How do you name your World? (Or nations, etc., for that matter...)

[shifty-eyed]

Our home-brew world doesn't have a name (if it does, its called Alder because my co-creator had the idea of setting it on an Alder-disk). But we did have the idea that there would be at least four continents with the campaign taking place in the central continent.

Because we wanted an Arabic flavor to the world, I ended up calling it ana-Toht which I found in an Egyptian Phrase book and means "I'm lost." It seemed appropriate.

As I progress with adding names, I usually keep tons of bookmarks and reference materials related to the languages that I'm interested in using (in this case, Arabic, Persian, and various Berber languages) and I pick phrases that seem appropriate. From time to time, I'll add puns (Wadi al-Baghendi refers to LOTR; al-Waïz-izi, a ruin which is not "always easy" to get through). And, after reading too much and having my eyelids glaze over, I'll also start making stuff up that roughly fits in with what I'm doing.

[Karro]

Interesting set of perspectives.

I'm thinking now, there's a corallary question: "does it matter what you call your world".

I know Tolkien called his world "Arda" or "Middle-earth". C.S. Lewis called his Narnia (but that is more correctly a nation name, not a world name). A few others have such names. But I'm thinking of some contemporary fantasy novels... where the world is essentially nameless. Robert Jordan's world is called "Randland" because the fans had nothing else to call it, and Jordan gives the world no name. I recently read the first Song of Fire & Ice book, and AFAIK, while the continent the story takes place on is called "Westeros", the world itself has no name.

That being said, we fantasy mappers like to name things.

So... here were the competing names for my own world: previously I called it "Aterra"... which is just latin "Terra" with an "a" thrown on the front to make it "not latin". More recently I've been calling it "The Skein", a short form of "The Skein of the Seven" which, as I mention above, is a culturally-specific name for the world, but it reflects the culture in which the story I'm... ahem... "writing"... is initially set.

[Ascension]

I like weird naming as long as it is reinforced often enough so that I don't forget it The Skein seems fine to me and immediately sets a mood for the culture.

[Karro]

I like weird naming as long as it is reinforced often enough so that I don't forget it The Skein seems fine to me and immediately sets a mood for the culture.

That's a comforting sentiment. Thanks.

[Gamerprinter]

While sometimes I really think about a name. My current Japanese setting is actually Japanese a word that describes the setting: Kaidan = Ghost Story.

Often short stories or poetry written long ago by me, pops up in memory and the place names I invented them seem appropriate to a world I map now.

Darkovia, was one of those names, which is my vampire town in the CWBP, as well as the nearby khanate capital of Calishem. That name is a derivative of Kalim Shan which I always thought sounded Chinese, and I gave it a more arabic sound with Calishem.

Another fictional place name from the past, that I may reuse some day is the Duchy of Dernallion, a rather French-English sound to it.

I try to fit the name with the history and the language, but often just pops into my head - so I can't completely describe the methodology of my naming conventions, but that's some clues.

GP

[science&creativity]

Interesting set of perspectives.

I'm thinking now, there's a corallary question: "does it matter what you call your world".

I know Tolkien called his world "Arda" or "Middle-earth". C.S. Lewis called his Narnia (but that is more correctly a nation name, not a world name). A few others have such names. But I'm thinking of some contemporary fantasy novels... where the world is essentially nameless. Robert Jordan's world is called "Randland" because the fans had nothing else to call it, and Jordan gives the world no name. I recently read the first Song of Fire & Ice book, and AFAIK, while the continent the story takes place on is called "Westeros", the world itself has no name.

That being said, we fantasy mappers like to name things.

So... here were the competing names for my own world: previously I called it "Aterra"... which is just latin "Terra" with an "a" thrown on the front to make it "not latin". More recently I've been calling it "The Skein", a short form of "The Skein of the Seven" which, as I mention above, is a culturally-specific name for the world, but it reflects the culture in which the story I'm... ahem... "writing"... is initially set.

I think you raise a good point with this, especially the examples of published fantasy where the world is never named at all. probably it's down to personal taste and consistency. if the setting involves a number of finely detailed cultures, then probably having multiple, thought-out names for the world (...or the world as defined by those cultures) would be a natural follow through - or at least having one thought-out name for the world from the culture that is primarily featured in the story. on the other extreme a world-map made purely for practice/aesthetics doesn't necessarly need any thought beyond that the name of the world "sounds fitting".
and clearly, it's entirely possible to write looooonng epics without ever giving any name for the world itself at all, so that has been established as an option for anyone who doesn't want to deal with the intricacies of world-naming.


...place-names, of course, open a whole new can of proverbial worms....