Great City Name Ideas Advice

[elfarp 0]

Icelandic names: Reykjav

[smartlake 0]

Well for my current region, my cites are Asahaell (the main city, based on an exit on I90, Over snoqualmie pass, WA, state), Juoucotimi-St. Alphonse Rodriguez (totally made up to kinda sound french), Wenslad (just randomly type on the keyboard, and this is what I got).  I dont like to use major real world cities because i want my names to be original.  However, I have used Kent, Renton, Cartagena, Cali.  Sometimes, my names specify where my city is such as East River Hill, Central Island City, Lower Peninsula City etc etc. 

[Blackdiamond 0]

 One of the best things I do to come up with city names is to take the city names from movies, games, books, or TV shows.

Las Ventras
Los Santos
San Feirro
Liberty City
Vice City
Dodge City
Oceanic
Steelle City
Carser City
Angle Pine
Yurshre
Westworth
Southworth
Ceaser City
Los Azental
Metro City
Smallville
Metropolis
Gothem City
Pleasentville
Texas City
New Charleston
Vinewood
Rodeo
Camelback
Camillo
Leone
Koji
Shippton
New London
New Washington
The District of Columbia
Capital City
Springfiel
Sabras
Easton
Weston
and many more...

[AtkinsSJ_ 7]

I tend to try to name cities how real ones were named, so if there was a shallow area of river, the name would end in 'ford'.

[Wilderkin 0]

Never been to Hailfax, but I've been to a lot of other places that have tree streets. I'm a forest lover and trees are what forests are all about, even if SimCity does eat them up at a rapid rate. One of my game challenges is to see how many forests I can leave standing and still have the transportation work right.

[obliq 0]

I have to agree with several people. Using real place names like New York, Tokyo, or Paris can in a small way influence you. There are fourty-eight Springfields in the United States and they're all as pedestrian as their name. But there is only one Rio de Janiero [sp?].

There is something special about the names that cities have. I doubt a town called Oil Trough (yes, folks, its a real town in Arkansas) could ever reach a population of one million or be a national transportation hub. Then again, The city of (take a deep breath) Krungthep Maha Nakorn Amarn Rattanakosindra
Mahindrayudhya Mahadilokpop Noparantana Rajdhani Mahasathan 
Amorn Piman Avatarn Satit Sakkatultiya Vishnukarn Prasit somehow became a major economic powerhouse of the world, a popular tourist destination, and a millionaire city. For the rest of the world, we can just call it Bangkok.

It's important to not just name your city but to also name the features of your terrain. Cities (outside the United States) often receive there names from the site such as Plymouth (the city at the mouth of the Ply river). Paris is dereived from the latin name for the celtic tribe in the region, the Parisii. Kyoto means eastern capital while Tokyo means western capital. Nice (in France) was named after a the greek goddess Nike. Athens also was named after a goddess, Athena.

Berlin is german for little bear. Bern (in Switzerland) just means bear. Frankfurt is german for French fort. Koln (in Germany) is a bastardization of the Roman word for colony.

In the United States, many names were bastardized from the place names given by indigenous people. But most names are derived either from a town founder, or the guy that just owned the farm where the town was built.

A small town in Missouri was set to incorporate but it couldn't use the name it had for the community because that name was already taken by another town in the state. So when asked by the state what they wanted the town founders, unable to think of anything, said, "We don't care as long as it's something peculiar." And thus was born Peculiar, Missouri.

[Gnargenox 6]

LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH is a town in North Wales meaning "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool of Llantysilio of the red cave" or "St. Mary's (Church) by the white aspen over the whirlpool, and St. Tysilio's (Church) by the red cave" in Welsh.

a Maori name for a hill in New Zealand has 85 letters: TAUMATAWHAKATANGIHANGAKOAUAUOTAMATEATURIPUKAKAPIKI- MAUNGAHORONUKUPOKAIWHENUAKITANATAHU. The word means "The summit of the hill, where Tamatea, who is known as the land eater, slid down, climbed up and swallowed mountains, played on his nose flute to his loved one.

There is a 66-letter place name in Wales, GORSAFAWDDACHAIDRAIGODANHEDDOGLEDDOLONPENRHYNAREURDRAETHCEREDIGION, meaning "the Mawddach station and its dragon teeth at the Northern Penrhyn Road on the golden beach of Cardigan bay.

