How does Veeky Forums name things in their settings?

How does Veeky Forums name things in their settings?

I can't manage it without Google Translate or something similar.

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indifferentlanguages.com/
random-generator.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
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However you want. To most players it won't matter.

>so what's the theme for this area
>choose real life historical civilization/country
>look up names
>use names I like

Alternatively name things after the land.
e.g. name a colony Amber after the forest filled with the stuff they built it out of, or name it Slate out of the slate rock the town was built upon nestled in the shadows of a long dormant mountain that was once a volcano.

I just look at the paper in front of me for 3 or 4 seconds until somethings pops in my mind.

I used a bunch of Latin portmanteaus

A good trick for naming places is to mash 2-3 words together, since that's how places irl get their names. You see it in games too (e.g. Raven-Loft)

>Take a larger word that's important to a location
>Run it through Google translate
>Add and remove some vowels and move some letters around until it sounds ok
Or smash two words together, or just take them from really old/obscure games or books that nobody in your party has read/played

Sometimes I just pick a letter or two then try to make it sound like something. Hit your keyboard a few times until the name makes sense to you.

Just hit your keyboard with your dick until something satisfying comes out.

Google translate some literal descriptions into another language

Typos and inverted words.

For me and my players English is not the first language. So I just take some fitting modern or Middle English words, mash them together and use those as location names for the Big Not!European Empire in my setting. Same goes for Mandarin and Not!China.

This is the highest tier.

Oh that's easy, OP.

I developed an entire setting where the world is just mashed together by a pair of gods that had no clue how to actually create a world, but were determined to do so anyway. The result was this childish amalgamation of what they thought a world should be coupled with a god complex that no one could question since any living denizen had no idea there could be a more logical world than their own. A vivid fever dream that seemed so real that when you awake sweaty and panicked in your bed, your room seems less real than this quasi-fantasy world you just spent your dreaming hours living in. As in, a thought building exercise in: "What if the Wizard of Oz seemed more real to Dorothy than Kansas."

So to answer your question, I pick cool words and glue them together until they look presentable and handwaive the actual meaning unless I want the actual meaning to be meaningful, because that's exactly what the setting's creators did. Instead of spending hours and hours researching the folklore and historical knowledge required to build worlds accurate to what modern players/onlookers would expect, and wouldn't make sense anyway since those thousands of years of minute mis-translations and misunderstandings would not have occurred in this fantasy world, I created a world in which anyone's half-assed attempt at world-building is totally valid.

And here's what I use
indifferentlanguages.com/
random-generator.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
And of course, a healthy dose of my favorite media to really fuel the kind of feelings and auras I want to create, rather than "It's X but with Y" instead.

I use these methods, depending on the culture of the location
>Humans Kingdoms?
Old Europe names
>Elves lands?
Quenya portmanteaus
>Wild lands?
Literal names or Amerindian/African/Central Asia languages
>Dwarven Cities?
English portmanteaus
>Non-classic race?
Find a language fitting with their culture and only use this language

...

This maps are a tad inaccurate, but they get the point across.

Japanese, romanized, reversed, and with vowels omitted wherever it looks good.

GRUMBOLD THE FROG SLAUGHTERER

XIMBIDAD

THROSWHELP

HAGGARO BAKER SUPEREME

TYRANNICUS METALLICORE, HEAD OF THE OPTITRON ARRAY

HUPLEY THE SQUIRE

GUPFORD

I sort of just have names like these.

Very occasionally I throw in a steve or dwayne.

>what's a good name for this village
>I'll put an L somewhere
>Name... L
Thus, the village was called Namel.

I play modern, near-past or near-future games set in versions of our world

If it comes to Fantasy it doesn't much matter really, you can make names descriptive and it will be much easier for the players to remember

>Starting town is called Longhorn Village because they herd cattle
>Nearest dwarf settlement is called Copper Deep, because they mine copper and live underground
>Ziggurat City has a huge ziggurat in the middle
>the Faewood is a forest that has fae in it
>the Seat of the King is the capital city

And so on

This, a simple wikipedia visit can give you modern names, old names and etymological elements, variants and you can change the language to get even more names. I recently named a dozen of things with just different names of Thessaloniki.
Then you can add small variations of your own.

