Good underwater city names sound like the sea they're in: soft and shining for merfolk (Nacredeep), heavy and old for a sunken city (Drowned Withywold), cold and technical for a research base (Thermocline Station). This underwater city name generator builds names for every kind of city beneath the waves: shimmering merfolk courts, ancient cities lost to the sea, sci-fi bases on the seabed, lightless cities in the deep and bright towns on the coral reef. Add a short description to give your D&D campaign, story or game an instant hook.
Eight good underwater city names
All eight came from the generator, across its five styles:
- Nacredeep: mother-of-pearl and the deep in one word, for a merfolk city.
- The Kelp Bower of Aunura, built on the back of a sleeping sea turtle: a merfolk city with a story to explore.
- Wethermouth Beneath the Waves, lost to the sea along with its church and market: an ordinary town that drowned, which makes it sadder.
- Malador the Drowned, that sank with all its gold, or so the story goes: a legend with treasure in it.
- Thermocline Station: a sci-fi base named after the layer where warm water meets cold.
- Lumen Station, whose radio has picked up a signal from deeper down: a research base with a mystery underneath.
- Siltrift, whose citizens have never seen the colour blue: a city of the dark deep.
- Lumiro, whose children ride seahorses to school: a bright coral town.
Drowned cities in legend
The most famous underwater city is Atlantis, described by Plato in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias as a great island power swallowed by the sea in a single day and night. Breton legend has Ys, the city of King Gradlon, drowned when the sea gates were opened, and Welsh legend has Cantre'r Gwaelod, a lost kingdom beneath Cardigan Bay. Real coasts have lost towns too: most of Dunwich, once a busy port in Suffolk, has gone into the sea.
- Merfolk cities are named for pearls, shells and foam: Moonshell Palace, Foamhaven.
- Sunken cities keep their old names with Drowned, Sunken or Beneath the Waves added.
- Sci-fi bases take ocean science words and code names: Habitat Isobath, Fathom Base Delta.
- Deep-sea cities have cold, heavy names: Hollowtrench, Ulmugoth.
- Coral towns are bright and warm: Angelfish Hollow, Calavi Lagoon.
Using an underwater city
- Decide who can reach it. A city only merfolk can visit is a different adventure from a sunken ruin divers explore.
- Let the description be the hook: a signal from deeper down, or a city that rises once a century.
- Think about light. Names in the deep can be darker because nobody there has seen the sun.
For the people who live there, try the Mermaid Name Generator, and for the waters above, the Sea Name Generator. For a city in the other direction, there's the Sky City Name Generator.
For more, see all the world-building name generators.