In Massachusetts there is Lake CHARGOGAGOGMANCHARGOGAGOGCHARBUNAGUNGAMOG, usually listed on maps as "Lake Webster." It supposedly means "You fish on your side, I'll fish on my side, nobody fish in the middle."

The longest hyphenated placename in the United States appearing in the Geographic Names Information System is WINCHESTER-ON-THE-SEVERN (21 letters, in Maryland). The longest unhyphenated place names are MOOSELOOKMEGUNTIC (17 letters, in Maine), KLEINFELTERSVILLE (17 letters, in Pennsylvania), and WAUGULLEWUTLEKAUH (17 letters, in California).

The longest place names in Canada appear to be PEKWACHNAMAYKOSKWASKWAYPINWANIK LAKE in Manitoba (31 letters, not counting "lake") and ILE KUCHISTINIWAMISKAHIKAN in Quebec

Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand: KRUNGTHEP MAHANAKHON BOVORN RATANAKOSIN MAHINTHARAYUTTHAYA MAHADILOKPOP NOPARATRATCHATHANI BURIROM UDOMRATCHANIVETMAHASATHAN AMORNPIMAN AVATARNS ATHIT SAKKATHATTIYAVISNUKARMPRASIT, meaning "The land of angels, the great city (of) immortality, various of devine gems, the great angelic land unconquerable, land of nine noble gems, the royal city, the pleasant capital, place of the grand royal palace, forever land of angels and reincarnated spirits, predestined and created by the highest Deva"

EL PUEBLO DE NUESTRA SENORA LA REINA DE LOS ANGELES DE PORCIUNCULA. The name Los Angeles is Spanish for The Angels. There is much more to this name, however. On Wednesday, August 2, 1769, Father Juan Crespi, a Franciscan priest accompanying the first European land expedition through California, led by Captain Fernando Rivera Y Moncado, described in his journal a "beautiful river from the northwest" located at "34 degrees 10 minutes." They named the river Nuestra Se

[calm_blue_sea 3]

Well, I'm a biologist and I will quite often use Latin species names for cities (yes, I'm also a nerd). I usually start a region by placing a port (a place needs a reason to exist), so my first city is quite often named Newport (or Founders). I have a lot of fun naming my mayors. I have different mayors for each city and I name them depending on the populace (e.g. a ritzy suburb will have a mayor with a really snooty sounding name while a dirty low wealth town will be lead by someone with a rather blue collar name). Sometimes I name mayors after people I know.

Another thing I quite often do is to consider each 'city' as a county or borough instead of an entire city. For example the city of Newport might be sourrounded by suburbs named North Newport, East Newport etc (all of which generally have the same major).

Part of the fun is making up your own stories. I've named inlets, rivers and whole cities after explorers I've made up for myself. You can really get carried away with this and start naming parks, monuments, schools etc. after your hypothetical hero.

[spa 970]

Originally posted by: calm_blue_sea

Well, I'm a biologist and I will quite often use Latin species names for cities (yes, I'm also a nerd). I usually start a region by placing a port (a place needs a reason to exist), so my first city is quite often named Newport (or Founders). I have a lot of fun naming my mayors. I have different mayors for each city and I name them depending on the populace (e.g. a ritzy suburb will have a mayor with a really snooty sounding name while a dirty low wealth town will be lead by someone with a rather blue collar name). Sometimes I name mayors after people I know. Another thing I quite often do is to consider each 'city' as a county or borough instead of an entire city. For example the city of Newport might be sourrounded by suburbs named North Newport, East Newport etc (all of which generally have the same major). Part of the fun is making up your own stories. I've named inlets, rivers and whole cities after explorers I've made up for myself. You can really get carried away with this and start naming parks, monuments, schools etc. after your hypothetical hero.quote>

Indeed the potential for originality is huge. In my last region I did something similiar based on 'explorers.' I put up sign posts on geographical features such as lakes, bays, islands and mountains to give them names that stick (if I don't I forget). In my current region, nearly all the lakes across the top half of my map have a woman's first name (Lake Barbara, Lake Beverly, Lake Beatrice, Lake Lisa, Lake Anna, Lake Sofia, Lake Cynthia, Lake Eva along with Alice Island and Shania Island). So my storyline is that the explorers that first reached the land where my city is built did so after a particularly long voyage away from home. Being men and having been away from civilization with each other for a long time, their longing showed up in the names of geographic features across my region.

[magpieshooter 1]

When I'm thinking of a city name, I usually work out a local suburb name and change it over and over again until I find one that sounds right. The problem with this is somehow the majoritiy of my cities end with 'A' so I have heaps of similar names.

For a wile though I have been trying to find names that don't end with A.

See my map for more detail:
Kinata Map

[obliq 0]

Y City, Arkansas

I've been there. Just as small as its name is short. Its called Y City because there is a "Y" branch where the highway diverges. About the only thing I remember there is a diner and some homes.

Some other strange names of towns in Arkansas. Some don't appear on maps. The town is either too small or has unincorporated. I know them because I grew up there.

Figure Five
Natural Dam
Pencil Bluff
Fifty-Six
Ben Hur
Deer
Oark
Ozone
Little Rock
Flippin
Moko
Three Brothers
Cross Roads
Social Hill
Board Camp
Umpire
Overcup
Pea Ridge
Romance
Possum Grape

A town decided to honor a football player on his retirement and changed its name to Joe, Montana.

A town in New Mexico changed its name to Truth or Consequences (it was a game show in the 1950's).

Some real world examples for inspiration:

Amsterdam (a dam on the Amstel River)
Innsbruck (bridge over the Inn River)
Salzburg (means "salt fortress"; there is a major salt deposit nearby)
Lyon (means "lion")
Little Rock (it is said there was a small rock protrusion along the Arkansas River)
Fischbach (means "fountain of fish" ???*****???)
Bath (the city was named for the mineral springs abundant in the area; it was originally a Roman colony town with an extensive Roman bathhouse)
Nottingham (comes from a Saxon phrase, Snotenagham meaning "place of dens")
Cambridge (bridge across the Cam River)
Dublin (from dubh "black" and llyn "pool" or "marsh"; founded on a marsh with dark or nearly black water)
Hot Springs (located near hot water springs)
Vienna (named after those little sausages [okay, that was a joke])
Sucre (means "sugar")
Buenos Aires (means "fair winds")
Monrovia (named for James Monroe)
Delhi (one source claims it comes from the persian word dahleez meaning "threshold" or "frontier")

As for my city Apve (awp-vay):

I created some rudamentary ruleset for an alien language (my city was originally going to be a science fiction journal). Apve (the city) is situated on the Apve River. The apvim (awp-veem) were mythical animals that ate their way out of  Pealaku's (peh-yaw-law-khoo) belly. She played a foul trick on Beinin (beh-yee-neen), the pagan god of gullability. She grabbed his nose and pulled claiming that she had taken it. Once he discovered the ruse, he tricked Pealaku into eating an apvim egg making her believe it was a magic pearl that would turn her into a supermodel. She ate the egg and within days the little creatures ate their way out of her stomach. Beinin laughed 'till he cried creating the Beinin lagoon which created the Pealaku and Apve rivers. He cried so much the rivers eventually broke through the barrier island and flowed out to sea.

[Idleness75 0]

I have a funny personal method to making names for any large list when I have to come up with names. I guess its a weird sort of multi-taking also. Because Im also always studying some subject as well as playing simulation games or whatever I like to try and use the names as a memory helper. For example, ive named all the cities in a reigon after various telephone short code aggregators...lol...I used this for my job...I named a bunch of castles I built in Stronghold after the various visible stars
..sometimes I change them slightly to make them more cityesque although normally they actually already sound like rather beleivable cities (Ive heard of stranger cities names than Quickreach). Then when I design the city..lol...I know this is weird but it makes sense to me, I actually structure the city in a way that reminds me of that aggregator and what it tends to run short code promotions on...anyway, it makes cities and stuff like that easy to name while making various keybords more availible to my...immediate memory...does this make sense? haha

[RedImperator 16]

I use a combination of Roman provinces (I name my Civ IV cities after them, too) and New Jersey counties with "Park" as a suffix. So Gloucester Park, Monmouth Park, Bergen Park, et cetera. You could use just about any state in the Union for that, as long as it's not something tiny like Delaware or Rhode Island.

You must be the guy who named Halifax's streets! Around Dalhousie University there is a neighbourhood where every street is named for a tree (Larch, Beech, Cedar, Chestnut, Walnut, Cherry, Oak and Poplar).quote>

Philadelphia is the same way. The downtown streets go South (formerly Cedar), Pine, Spruce, Locust, Walnut, Chestnut, Market (main east-west drag), Arch, Cherry, and Vine (there are smaller streets that run in between them, but they're mostly just alleys).

