How to create place names that feel like they belong to a culture?
As somewhat of a follow-up to my previous question: How to create a consistent feel for character names in a fantasy setting?
Once I have named the characters in a given setting, how do I create place names for towns, roads, rivers, mountains, countries, etc...? I want the names to feel like they were named by the same culture and to be distinctly place names rather than being confused with characters.
How do I create place names that feel consistent with a given culture?
1 answer
I would do this like names from the culture. Different languages have different characteristic sounds, rhythm, and accents. Although I don't speak Spanish, Italian, German, French, Arabic or Mandarin Chinese, I have been in places (various universities and countries and restaurants) where all of these are spoken by native speakers; and I can tell by ear which language is being spoken, even if I don't understand the conversation.
So my answer is to consider the language as a whole, in print or on audio (The Internet will pronounce words for you in every major language), and ensure your place names reflect the sounds, accents and rhythm of the language in question.
Another trick is using the Internet's translation capability. In native terms, most place names are the names of people, or are derived from features of the place. For example "Ashley" in medieval English means a ley (meadow; clearing, pronounced 'lee') in an ash (kind of tree) forest. There are 15 town in America named Ashley, and several in the UK as well; but few elsewhere due to its English Word origin (so those elsewhere were likely named by or after English; it is also a first name, and a surname).
The name "Chicago" is derived from the local Indian word chicagoua for the native garlic plant Allium tricoccum, which grew wild in the area. (Notice the final sounds 'goua' are simplified to 'go', simplification or truncation is common and particularly for trailing sounds).
So a way to reflect the culture is to translate something that might have been unique about the place, in your case avoiding any names of persons, into the language, then modifying it in some way.
You can make that stuff up. For example, off the top of my head, I want the town name to reflect "The Final Battle", from some forgotten war. I want it in India. The most common language of India is Hindi. Google Translate gives the translation of "The Final Battle" as antim ladaee, and to my ear this sounds like "an TIM Lawd i ee" [TIM is major stress, Lawd is secondary stress, others are unstressed). and I could simplify sounds to make this Antimladi (an TIM Lawd ee).
The Internet work took me less than two minutes. So if I wasn't in love with Antimladi, I can translate and simplify a dozen other ideas. What used to grow there? What was the river used for? What medieval market was it known for? What famous thing happened there? (The name I chose was an answer to what happened, i.e. "The Final Battle"). Invent something unique about this particular fictional town, and use it to name it, with a translator and simplification.
I'll skip the naming of one place after another (New York, New Delhi) because those aren't in the culture of the new place. Whereas something like "Chicago" and "Mississippi" (and many other place names in the USA) are derived from Native American words and thus become uniquely "American" names.
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