Town Names

jl1966ca · Feb 21, 2010

I don't seem to have problems coming up with character names - whether they are good or bad name are open to debate - but I have a lot of trouble with town names. I want the towns to be fictious, if for no other reason than no one can say I "got it wrong". The towns are, essentially, characters themselves, so I feel the names are important.

Is it better to go with something completely made up that doesn't exist anywhere (if that's even possible - in Canada we have town names like Dildo, Asbestos and Swastika), or is it okay to use a town name that exists even if you're not basing it on, or representing, that location?

Also, do you know of any aids (websites, software) in coming up with town names or should these be avoided altogether?

alleycat · Feb 21, 2010

As a general rule, I find it easier to use made-up names if the setting is a small town, and real names if it's a large city. Else you have the problem of setting a new metropolis with a population of six million in someplace like Iowa.

It's perfectly fine to use real towns with made-up details if that works better. Or make up a completely new location. It's all up to you.

As far as made-up names, you can either pull something out of the air (I just did in a post in another thread), or use a real town names in another location (for example, there is a town in Tennessee named Cookeville; I could change it to be Cookville, Montana; then check to be sure there is not actually a town in Montana with that name).

Jamesaritchie · Feb 21, 2010

Sure, you can use a real town name and stillmake teh town your own.

But when naming your fictional town, it's good to remember than towns are usually named what they are for a reason, whethe rthey're named after a person, after a river, or, like my hometown of Millville, because a grain mill was why the town was built where it was.

So having a reason for the name of your fictional town can add character to teh town, give details about its location, etc. Don't just make up a name you like, find a reason for that name.

Collectonian · Feb 21, 2010

When doing fictional towns/places that I feel are relevant to the store, I often use names that have some meaning. In one of my current WIPs, the main setting is a real city, so I use it. However, it also goes to a demon world, which is of course entirely fictional. Within that world, two places visited are the Forest of Kuragari and a abandoned village called Uragiri. They are similar names (and I may change one later), however each has specific meaning. Kuragari is Japanese for "darkness", fitting the dark, creepiness of the forest. While Uragiri means "treachery", hinting at what would eventually be the motivation of the true antagonist of the series, who felt he was betrayed by his king.

maestrowork · Feb 21, 2010

When in doubt, just call your town Springfield.

jvc · Feb 21, 2010

maestrowork said:
When in doubt, just call your town Springfield.

Oh fiddlesticks, I was going to say that :e2tongue:

alleycat · Feb 21, 2010

jvc said:
Oh fiddlesticks, I was going to say that

Me too.

PGK · Feb 21, 2010

"This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places . . ."
Unless you make it clear that you want to portray the place as accurately and realistically as possible it will be understood that you've created a fictional place.
One thing I do is look up towns in various states by population size (the smaller the better) and then cross-reference the name with the state (if in US) the story takes place in. If it doesn't exist (and I like the name) I use it. For example, one of my WIPs begins in Falcon, WY. That place is real, but not in WY.
I have also found a site with the most bizarre names for towns found across the US, but I can't really use it because it would sound too "made up" in a work of fiction (especially since some fit into my genre). Just like your examples, if you were writing Erotica and you named the town Dildo people would think you're trying to be humorous or worse.

poetinahat · Feb 21, 2010

jvc said:
Oh fiddlesticks, I was going to say that

"Yancey hailed from Fiddlesticks, Pennsylvania. He was a friendly guy, but sort of a loner - you know, the kind who always smiles and says hi, how are ya, but doesn't stop to chew the fat. And there was no betting, say, where you might find him on Saturday afternoon. Sure, everybody in Fiddlesticks liked Yancey, but nobody really knew anything about him."

Hey, that was kind of fun.

AlishaS · Feb 21, 2010

Because I am so bad with names I actually have an entire completed nov where the name of the town us actually never mentioned which some have said is a no-no. I on the othe hand don't think it matters the town itself plays no significant part in the novel. In my latest novel I just googled to find a name I like and used many of the towns actual buildings and such.
Now you also could go the route if one author forgive me I can't remember her name but she wrote the series Vampire Kisses and her story has two towns Dullsville and Hipsterville because she could come up with anything better and it fit with the genre/characters of the novel.

DennisB · Feb 21, 2010

Gee, is there a Springfield in the land of Narnia?

blacbird · Feb 21, 2010

Ray Bradbury famously used Green Town, Illinois, in his work (notably Dandelion Wine). It is a transparent incarnation of his childhood home in Illinois, but the name is completely fictitious. William Faulkner invented a whole fictitious county, and Sinclair Lewis an entire fictitious state. Which doesn't even get into the bazoogles of Fantasy writers who have invented fictitious countries, or the SF writers who routinely invent fictitious planets.

Everything is searchable on-line these days. Pick a name that sounds reasonable for your purpose, and goooooogle. If it shows up, alter it or pick another one. Then worry about your story, which is a hell of a lot more germane.

caw

SirOtter · Feb 21, 2010

poetinahat said:
"Yancey hailed from Fiddlesticks, Pennsylvania. He was a friendly guy, but sort of a loner - you know, the kind who always smiles and says hi, how are ya, but doesn't stop to chew the fat. And there was no betting, say, where you might find him on Saturday afternoon. Sure, everybody in Fiddlesticks liked Yancey, but nobody really knew anything about him."

Hey, that was kind of fun.