[homer2 3]

Ihave also some ideas, which i used in my region Victoria Bay:

Port ~~

~~polis

Fort ~~

White Heaven

Elmwood

Chesterfield

NAMEbay

_____________________

~~ = (girls or boy name)

-homer2

[fernby 1]

The way I name my cities is after film directors, such as Spielberg, Cameron, Jackson...etc etc. I guess you could do the same for anything really.... writers, chefs, actors, politicians....the possibilities are endless.

[Norsefire 0]

Moving onto more realistic, and tongue-friendly names... Here are some names that I use - singularly and in combination - from small areas between London and Cambrigeshire:

. Girton

. Impington

. Histon

. Grantchester

. Teversham

. Bottingsham

. Swaffham Prior

. Burwell

. Fordham

. Shelford

. Harston

. Hauxton

. Barton

. Comberton

. Fen Ditton

. Sawston

. Duxford

. Whittlesford

. Hinxton

. Chesterfield

. Saffron Walden

. Debden

. Bishop's Stortford

. Birchanger

. High Wych

. Pardon

. Waltham Abbey

. Sudbury

. Steveage

. Burberry Heath Upon Mathers in Cove

Some names of counties in England:

. East Riding of Yorkshire

. Blackburn with Darwen

. Stoke-on-Trent

. Brighton & Hove

. Stockton-on-Tees

These are real names. Use Google Earth; there are an infinite number of small and unique places, one just needs to know where to look.

When one is looking for something more...colorful, then use this list of not-so-known colors:

. Bistre

. Buff

. Cardinal

. Carmine

. Cerise

. Chartreuse

. Dodger

. Flaxfield

. Fern

. Gamboge

. Goldenrod

. Jade

. Mauve

. Moutbatten

. Ochre

. Puce

. Russet

. Saffron

. Scarlet

. Sepia

. Taupe

. Tenn

[RiverCocytus 0]

For a totalitarian region, go with 'Prefacture A' b, c, d. etc. 'Sector A', b, c, d etc...

My city names I will often create from mid air; like 'Kelotana' and "Gallican' and so forth.

Mayor names: Well, here's my usual list:

Mike Jones

Mr. T

Chuck Norris

Samuel L. Jackson

The Rock (make him mayor of Alcatraz?

Rick James

Jimney Glick

Gil Godfried

Generally my theme is funny/badass actors/comedians and on. Its always funny to hear Camile Meadows talking back to Chuck Norris.

[T.Lowry 0]

I try to use inside jokes for city and mayor names. That way I get a smile every time I open the city.

e.g. I have a city named Charleville. I was going to have Rimbaud be the mayor, but he hated the town where he grew up. So I made Proust the mayor.

I TOLD YOU it was an inside joke.

Long live the Liberal Arts!

[Tarkus 6,933]

I've used some pretty odd ones.  One region, I have a large city called Tomato, and the eastern suburb is Bisque.  There's a road connecting the two I ended up calling the "Tomato-Bisque Pkwy" after the soup.  I've always found taking words in the English langauge to be a good way to name towns to.  In the same region, I also have Particular and Specific. 

I've also done some naming of cities after elements like coolotter88 was talking about, though generally, I go for the original Latin ones (Argentum, Natrium, Aurum).  I've also named streets after elements frequently.  Sometimes, I'll also combine two real city names.  I've got a Southwest-like region with a city called Ganeston (combination of Gavelston and Aniston).  It's actually the largest city I've built, with a population of 110,000 (I have a low tolerance for density--the next biggest town I've built only has 52,000, with most only between 5,000-30,000).

Occasionally, I'll also take some ancient geographical names, particularly from the Indus Valley, like Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.  I've got some that are just totally made up too, like Nerfisin and Winden.  Then, there are some that are just boring, such as Murphy Bay and Orson City.  Mostly, I end up combining these various methods in my cities.

[cityhawk 12]

I have some pretty bland names, such as Industown (industrial city, duh!) and Oak Grove. However, after reading all of this, hopefully I can come up with way better names.

Another town to add to the weirdly named real-world cities: Town and Country, Missouri. Wow! That sounds like a desperate-for-a-city-name person named that one. It actually looks like a very nice place to live though, according to their homepage.

