Toponomy, or How to Name Places!

[NeonKnight]

I am going to go on a slightly tangential rant for a moment I could not find an appropriate thread and don't think this deserves its own thread as much as it deserves a thread hijack...

As a consistent reader of fantasy and an off and on gamer, I think it is incumbent upon the community at large to stop the dire place names convention. No more "Cliffs of Despair" or "Swamp of Tears" or "Graggy Hills of Doomy Doom!" or "Dark Scary Forest Don't Go In There" or "The Plot Point Hills of Dread."

I get tired of seeing places like the aforementioned "the Dark Forest." In the "real world" places are named by the people who live and use the areas (even if it is a hard and dangerous life). No one wants to live in the "Dire Marsh." The people who do scrabble out a living in or near that swamp would not give it such an imposing name.

Just cause I can

http://www.destination360.com/europe...y/black-forest

The History, of HOW the Black Forest Got it's Name.

So, name like TANGLE WOOD or DENSE SWAMP, are certainly not as 'scary' as DEATH WOOD or DIRE SWAMP or anything, but they ARE Evocative, and how people go about naming places.

Another example (with pictures even), is the SLEEPING GIANT PROVINCIAL PARK in Ontario, Canada, so named because an island looks like a sleeping giant.

In fact, if you do a Google search for images on Sleeping Giant Mountian, we have LOTS of mountains around the world that is named exactly that:

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en...title&resnum=4