Fantasy Town Name Generator

How town names are usually built

Town names started as directions: how to find a place from somewhere else. That is why so many of them combine a thing in the landscape with a word for a type of place. An oak, a raven or a mill gives the first half. A ford, a bridge, a haven or a gate gives the second half, and tells you why anyone settled there. A town ending in -ford grew where a river could be crossed, one ending in -haven grew where ships could shelter, and one ending in -minster grew around a church.

Prefixes like Old, New, Upper and Lower add history for free: they imply there was once a second town, and that the two grew apart.

Making town names feel like one region

Pick a handful of endings for each region and reuse them. Towns along a river might share -ford and -bridge; coastal ones might share -haven and -mouth. Where you want a border, change the ending: a cluster of -ton towns butting against a cluster of -by towns tells the reader that two peoples met there. Make each name explain itself with a single image, so that someone who has never read your book could guess what Ravenford or Saltmouth looks like. Then check your map. If two towns lie next to each other with unrelated name styles, readers will assume a story, so give them one or change a name.

Twenty example town names

• Ravenford a crossing where crows gather over the river.
• Saltmouth a port at the mouth of a salt river.
• Oakminster a church town grown around a great tree.
• Silverbridge a toll town with money to spare.
• Highmarket a hill town that holds the grain trade.
• Elmhaven a sheltered river harbour.
• Wolfcross a crossroads with a bad reputation at night.
• Gullhaven a fishing port, loud and smelly.
• Marshgate the last dry town before the fens.
• Amberport a trading harbour known for resin and jewellery.
• Harrowfield farming country with a hard past.
• Millbridge a mill town, busy and plain.
• Stonecross a market town at the meeting of two roads.
• Larkdale a pretty valley town that songs are written about.
• Corbenmouth a harbour on a river named Corben.
• Old Tanwick a former tannery town with a newer rival.
• Upper Hollin a hill settlement above a bigger town.
• Kelpwharf a rough docks district turned town.
• Greyborough a walled town with a council.
• Tidecove a small harbour that floods each spring.