Fiddlesticks never was the sort of town people moved to. Not to raise their kids, because kids tended to have a bad habit of dying before they reached puberty in Fiddlesticks, and the ones that survived to adulthood rarely were quite right. Not to have an easy commute to the nearest big city, because Donnerville was only accessible by a mile-long bridge one hundred and thirty miles sound of both it and Fiddlesticks. And not to start a new business, because the only business that thrived in Fiddlesticks was Lloyd Ashton's mortuary and crematorium, whose motto was

'Leave your loved ones in our columbarium,
'Cause the last thing you want to do to someone you care about is bury 'em,
Not in the ground around Fiddlesticks.'

Hardly a ringing endorsement from the Chamber of Commerce, whose sole duty was to warn new businesses away from Fiddlesticks.

And yet, here came one U-Haul after another, carrying all the worldy possessions of someone who looked to have never thrown away anything in their lives, across that distant bridge and up the one-hundred and thirty miles of Prairie Oyster Road and down Fiddlesticks' main drag, right up to the wreckage of the oldest house in town, the Amphorwood manse, the very house in which old man Amphor had slaughtered thirty locals and fed them to something in his basement before the last courageous man in town had blown him apart with an eight-gauge over-and-under shotgun.

Now, THAT was fun!

shaldna · Feb 22, 2010

Picking town names is fun.

What I like to do in my fantasy stuff is to make a list of names of real towns that I like, and words that I like, and then I sit and stare at them until my eyes bleed.

Seriously though, the easiest way is to make a list and then try names on for size. See if they fit the place and era the town was founded.

LucyWoodhull · Feb 22, 2010

I never pick names to have a particular meaning, unless I'm trying to be obvious and funny, and then I'll be obvious and funny. In real life the personalities of towns (and people) don't "match" their names. The names come first. I know novels have deep meanings and all, but when I read a book and the town name means "evil place" or something I LOL. "Honeymoon Falls" for a romance would make me close the book, never to reopen it. Of course I did read a romance once with a heroine named Honey Moon (I read it on my honeymoon. I know.) So, in conclusion, I'm a big liar, apparently

job · Feb 22, 2010

Looking for names .... maybe find yourself a bit of countryside

Go here and pick a bit of Scotland.

Hmmm ... There. You got Ullapool. So now you go look at the street names. Ladysmith, St. Valery, Latheron, Seaforth, Kanachine, Vymer.

Reasonable names for towns.

Central Mississippi. The small towns of Seminary, Liberty, Collins, Friendship, Eminence, Speedtown, Oak Bowery, Stanton Creek, Shady Oak, Mish, Oar, Sunset, Coley Springs.

So your mythical town is Seminary, just south of Ladysmith and Latheron, a little west of Mish.

Just wander round til something catches your fancy.

jana13k · Feb 22, 2010

Because setting is a character for me, naming a town is important, and I try to think up something that represents Louisiana and adds to the humor. My first town was Gator Bait. The second was Royal Flush (home to the world's largest port-a-john manufacturer). My series is in Mudbug. All the towns are located where a real town is in relation to larger cities, but all are made up so I can't "get it wrong." And with hurricanes, that's easier to do in Louisiana than most places. lol

shaldna · Feb 23, 2010

Because most of my novels are set in Belfast, where I live, and the surrounding area I can't get it wrong because people will know and throw things at me in the street.

Ms Hollands · Feb 23, 2010

AlishaS said:
Because I am so bad with names I actually have an entire completed nov where the name of the town us actually never mentioned

Me too. It's not that I don't want to mention a made-up place: it's just that I felt like I needed to write the book first, then figure out the a name that best suits the character of my story. I still haven't gotten around to it, but hope to soon.

job · Feb 23, 2010

jl1966ca said:
I have a lot of trouble with town names. I want the towns to be fictious, if for no other reason than no one can say I "got it wrong". The towns are, essentially, characters themselves, so I feel the names are important.

Oh. I thought of one more thing.

I make up a lot of street names.
What it is, I'm writing Paris late C18. When I do the 'fictional location' side, I want streets that don't actually exist for my buildings that don't exist.

So I'm using the names of female troubadors to name the streets, because these women were so cool.
Nobody else will know that's where the names come from. But I will.

Maybe give your fictional places names of something significant.

lucidzfl · Feb 23, 2010

Greenville.

mnboater · Feb 23, 2010

I use fictious names. I always do a search to see if the name I like exists. I guess I'm kind of paranoid that way.

One author I read used the name of a historic site in the area where her novel is set. A clever use of the name and a way to establish some sense of authority or familiarity with the area.

friendlyhobo · Feb 24, 2010

If you want reassurance that the silliest names can be the names of towns, please pull out your atlas and turn your attention to southern Indiana. On our tour we'll stop in French Lick and Santa Claus.

Lost World · Feb 24, 2010

LuckyH · Feb 25, 2010

shaldna said:
Because most of my novels are set in Belfast, where I live, and the surrounding area I can't get it wrong because people will know and throw things at me in the street.

Therein lies a terrible truth. I do the same, I write fiction set in places I know well, really well, and I only write of streets I’ve walked along. And every person I write of is a real person, though often a composite to make the character more interesting.

It doesn’t make me restricted or mindful in my writing in case people throw things at me in the street, because I’ve moved away and write under a pen name from a safe distance.

I suppose it just makes me a coward.

Town Names

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He'll NEVER fit in!

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