How to go about naming a very large amount of things?

[Redrobes]

A lot of the British names are done as a descriptive name for what they are. For example Oxford is for a ford to let oxen pass (Hereford, Chelmsford, Rutherford etc). Then Cambridge is the bridge over the river Cam. A lot of names ending in 'ton' are for town so that Seaton is a town by the sea and Kingston is the Kings Town. Then Exmouth is at the mouth of the Exe, Yarmouth is at the mouth of the Yare and Dartmouth is still at the end of the river Dart. A Ham is a low lying river like Durham, Wrexham, Nottingham, Birmingham etc, then there are the obvious Wakefield, Sheffield etc which are normally named after the person who once owned said field.

Carterton, Cartersfield, Cartermouth, Cartershire, Carterford, Carterly, Carterham, and Carterborough etc are all pretty reasonable sounding names.
As would be:
Knightston, Knightsfield, Knightsmouth, Knightshire, Knightford, Knightly, Knightham, and Knightsborough.

So combining the type of place that it is with some descriptive properties like the person who owned it or the river it is on can generate a lot of more sensible sounding place names than just phonetics munged into fantasy sounding names.

Personally the more I know about the areas terrain and its economy and populations the easier it is to name it.

[Falconius]

A lot of the British names are done as a descriptive name for what they are. For example Oxford is for a ford to let oxen pass (Hereford, Chelmsford, Rutherford etc). Then Cambridge is the bridge over the river Cam. A lot of names ending in 'ton' are for town so that Seaton is a town by the sea and Kingston is the Kings Town. Then Exmouth is at the mouth of the Exe, Yarmouth is at the mouth of the Yare and Dartmouth is still at the end of the river Dart. A Ham is a low lying river like Durham, Wrexham, Nottingham, Birmingham etc, then there are the obvious Wakefield, Sheffield etc which are normally named after the person who once owned said field.

Carterton, Cartersfield, Cartermouth, Cartershire, Carterford, Carterly, Carterham, and Carterborough etc are all pretty reasonable sounding names.
As would be:
Knightston, Knightsfield, Knightsmouth, Knightshire, Knightford, Knightly, Knightham, and Knightsborough.

So combining the type of place that it is with some descriptive properties like the person who owned it or the river it is on can generate a lot of more sensible sounding place names than just phonetics munged into fantasy sounding names.

Personally the more I know about the areas terrain and its economy and populations the easier it is to name it.

That's a good idea, I'll concentrate on naming the features first, like rivers and such, and then some names should just pop up as derivatives thereof.