> I need a name for a goblin bard that play horrible music
> Hoffky

Look up some etymology and just use the old name. At least if they figure it out, it will be educative.

Round Hill. Old Man House. Dirt River. Three Cat Tavern.

Most local place names, at least in the sticks, showcase the rural lack of imagination.

>Seattle doesn't mean anything.

deform jokes until they have the chance to not sound too silly from an in setting pov

why would you not like to use online tools?

Depends on the region for me, but I generally take the language theme (germanic for instance) and mess with those words.

For instance, a forest that's forbidden for people to enter because of how dangerous it is is just the german word for forbidden spelled funny and backwards

> Settle near the sea
> Sea settle
> Seattle
I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Its named after an Indian Chieftain who sorta made peace with settlers, which the settlers liked so they ended up naming their town after him.

I have an algorithm I wrote a while back, which basically converts English words and phrases into one of several fantasy languages. The fantasy languages themselves are just bastardized phonetic versions of real-world languages like Gaelic, Icelandic and Korean.

Honestly, what you use doesn't really matter, whether it's made-up gibberish, and actual language you constructed yourself, or some Google Translate stuff. But what does matter is that you're consistent. Most players wither won't realize that your "ancient elven language" is just a fucked-up version of Korean and even if they do they probably won't care, but once they get used to it they will notice the difference between the Korean-based stuff and the Icelandic-based stuff. So say you've got ancient elves that speak "Korean" and undead that speak "Icelandic," it'll spook your players when they're digging around for Korean relics and suddenly find an magic tome written in Icelandic.

What are you naming? Places are named for their history or surroundings. People are named based on BS.

Give me a list of things to name and Ill have names faster than you can hit F5. Its a skill you need to practice though. Its actually a drill I run through with new GMs who are looking for help: I tell them to come up with 10 names in 2 minutes, then I tell them to describe what they've named in random order in one sentence in five minutes.

But what did his name mean?

I use random Gaidhlig words and then anglicize them so my players can read them.

bump

Ever Changing Book of Names. Don't know if it's still supported, but it is great. Best $10 I ever spent on a bit of software, and there is a fully functional free version.

Take 3 or 4 letters. Easiest to pick 2 vowels and 2 consonants. For example, V N O A.

Rearrange them into 4 letter words that don't exist in English but are easy to pronounce. These can be short names on their own.

voan
vano
navo
onva
anvo

If something strikes you, stick 2 or 3 more on the end that you think sound good. You often don't need to add new letters, just reuse some.

Voanna
Vanovo
Navona
Onvavo
Anvovanov

If you think it sounds better, or makes it easier to remember, add a basic descriptor or adjective and then a generic title.

Voanna, the free-bleeding witch
Vanovo, the spooky island
Navona, the metrosexual elf
Onvavo, supreme chancellor
Anvovanov, defender of the slavs

If you're really stuck, take a number in another language, for example, ein, zwei, drei, and add a little phonetic flair on the end, such as:

-elo
-vasta
-roda
-lock
etc.

so you get names like
Einelo
Dreilock
Zweivasta

It's fun, pick 4 letters and try it.

I just pick random names from other languages. I'd recommend lesser known stuff like indonesian turkish georgian ethiopian etc.

R Z E I

Zeri, god's gift to dogs
Eizer, the wooden knight
Ireze, courtesan adept
Rezier, legendary spear of pointy-ness

Marcille a shit with fat ears

>fuckin knifeears jealous of proper ears

>Land of those who speak normally
kek

No u a shit

I love her fat ears.

Step 1: think of something that would be a terrible pun or reference of some kind.
Step 2: change it to something related by a wide tangent, be it a different but related thing, an anagram, or shortening/expanding of a name.
Step 3: laugh to myself about the pun while playing whatever the new thing is completely straight.

Example: Make a bard named after Archie comics. Archie's love interests are Betty and Veronica. his name is now Beron.
It just sounds like a perfectly acceptible fantasy name. There may be party jokes about him getting a title so he could become Baron Beron. "ha ha, so lighthearted. There's no stupid reference or pun here. You're such a not-asshole, user."
Little do they know, in my head, I'm laughing about them taking Archie seriously!

I think I'm broken inside. pls help

"Land of the Dormant Ones" sounds ominous.