You want some real fun with this, take a look at my Roilwachhs mapIt's full of stuff like this.. one extreme example being "Sandy Desert Full of Sand that gets in your Bits and Makes You Feel Uncomfortable"
I dunno, I can imagine the people living near there naming it like that
My finished maps
"...sometimes the most efficient way to make something look drawn by hand is to simply draw it by hand..."
Just read through this, and found it interesting, so I'll add my own little tuppence.
One of my favourite places, when it comes to looking at Toponomy has to be "Torpenhow Hill" in England.
This name, as I understand it, basically means "Hillhillhill Hill"; "Tor", "pen", and "how" all meaning hill in different languages (Old English, Welsh and Danish I think) - I guess it goes to show, that when a new power arise in a region they may use old toponomy, but add to it themselves. And I find that rather interesting.
Now that's too darn funny; but very enlightening.
If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)
My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps
Just read this thread and liked all posts. I also tend to create a whole new language for the people who created the names. One web site I found helpful that has been up for the last 13+ years: The Language Construction Kit. Holly Lisle's site seems good, but it also seems you have to buy the book to get all of it. The LCK is free.
While my wife was still alive, she and I created the Vinyarik language with about 18,000 words. Alas, I no longer have the notebooks for this language like Holly Lisle suggested.
rmfr
Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun. - Albert Einstein
A good friend will come down and bail you out of jail. A best friend will be in jail with you and say, "Dude, we screwed up."
very impressive - thats a lot of workOriginally Posted by arakish
regs tilt
:: My DnD page Encounter Depot free stuff for your game :: My work page Catapult ::
:: Finished Maps :: Competion maps - The Island of Dr. Rorshach ::
:: FREE Tiles - Compasses :: Other Taking a commision - Copyright & Creative Commons ::
Works under CC licence unless mentioned otherwise
On my map of Paidixira, the world is supposed to have a decidedly greek influence, so i kept a nifty greek translator site on bookmark at all times and translated a couple words together any time I needed a name. I went the same direction naming animals too: a hound with an axe shaped head is called a Xikouri combining the greek words for "axe" and "hound." I also recommend the site Behind The Name for anyone struggling to come up with forenames for characters. Not only do they have the etymology of thousands of names, but they also have tons of statistics and historical connections about names.
I've found things to be decidedly easier when taking from established languages. Behind all of the names i've made, I recognize the whisper of a real city or country. Some of the names have come out looking very alien (for example, trying to name forests often uses the root "Xylo" for wood, which has the odd effect of obscuring the meaning of a name whenever I use it.) but i'm using a blunt tool and one can't expect too much. I'm interested in using some of the techniques mentioned in this thread, so i hope my two cents have at least a glimmer of the usefulness your suggestions did.
i wish you still had those notebooks... that would be a real piece of work...
Hey, tacky names are great! They're a barrel of laughs for everyone. Nothing like exploring the Unholy Dome of the Rock or the Pink Petal Mountain of Light... Also, if you look at the real world, a lot of names are totally cheesy. In old countries you have basic descriptive names, possibly in different names, while in newly explored countries you get rivers, lakes, bays, mountains, plains, towns all named after monarchs, aristocrats, explorers, their families, their dogs, etc.
Anyway, if you need some slavic names, you get lots of typical names that are used in toponymy (I'm just going to use my obscure and strange slavic language, but with a bit of tweaking it should apply to most of those that use latin alphabets, more or less). There's actually a word-cloud that lists the commonest town and settlement names in Slovenian, but I'll just repeat it here, vaguely from commonest to least common, with some very literal translations (I'm telling you, they're TACKY and don't take my etymology as official or anything).
Gradišče - fortified settlement, Grad - castle (town in other slavic languages), Vas - village, Mesto - town, Dolenja vas - lower village, Brezje - place of birches, Lipa - linden, Podvrh - underpeak, Straža - guard, Gorica - little mountain, Bistrica - clear-water, Podgora - undermountain, Ponikve - sinkholes, Pristava - manor house (or something like that, I'm really not sure about this one), Selo - smaller village, Gorenja vas - upper village, Dol - down, bottom, valley, bottom-land, Podkraj - underplace or undersettlement, Laze - hillside clearing (there's lots of hills in my country, which shows on the language), Loka - meadow or somewhat swampy meadow, Dvor - court, as in noble court, palace, Osredek - middle-place, Podgorje - undermountains, Dobrava - good-place (sort of), Leskovec - place of hazels, Borovnica - either place of blueberries or, more likely, place of pine trees, Nova vas - new village, Kal - muddy or split, broken (not sure), Ravne - flat place, the flats, Planina - highlands, hill, highland meadow, Brdo - another type of hill, Bukovica - place of beeches, Gabrje - place of hornbeams (lots of those, I guess), Koritno - basin, Zavrh - behind-peak, Križ - cross, Strmec - steep-place, Plešivica - bald-place, treeless place, Praproče - place of ferns, Slovenska vas - slovenian village, Breg - bank, hillside, slope, Log - forest or swampy meadow by river (lots of those too), Draga - small, narrow side valley, Hrastje - place of oaks, Trstenik - place of reeds, Slivnica - place of plums, Cesta - road, Trnje - thorns, Prelesje - before or overwoods, Stara gora - old mountain, Stara vas - old village, Gorenje - upper place, Čeplje - dunno, some plant or narrow blockage, I guess (really, no clue).
Then you get others. For example, mountains. The highest mountain hereabout is Triglav - Three-heads - named for an old deity. Mrzli vrh - Cold peak. Vodil vrh - Leading peak. Kozlov rob - Billy goat's edge. Globoko - The Deep. Krn - Wedge (a mountain). Škrlatica - Scarlet (a mountain). Sveta gora - Holy mountain. Porezen - Cut-off [Mountain]. Krvavec - Bloody [mountain]. Snežnik - Snowy [mountain]. Rdeči rob - Red edge. Kobilja glava - Mare's head. Palec - Thumb. Na koreninah - On the roots. Vrh nad Peski - Peak above the Sands. Pleče - Shoulders. Na oslih - On the donkeys. Špik - Spike. Francova bula - Franz's Lump. Visoka glava - High head. Skodelica - Cup. Čelo - Forehead.
Etc. etc. etc. Just goes to show, those tacky rpg names aren't that horribly tacky after all
Historically, heavy forest was frightening to humans. And in no small part on account of their darkness. Germany's "Black Forest" is named not for the cake, but on account of the darkness under its thick trees, not so far from "Dark Forest".
There's a desert in my state called Death Valley -- I'm not sure how much more scary place names are supposed to get.
Watching some Animal Planet show, it told the tale of a tourist in Australia who was killed by a crocodile. I was sympathetic at first, but my sympathy dissolved into laughter when I learned where it happened -- Crocodile Creek. I'm not sure how much more of a warning a place name can get.
As for sinister place names, it is hard to beat Sinister Peak in Skagit County, Washington, USA.
How about Bloody Island, Bloody Point, Bloody Rock, Bloody Canyon, Broken Rib Mountain, Wounded Knee Mountain?
Deadman Crossing, Ohio? Skullbone, Tennessee? Tombstone, Arizona? Slaughter - be it the one in Delaware, Louisiana, or Tennessee? The many, many names with "Devil" in them?
Virginia has both a Black Swamp and a Black Marsh, not to mention part of the Great Dismal Swamp.
They may not be as common as in some fantasy settings, but gloomy, scary, morbid, or warning-giving names are not absent from the real world.
Death valley is awesome, ever been there?
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote