A good fantasy country name tells you who lives there before anyone speaks: Mirlond sounds elvish, Valdheim Norse, Corvium like an empire with roads and legions. This fantasy country name generator builds names in six styles, each from the sounds of a real or imagined language, and can add a title to match: a kingdom, a grand duchy, a dread dominion.
Ten good fantasy country names
All ten came from the generator, from each of its six styles:
- Kingdom of Kvarheim: -heim is Norse for home, as in Jotunheim.
- The Ravnheim Jarldoms: ravn is raven in Danish and Norwegian, and a jarldom is ruled by a jarl.
- Kingdom of Lorlond: -lond means haven in Tolkien's Elvish, as in Mithlond, the Grey Havens.
- The Woodland Realm of Nimthil: soft, flowing sounds for an elven forest kingdom.
- The Most Serene Republic of Aquilalis: Venice called itself the Most Serene Republic, and aquila is Latin for eagle.
- Kingdom of Wulfwold: Old English wulf, wolf, and wold, forest or high ground, as in the Cotswolds.
- The Marches of Aethelwick: a march is a borderland, and aethel is Old English for noble.
- The Black Throne of Grathkhal: hard sounds and a grim title for the enemy across the mountains.
- The Thalassocracy of Brisinn: a thalassocracy is a state whose power is at sea, from the Greek thalassa.
- Kingdom of the Isles of Halwen: an island kingdom with a gentle, Welsh-sounding name.
How real countries got their names
Most real country names come from one of four places, and fantasy names can use the same ones:
- A people. England is the land of the Angles; France is named after the Franks. Denmark is "the march of the Danes", mark meaning a border land.
- The land itself. The Netherlands are the low lands, Montenegro the black mountain, Iceland just what it says.
- Something precious. Argentina comes from the Latin argentum, silver, which explorers hoped to find there.
- A person. Bolivia is named after Simón Bolívar, the Philippines after Philip II of Spain.
Tolkien worked the same way in Elvish: Gondor means "stone-land" and Mordor "black land".
Six styles
- Elvish and flowing: soft sounds and endings like -dor (land), -lond (haven) and -wen. Celanor, Silwen.
- Northern and Norse: endings from the Scandinavian languages. -heim is home or world (Norse myth has Jotunheim and Vanaheim), -gard an enclosure (Midgard, Asgard), -rike a realm, -vik a bay. Skarvik, Ravnholm.
- Imperial and Latin: Roman names ended in -ia (Gallia, Britannia, Hispania), and these follow suit. Severica, Aurenna, Corvium.
- Old English kingdoms: before England, there were Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria. These use Anglo-Saxon name parts like aelf (elf), wulf and beorn (warrior). Aelfwold, Wulfmarch.
- Dark and dangerous: hard consonants and growling endings for the enemy across the mountains. Drakgrim, Nekoth, Malkhal.
- Islands and the sea: island words like -holm and -ey, and -ennis, which echoes the Welsh ynys and Cornish enys, both "island". Gwynholm, Tolennis.
Kingdom, empire or republic?
Choose "With a title" and the name comes with a form of government, which says a lot about the place:
- Kingdom and High Kingdom: one crown, or a king over other kings.
- Empire and Imperium: rule over other peoples, usually won by conquest.
- Grand Duchy and Principality: smaller states, often squeezed between bigger ones.
- Marches: border country, held by lords whose job is to keep the neighbours out.
- Jarldoms and Thanes: a land of chieftains rather than a single throne.
- Most Serene Republic: the title of Venice, a merchant state run by its rich families.
- Thalassocracy: from the Greek for "sea power", a realm whose strength is its fleet rather than its land.
Fitting a country onto your map
- Make neighbours sound different. A Norse-sounding kingdom next to a Latin empire tells the reader at once that these are two peoples, and probably old enemies.
- Match the towns. A country's towns should share its sound. Use the Fantasy Town Name Generator for English-style towns, and keep a few syllables from the country name for its capital.
- Give it another name. Countries rarely call themselves what their neighbours call them: Germany is Deutschland to Germans and Allemagne to the French. One country with two names is cheap and very convincing worldbuilding.
- Say the adjective. You'll write about its people more than the country, so check how the name sounds with -ian, -ish or -er on the end before you settle on it.
It works whatever your world calls them: a kingdom, nation, realm, land or empire, from a small duchy on the coast to an empire that covers half the map.
For infernal kingdoms and hell planes, try the Demon Realm Name Generator; for modern made-up countries, the Fictional Country Name Generator.
For a realm that's more than one country, try the Empire Name Generator, and for the whole map, the Continent and World name generators.