Monday, January 14, 2013

Village Names

I wanted to make a list of village names based on real geographic naming conventions.  I wanted them to sound plausible and capture some old British flavor with out being distractingly famous.  I just wanted 26 alphabetical ones for now.  Here's what I came up with:

Astwyth           (east)
Bradford         (broad ford)
Corby       
Drumchapel    (ridge)
Eastbourne     (stream)
Formby
Guildfirth        (wood)
Howe
Innbury
Jill-on-Weyr    (on a river)
Keld                (spring)
Langdale        (valley)
Monminster   (monastery)
Nantwich       (ravine with stream)
Olchester
Pendle            (hill)
Queensgate    (on a road)   
Richfield
Stamford        (stony ford)
Tunstead
Ukney             (island)
Villhurst         (wooded hill)
Whelworth     (mine)
EXley-on-Sea   (on the coast)
Yulecombe      (valley)
Zaywick          (bay)

Obviously I had to stretch a bit for the less common letters.  So, Brits, or any knowledgeable types, do they sound right?  Do some sound too big to be little villages, more like towns?  Do some sound too new to be medieval?  Some more famous than I realize or just distracting for other reasons?

8 comments:

  1. Not British, but Pendle is pretty famous. Google "Pendle witches".

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  2. Also not British, but the Battle of Stamford Bridge is relatively famous.

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  3. Bradford, Corby, Eastbourne, Howe, Natwich and Stamford are all real places. Stamford is lovely, look it up. Eastbourne is a seaside town famous for having a large population of elderly retirees. I am British. (sorry Nantwich is real, not Natwich)

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  4. Keld is also real. I've been there. Tiny place in the Yorkshire Dales.

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  5. Thanks a bunch, folks. Yeah most of them are real place names. My strategy changed to making them up somewhere after struggling with one of the less common letters.

    Being real isn't necessarily bad (can't get more authentic than that) but I certainly don't want something big enough or known enough to be a distraction "And you've reached the beautiful village of Hollywood."

    I'll try to make a simple little name generating chart next. There seem to be a ton online but a) they don't show their work and b) often come up with goofy/cheesy results. Goofy isn't necessarily bad either, but not what I'm shooting for right now.

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  6. I just open up an atlas and look for town names of the appropriate culture.

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  7. That's a great strategy. Want to pick a culture and make a list of 26?

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