Good elf city names are long, soft and full of vowels, and they usually mean something: a hall, a haven or a grove, named after dawn, the sea or the stars. Every name from this elf city name generator is built from a small elvish tongue invented just for this page, so each city can come with its meaning: Aethaleth is ‘the court of dawn’ and Ossisaen ‘the haven of dolphins’. Pick high, wood, dark, sea or moon and star elves for your D&D campaign or novel.
Eight good elf city names
All eight came from the generator, across its five kinds of elf:
- Aethaleth, ‘the court of dawn’: a high elf city whose name is a promise of light.
- Arisavel, ‘the haven of victory’: a high elf city founded after a war.
- Hirrawyn, ‘the refuge of the white stag’: a wood elf city with a legend built in.
- Neylatham, ‘the hidden hall of quiet streams’: a wood elf city you'd only find with a guide.
- Nhalarrath, ‘the city of the black river’: an underground city, harder and darker in sound.
- Ossisaen, ‘the haven of dolphins’: a sea elf harbour.
- Vyssalthë, ‘the bridge of the falling stars’: a moon and star elf city for a night sky.
- The Spires of Taeroriel: a high elf name with the city's skyline in it.
How elf cities are named
The most famous elf cities in fiction have two names: one in Elvish and one in the common tongue. Tolkien's Rivendell is the English form of the Sindarin Imladris, "deep dale of the cleft", and Lothlórien adds loth, "flower", to the name of the land. In D&D's Forgotten Realms, the dark elves' great city under the earth is Menzoberranzan, hard-edged and long, which is how drow names have sounded ever since.
The elvish on this page is invented. It isn't Tolkien's Sindarin or Quenya, or any game's official language. It's a small set of word parts made for this generator, so each part always means the same thing:
- High elves name cities after courts, thrones and dawn: Daeraleth, "the court of summer".
- Wood elves use groves, boughs and animals: Pelloryth, "the boughs of acorns".
- Dark elves underground get harsh sounds and secrets: Sevresk, "the gate of secrets".
- Sea elves name harbours after whales and waves: Maerarra, "the lantern of the waves".
- Moon and star elves build bridges and towers: Cyrahanys, "the tower of the north star".
Choose Name only for the city on its own, or With meaning to get the translation too.
Building an elven city
- Use the meaning. A city called "the refuge of the white stag" needs a story about the stag.
- Give it a common name too. Humans and dwarves won't say Neylatham; they'll call it the Hidden Hall.
- Keep one kind of elf per region, so neighbouring cities sound related.
For the elves who live there, try the Elf, High Elf, Wood Elf and Dark Elf name generators. For their rivals, there's the Dwarf City Name Generator, and for the realm around the city, the Kingdom Name Generator.
For more, see all the world-building name generators.