How do you name things? Anything, from characters to races and cities

Do what folks did back in the day and find something that's notable about the town or person that you want to be noticed and figure out a name based around that.

>This town is notable for apple orchards and a harvest festival. Let's call it Ciderra (Cider + some letters)
>This gorge is known for the striations in the rock that give it a layered look. Let's call it Stack'em Gorge since it looks like stuff stacked on more stuff.
>My kid will grow up to continue the family tradition of forestry and woodsmanship - I'm sure he will be a reputable sort who will have no dealings with adventurers of any sort. Let's call him Gerald Oakenwald.

I boot up Dwarf Fortress and create a random world with a high amount of civilizations. I then choose a name corresponding to the type of race running the place and alter it for brevity and simplicity. Currently we are on route to the village of Okkenpeado on the bank of the bright river.

For fantasy settings, I find the easiest way to name something is to take real life words and remove letters.

>Laptop - Apto
>Keyboard - Eyboar
>Mobile Phone - Bilephon

>how do I shot name?
1. Take thing.
2. Give it a name.
Fucking checkmate.

that's a really good idea, just don't use the translated names (Windowmurdered The Truth of Persuasion isn't very easy to remember)

I still can't

Remember that names began as descriptors/adjectives. You can see this on languages that haven't changed much, such as Hebrew. Eevery name with -el terminus is adjective/verb of/by God. Raphael, God has healed, Gabriel, God is my Strength, etc. Japs do this, chinks do this, so don't be afraid to, thought it helps if you know another language or sometimes you might sound like a lizard or a horrible pulp writer.

Fuck if I know. It's one of the hardest parts of writing IMO.

One way that helps is to have a bunch of names already selected that you can use on the fly. Just spend a few minutes thinking of names for towns, people, ships, taverns, etc and use one when something comes up.

You could figure out a feel for your setting and select some traditional names from settings like that either from books or from the real world.

Typical TTRPGs pull pretty heavily from British, German and French sources so even just a few foreign-sounding names can make an impact.

I usually either the generators, or make anagrams of words related to what I'm making or the campaign in general.

For instance, I once had an NPC cleric if Pelor named Stephen Usira (anagram for "praise the sun").

Country: Nounverb
County: Verbadjective
Province: Verbnoun
Territory/Possession: Adjectivenoun
Camp/Fort/Other new small settlements: Named after first person who died or the first person to make a kill defending it.
Mining towns: Named after who and how it was discovered. (Prospector finding it is generally 'x's Claim', someone falling into a hole & finding it are called 'x's Fall', a Prospector, miner, or company looking else but discovering something entirely different is called x's Look, some halfling commune using seemingly bottomless cave as their outhouse only to discover years later that there is a vast deposit of silver where they were shitting is called 'Callhla's Outhouse', etc).

This.
Remember that most real-life names for places, objects and people are actual words and not a pile of made-up letters.

For towns, characters, and objects, i usually go the route of google translating various words across various languages that fit the vague "cultural sound" of that character in a way that fits the character and change the spelling around.
For example, my half-giant knight. He is an Arthurian-type knight, questing and such, but as a storm giant, he also takes inspiration from some of the sea-faring cultural bits of the vikings and celts. So, we draw from a northern european cultural soup.
His first name is Lucan, drawing from the Arthurian part of his character, as a literal character from Arthur. His home-city is named Burj, which is modified spelling of the Polish word for "storms". His clan's motto is "Bas No Béatha", which is both a scottish Gaelic phrase meaning "life or death" and also a real scottish clan motto.

Essentially, I draw from a wide range of languages that fit the sound I want that work with the theming of the character.

Online name generators, usually, though sometimes I'll go to other languages that my players don't have exposure to.

I'm studying a BA in English with a focus on Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic Literature and English Place Names. The amount of fantastical names I see every day inspires me a lot.

I just slap syllables as I see fit for exotic names, but I keep them consistent, every region have a set of syllables that are more used than the others, some regions can omit specific letters entirely.

I also use names from other languages as I see fit, after all most of cities are named after its most known traits, maybe the houses are painted in a certain color, has certain type of trees, produces a certain mineral or type of goods...

Or you can just use a random name generator.

Stealing this.

Based on the cultural significance of the thing.
An important city: simple easy to remember name
A small village: named after a long dead founder and maybe add a prefix or suffix

Alternatively
An important person: a long, important sounding name with a gracious spelling
A peasant: short and sweet