukuhara was abandoned as the court returned to the chaotic unrest in Kyoto.
Sakai is a port city of Osaka and Nara and site of numerous ancient imperial tomb mounds.
Miyajima near Hiroshima was a western island home of the Heike and Kiyomori, who largely built much of the famous Itsukushima shrine there.
Uji just outside Kyoto was where Minamoto no Yorimasa committed the first recorded seppuku inside the famous Byodo-in after his failed uprising against Kiyomori.
Yashima was a naval island stronghold of the retreating Heike in Shikoku that was surprise attacked by Minamoto no Yoshitsune.  Nasu no Yoichi shot his portentous arrow at the Heike ships from Yashima's beaches, knocking the Heike's challenge fan from their mast top.  This symbolic feat of marksmanship crushed the morale of the Heike leadership.
Hiraizumi was a wealthy Fujiwara city in the remote northeast that rivaled Kyoto in size and was nostalgically romanticized by refugee Yoshitsune as a golden Buddhist "Pure Land."  Yoshitsune was betrayed in Hiraizumi and forced to commit seppuku in order to stave off the advancing armies of his rival brother Minamoto no Yoritomo, who would eventually still besiege and burn the city.
Kamakura is the naturally fortified eastern coastal city which the first shogun Yoritomo built as his new military capital under harsh samurai administration far from the decadent civilian court in Kyoto.  Kamakura was later sacked and burned after the regency Hojo clan committed mass seppuku when the Emperor tried to reclaim power.  Today, Kamakura is a seaside beach resort south of Tokyo.
Hakata is today central Fukuoka in Kyushu and was the site where the Mongol Yuan Dynasty fleets tried to invade Japan during the Kamakura shogunate, justifying the Kamakura shogunate's permanent emergency military government.  The destruction of the separate Mongol fleets each by typhoon off Hakata brought us the name "kamikaze."
Teitou means "imperial capital," used as another name for Tokyo, notably here in supernatural revenge stories about Heian Era warlord Taira no Masakado, whose failed eastern provincial uprising against the Emperor in Kyoto earned him status as an evil demigod and onmyoudou warlock.

 

Yeah, I'm imagining an ancient epic taiga drama playing out in miniature in my simcity.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

You could use names from great movies or anime too..

 

Like Kaneda, Tetsuo or Akira 

 

Edit :

 

I found this :

 

http://www.mithrilandmages.com/utilities/CityNames.php

 

It can generate city names for an awful lot of different countries. Damn it's fantastic 

 

I wish I had it before.