Good continent names are big and simple, usually a description in an old language: Kaldmark is Old Norse for "cold land" and Rhodogaea Greek for "land of roses". The Continent Name Generator gives you names for the vast landmasses of a fantasy map, from Greek and Old Norse compounds with real meanings to elven, dark and plain-English names for your D&D campaign or novel.
Eight good continent names
All eight came from the generator, across its five styles:
- Rhodogaea: Greek for "land of roses", gentle enough for a peaceful continent.
- Terra Abscondita: Latin for "hidden land", for somewhere off the edge of the old maps.
- Drakochora: Greek for "country of dragons", which tells explorers what to expect.
- Thursland: Old Norse for "land of giants".
- Hvitdal: Old Norse for "white valley", for a frozen north.
- Caelandris: an elven name meaning "the high shore".
- Vhelgoth: a dark name for the continent the villains come from.
- The Untamed Expanse, claimed by no crown and mapped by few: a plain-English name with a hook for explorers.
Where continent names come from
Real continent names are a mix of myth, Roman provinces and mapmakers. Europe shares its name with Europa of Greek myth. Africa was the name of a Roman province. America comes from the explorer Amerigo Vespucci, whose first name a German mapmaker put on a world map in 1507. Australia is from the Latin australis, "southern", and Antarctica means "opposite the Arctic", which itself comes from the Greek for "bear", after the Great Bear in the northern sky.
- Greek and Latin names join real words: oros (mountain), gaia (earth), chora (country), nesos (island), terra (land).
- Old Norse names use -land, -heim (home), -mark (borderland) and -fjall (mountain).
- Elven and dark names are invented, with meanings in an imagined tongue.
- Descriptive names say it in English: The Sundered Reach, The Burning Barrens.
Choose With meaning to see what each name means, which helps you decide what the land should look like.
Naming a world map
- Name continents from one culture's point of view. The people who made the map call their own land "home" and the far one "the hidden land".
- Mix styles on purpose. A Latin name in the south and Old Norse in the north shows that different peoples did the naming.
- Leave somewhere unmapped. A continent "claimed by no crown" is where the campaign can go next.
Name the whole world with the Fantasy World Name Generator, the smaller lands with the Island Name Generator, and the countries on each continent with the Kingdom and Fantasy Country name generators.
For more, see all the world-building name generators.