Three styles, built differently
The three styles do not work the same way. English (the default) joins a prefix to a landscape word. There are 35 prefixes (Upper, Little, Green, Copper, Mist, Stone, Winding) and 30 endings (Dale, Bridge, Glen, Hollow, Port, Heights). About 7 in 10 results keep a space, as in Upper Springs, Mist Lake or Winding Bridge, and about 3 in 10 fuse the two words, as in Clearpeak, Clearcreek or Stonebay. Medieval and Fantasy are not built at all: each picks from a fixed list of 20 finished names. Medieval has Thornwall, Irongate, Millhaven and Blackmoor; Fantasy has Starfall, Moonhaven, Runeford and Faewood. After a few dozen clicks you will see the same names again in those two styles.
What the English style gets right and wrong
Despite its label, the English style does not use the classic endings of real English place names. You will not get -ton, -ham, -wick or -bury. Those endings are worth knowing if you want to edit a result to sound older:
| Ending | Meaning | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| -ford | river crossing | Oxford |
| -ton | from Old English tun, an enclosure or farmstead | Taunton |
| -bury | a fortified place | Canterbury |
| -mouth | where a river meets the sea | Exmouth |
The tool's names are closer to descriptions (Fair Heights, Green Glen, Frost Glen) than to the worn-down forms of real names. Some pairings repeat a word, since both lists contain River, which can give a result like River River. Others contradict themselves, such as a Low Peak or a Great Hollow. Treat those as a quirk to fix by hand, or reroll.
Some borrowed names to watch
A few fixed names are not original. Dunwich is a real English town that was largely lost to the sea, and also a place in H.P. Lovecraft's stories. Kingsport is a real Tennessee city and also a Lovecraft setting. Winterhold is a city in the video game Skyrim. If your story is public, you may want to rename these.
Turning a result into a place
The tool does not distinguish villages from cities, so size comes from you: short compounds such as Stonebay read like villages, and a prefix like Great or Port suggests something larger. A one-line history helps more than another list of names. Longport might be a harbor that silted up, and Stone Hollow a quarry village that supplies the capital. Duplicates are fine in moderation, since real maps are full of Newtons and Brightons, and Upper, Lower, Old and New can separate two towns of the same name.
For the larger scale, see the fantasy kingdom name generator or the country name generator. Inside the town, the street name generator names the roads and the tavern name generator the inn.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do Medieval and Fantasy results repeat so often?
Those two styles choose from a fixed list of 20 names each, while the English style combines two lists and gives about a thousand combinations. If you need more variety, use English style and edit the results.
Can this make villages and cities as well as towns?
There is no size setting. Short compounds suit villages, while a name with Great, Port or Heights can suggest a larger settlement. You decide the size when you place the name on your map.
What does -ton mean in a place name?
It comes from the Old English word tun, an enclosure or farmstead, which later came to mean a village or town. The generator does not produce -ton endings, but you can add one to a result.
How do I stop town names sounding random?
Choose a theme per region, such as rivers or hills, and reuse a few elements. Real regions repeat endings and words, so some repetition makes a map feel natural.
Are the names checked against real places?
No. Results such as Greywater, Ashford or Kingsport match real places or fictional settings. Check a name yourself if it will be published.