A great city needs a name that can carry its reputation. This fantasy city name generator sorts names by the kind of city you're building: a shining capital, a fortress on the border, a port full of smugglers, a hold in the frozen north, the ruin of something older, or a market city on the river. Add an epithet and it comes with a reputation too: Ironwall, the Last Bastion.
How real cities got their names
- New towns. Surprisingly many great cities were once just "the new city": Naples comes from the Greek Neapolis, Carthage from the Phoenician Qart-hadasht, Novgorod is Russian for "new town".
- Founders. Alexander the Great named Alexandria after himself; Constantine renamed Byzantium Constantinople.
- The land. A ford, a hill, a harbour, a river mouth. Most of the world's cities are named for where they stand.
- Several names at once. Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul are the same city. A city that has changed hands keeps its old names in its streets and stories.
Six kinds of city
- Shining capital: gold, white stone and towers. Goldspire, Lionhall.
- Fortress city: walls first, people second. Ironwall, Ravenkeep.
- Port city: harbours, lighthouses and quays. Saltreach, Gullquay.
- Northern and frozen: stone halls under snow. Rimehelm, Wolfhearth.
- Ancient and ruined: something greater was here once. Sunkenmere, Echodeep.
- River and market city: bridges, barges and trade. Heronford, Copperbridge.
Giving a city an epithet
Real cities collect nicknames: Rome is the Eternal City, Paris the City of Light, and Venice was La Serenissima, the most serene. Fantasy does the same: Minas Tirith means "Tower of the Guard", and King's Landing is named for the place Aegon the Conqueror came ashore.
An epithet is a short way to tell the reader what a city is famous for, or what it wants you to think it is. Choose "With an epithet" and the generator adds one that suits the kind of city. A fun trick is to pair a name and epithet that don't quite agree: a city called the Unbroken that everyone knows was sacked twice.
Building a city around its name
- Name the districts after the city's history. A port city has a Saltgate and an Old Harbour; a conquered city has a quarter still called by the old name.
- Keep the sound of the country. A city should sound like the land around it. Pick a country style in the Fantasy Country Name Generator, then use a city name in the same spirit.
- Scale down for towns. Smaller places sound humbler. For villages and market towns, the Fantasy Town Name Generator builds names from real English place-name endings.
Once the city has a name, give its quarters, markets and streets one with the Fantasy District Name Generator.
Ruling from a fortress? The Castle Name Generator names it, and the Kingdom and Empire name generators name what it rules.