[iDavid 2]

You can find town names by fliping though a road atlas. I opened mine to the southern Ohio page, and found a number of stange town names.

Some of them are:

Pyro

Greasy Ridge

Dunkinsville

Hustead

Bowlisville

Gath

Otway

Knockemstiff

Kinnickinnick

Roads

Arion

[Babbler 0]

Well, I'm a biologist and I will quite often use Latin species names for cities (yes, I'm also a nerd). I usually start a region by placing a port (a place needs a reason to exist), so my first city is quite often named Newport (or Founders). quote>

I named my cities in my current regent after biologists (mostly); so I have a Dawkins connecting to Maynard Smith Hights and Margulis. But at least they are not Latin!

Also, in the Fairfax region, second and third best cities were Newton and Dawson.

[Odainsaker 2,136]

I keep a notepad by my computer as well, which has BAT dimensions, mmorpg coordinates, and even names. Those names I have pulled from everywhere I come across them.

A brief glance through the horribly disorganized and half illegible pages pulls up:

Samarcande -- likely a modified spelling for Samarkand in Uzbekistan

Maracanda -- the ancient name of Samarkand

Kairouan -- a historic Muslim city from a map I was referencing while playing Civilization

Giappone -- the Italian word for Japan

Sossamon -- probably a Japanese landmark or historical figure

Skavar -- from the jingle of Abdul Abulbul Amir and Ivan Skavinsky Skavar

Stormbent -- probably a town name from an online game

Moorpark -- from an LA mapping grid

Pointe Dume -- I think this is west of Malibu

Theodicy -- pulled from a TV documentary on early Christianity

Sandalwood -- a variety of tree in Hawaii whose wood is often used for carving

Maidan -- the large historic square in Isfahan

A program I was watching on Ivan the Great mentioned his victory over the Tartar fortress city of Kazan.  Now, there is a Mount Kazan in my simcity.

[Fanaza 0]

What happened to just using some creativity and making names totally up? Like... Vent, Milini, Ulisber, Valisintia, Hostiop, Bogen, etc. Just make up words. I could go on forever making words up. Most of the words I just pulled out of nowhere would make excellent city names. Hmmm... Valisintia sounds like a beautiful name for a sprawling farm region. I think I'll use that.

[lucashp 1]

When im in the New york region i name my cities, New york, new sork, Fork, work, hork, lork zork.. Ect ect

[mcminty 0]

In the region I am currently working on (russian theamed), I have area names.

For example one area is called Blesnovat. There are cities called Blesnovat, Western Blesnovat, Eastern Blesnovat, etc.

I'm not sure what to call my next area. Maybe Bykal or Chechnolev...

[mr.bog 0]

Just a quick reply how about a name and add city on the end Its ingenius!!!! e.g Parlour City

[obliq 0]

What happened to just using some creativity and making names totally up? Like... Vent, Milini, Ulisber, Valisintia, Hostiop, Bogen, etc. Just make up words. I could go on forever making words up. Most of the words I just pulled out of nowhere would make excellent city names. Hmmm... Valisintia sounds like a beautiful name for a sprawling farm region. I think I'll use that.quote>

I certainly concur with Fanaza. I provided real world examples previously simply as a starting point. I wouldn't recommend anyone call their city Amsterdam.  But, if you were to create a region with a river through it named...oh, pull something out my hat...Wibble, put a bridge across it and the town at that point could be called Wibblebridge, Wibbleford, or Wibblemouth. Go a little further and say that the name used by foreigners who find Wibblebridge a bit of a tongue twister (like Amsteldam [not a mispelling, the original name of the city]) becomes Wibbleridge or Wybridge when they say it.

Put a little effort into naming your cities and regions. Be creative. Don't be afraid to be a bit funny now and then. Also, try not to use anything from other video games. It tends to sound derivative, unoriginal, and depending on the city, silly (Racoon City, anyone?)

[fate556 5]

i usally make up names for example my main city name is critley i also used lexington and gemstone

[umbrelladrink200 0]

I've created a region using one of my favorite singer/songwriters song title for city names.

The region (Margaritaville) has large beach front areas.  I have started 4 cities: Margaritaville City, Pascagoula Run, Volcano and Southern Cross.

I have labeled several of the beach front communities as neighborhoods such as "One Particular Harbor", "Lone Palm Beach" and others.

Just thought I'd mention it for fun