Choosing names for cities and schools...

sempersomnium

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Hey y'all! What is your process for coming up with names for cities and schools? I'm having a hard time getting the creative juices flowing and currently in my WIP is "CITY" and "HIGH SCHOOL."

If there is another thread for this, could someone please kindly redirect me to it?

Thanks in advance everyone!
 

Elenitsa

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I usually decide in what city it has to take place, and I google schools of that city, choosing the one which sounds better or which is in a neighbourhood matching my story needs.
 

Bing Z

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You need to determine the background setting of the "city" first. Is it going to be like New York City (in that case how about just call it New York City?) Or like Los Angeles (ditto)? Or a fictional city with Winnipeg's climate and the vibe of Austin, TX, aka Winniestin???

What I do with high school is to find a real school in that area that matches my criteria (for example all girls Catholic, ridiculously expensive prep school, or public school with college-readiness rating of 99.9% or 9.9%), research that school, and name it something else, like Hawking High for the 99.9% school or Realtrump High for the 9.9% one.
 

Helix

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Hey y'all! What is your process for coming up with names for cities and schools? I'm having a hard time getting the creative juices flowing and currently in my WIP is "CITY" and "HIGH SCHOOL."

If there is another thread for this, could someone please kindly redirect me to it?

Thanks in advance everyone!

I mix fictional locations and real locations in my stories. To get names for the made up towns and geographical features, I look at the structure of real place names in the same area and go from there.

No schools, though.
 

ap123

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If it's a big city I use the actual city (current WIP is set in NYC)

My last mss was set in a small, fictional town in NH. Most towns in New England are named for towns in England, so I googled and found a town that exists in England but not NH.

What kind of school, what setting? Public elementary schools in NY, for example, are assigned numbers, have names for famous/influential people, but are generally referred to by their number, ie: P.S. 43. Middle schools have numbers but are referred to by name, sometimes the name reflects the type of program they focus on. High schools might be named for neighborhood, program focus, or famous and influential person. Private schools are often named for founders, Catholic schools often named for saints.
 

Enlightened

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You can create stories from real locations or from fictitious locations. Which do you prefer?

If you want fictitious, a play on words works well. Harry Potter's school, Hogwarts, might have come from warthogs. School name possibilities are endless. You can make it a foreign language and explain what the city or school name means, in English, as you go along.

Know the common suffixes of city names (ville, mont, other). Country location is a big determinant of this; i.e. not universal. Lots of avenues to explore with this as well.
 

Brightdreamer

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Are you inventing random names? Look around your work area or run a random Google image search: a quick sweep of my work area suggests Waite County, Riderdale, the town of Miracle, Woodland High School, Justinville, Red Creek... Open up a map or atlas and put your finger down at random, or pick two or more places to mix. Open the nearest book to the acknowledgements page or appendix and pick names.

Is there a specific area you have this set? Look at how things are named there. For instance, is it an area settled by Swedes? Use Swedish names and words.

Are you looking for resonance, adding a deeper or possibly ironic meaning to the name? (Quick example would be Sunnydale, a bright and sunny name for the location of the Hellmouth in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.) Be careful - this can be a rabbit hole/time sink, possibly best left for revisions so you don't derail writing coming up with the Perfect Name.
 

Hbooks

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If it's set in the real world, as opposed to fantasy, for big cities, I just use the real city name. For smaller towns, sometimes it's easier to target a town, make up a new name, and fudge what details you need to for story purposes. In that case, I look at the area, see how towns are named, and try to pick something that fits in. I would do the same and generate a new school name, rather than use that of an existing school.
 

SepiaAndDust

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In my own fictional city, all of the schools are named after artists, the named government buildings after poets, and the libraries after scientists. So I have Matisse High School, the K. A. Adson Municipal Building, and the Gauss Public Library.