How do you come up with city names?

[Eliteforce]

Often times I find myself stumped when coming up with a bunch of city names when I'm filling up a region.  I sometimes use the terrain of the city or names of locations in my local area for inspiration. 

What process do you come up with for making city names?

Are you ultra-creative? or are you as diverse as a machine?

[Vandy]

Hi, EliteForce.

I actually don't ever get to the point of developing cities in SC4 as I'm pretty much just a map maker.  Nonetheless, I do have a process by which I create names for my regions.  Let me review that first.

CREATING REGION NAMES
I would say that naming a region (map) that I've created is pretty much dependent upon the "theme" of the region -- that is, what I'm trying to get across or "say" about my region.  For example, if the storyline I create for a region has a Greek mythology tone to it, then my region name would come from Greek mythology (for example, my Okeanides map).  If the storyline I create for a region is based on a Polish legend, then my region name would come from the legend (for example, my Smierc Smoka map).

CREATING CITY NAMES
I honestly don't see creating city names to be much different that creating a region name.  You might consider creating a series of city names that relate to each other.  For example:

City names relating to Greek Mythology:

• Thor
• Zeus
• Aphrodite
• Apollon
• Dione
• Helios

City names relating to the region / terrain:

• Gobbler's Mountain
• Martin's Corner
• Table Rock
• Boone's Creek
• Eagle's Roost
• Windy Point

Random city names:

• Harrison
• Johnsonville
• Everton
• Bricksburg
• Apperton
• Zieglerville

There are a number of city / town generator's available on the 'net that you might want to try.  Here are a few to use:

Random Town Name Generator

Place Name Generator

Online Generators from RPGInspiration

Town Name Generator

I hope this information will be helpful for you.

Regards,

Gary (Vandy)

[Ryan B.]

Me being a hockey fan, there's all sorts of names I can work in there.

From Gretzky, Hull, and Messier, to today's Crosby, Ovechkin, Phaneuf, etc . . . . .

For my MD, Orleans County, I use real-world names from there. 

[BigSlark]

I like to think about the origins of the region I'm developing and use an atlas from there. For example, my current region was originally settled by the Spanish so you have a mix of Creek Indian, Spanish, French, and British names (much like most of the Southern Half of the United States...).

Cheers,
Kevin