On Worldbuilding: Place Names — countries, cities, places

CORRECTION : Istanbul was not officially renamed till many centuries later (though the name Istanbul was used within the Ottoman Empire colloquially), and the maps I found were not necessarily Ottoman made - my bad research there. The point about names and power still stands, but I made a mistake. If you want a different example, look into St Petersburg in Russia, whose name changes reflected power shifts as well.

No flag, no country name, and I'm backing it up with this rifle from... the National Naming Association. **Watch out 6/12/19**



~ Tim

Fun fact: The word "Scotti" originally referred exclusively to Irish people and Ireland until the Scotti (Irish) settled in northern Britain and people started calling there Scotland instead.

90% sure this stock music was used in Fantasy High Sophomore Year for Kei Lumennura.

The city I’m from is called Kokkola, which derives it’s name (to my knowledge) from the large boulders , some over 3-4 meters tall, around here called ”kokko kivi” or roughly translated, ”eagle rock”, though I think the word kokko was used to refer to large birds over all. At least that’s how the name was explained to me.
The rocks were brought to this area by the movement of glaciers during the ice age, and surprisinly large amout of our buildings are actually planned so that they were not moved by construction and the like. There was one in the yard of my kindergarden, one at my school, one of the biggest ones is in the middle of a large parking lot, and at least one’s even in the middle of a road.
I’m so used to seeing them that I don’t even notice them for the most part, but when i think about them, they’re pretty cool. 😂

Creating an art portfolio— 💼

World building will be great for context.

Going to do some world building this spring.

friendly reminder that not just anyone can do this. no matter how many sources you find it takes a certian type of mind to create in these ways. if everyone could do it then it wouldn't be so special.

No. The Earths name is Terra

CONSTANTINOPLE

Sandwich United Kingdom

I did not expect to see a Moon Moon reference here. 😂

i absolutely love this video and have come back to it multiple times over the last several years but i want to remind everyone that you are allowed to pick something pretty and call it a day. all this history for names is wonderful IF you want it. IF you enjoy creating that lineage behind the names. it is more than ok so ignore it all and it’s also perfectly fine to go through all those steps and more to make the name historically informed. there is no right way, just have fun.

well done

I appreciate the Eddie Izzard reference.

Names were worse lol. Smith, son, etc. last name was literally your job or Dad's name mostly

If Scotland is the Roman name then where did Caledonia come form? Cal is kinda like gael, so might that be the Gaelic name?

Mfrs drinking chai tea be like

As a side note, I REALLY need to hear more people from NZ/Aotearoa speak Maori, because I've said literally every word I've seen in it both incorrectly and MUCH less gracefully. What a pretty sounding language.

I love this! It's so informative and helpful.
...unfortunately the one I'm getting really stuck on is the name for the PLANET, which ...by nature is the most broad and not much about culture. (Maybe I just need to go with a local language name for "Dirt". Or, because the dominant group are winged, maybe not dirt! Skydome. Idk.)

I am simple man.
I see Middle Earth in thumbnail, I click.

Me and my friend built a big wall around a village in minecraft, and we wanted to name it. He proposed bamburgh, named after the sound cannons make(it has a cannon in the middle), but i proposed it be called cobblestown(from cobblestone)

“Ah, blast it! Let’s just call it “Murder”, shall we?”

-Tolkien

There was a town upon a hill in ancient Greece called Lycoreia, which translates to "Wolfcry". The story behind its name is that at some point the people who used to live near the coast, noticed that the wolves from the region had gathered atop the hill and cried all together. A rather unusual behavior that made them leave their town behind and went upon the hill to see what was happening up there. Once they got there, a strong earthquake hit, followed by a tsunami that devastated their town. At that point they decided to build a new town atop the hill to protect themselves from future tsunamis, and named the new town Wolfcry, after the wolves that cried there. And the wolves were considered driven by the God of prophecy Apollo, so they also started calling Apollo "Lyceios" meaning "of the Wolves".

Laughs in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Naming places is so fun!
As an aside, "torp"/"thorp" originates from the old Frisian "terp" which means villages/hamlet, but also a "terp" was a manmade hill where a village would sometimes be built on because when you live on a floodplane that's just a good idea (my surname has this word in it so I've researched it). It becamse "dorp" in Dutch and "dorf" in German.
I love that here in British Columbia, Canada, we're starting to decolonize place names, such as changing "Queen Charlotte Island" to "Haida Gwaii." I think we should do more of this, some of the colonial place names are boring. "Turtle Island" sounds a million times cooler than "North America."

thing that may not be important, but actually is, Russia is not the land of the Rus, it's the land of the Moscovitz, who are ethnically closer to Finish people. The land of the Rus are Ukraine and Belarus, the Rus are in fact scandinav people from modern Danemark, Norway and Sweden, and while it might seem unimportant since this 4 countries are very close geographicaly, it is in fact a huge difference because they are very different ethnicaly and culturaly

One of my favorite toponyms is Cripple Creek, Colorado -- a mining town allegedly named for what happened to a miner's mule there, or livestock in general.

In Germany, there is a village called "Klein" which is the German word for small. Over time, the village grew and got a second part. This second part is called "Groß Klein" which literally means "Big small"
And I'm not even sure that it is actually bigger...

In my story the civilization is clumped around the north pole. Most of the expansion was to the west. eventually they circled back to the origin. because of this the "west" is 3/4 [of the civilized land.

In my fantasy story, the country of Elfric is called that mainly out of tradition because it was the ancestral home of the five elf tribes. It actually means something in Anglo-Saxon, "elf king", but in universe it was a simplification of the original name, "Elf's Fortress" which was translated to "Elf's Rook which got smashed together to make Elfric (also conveniently it's one letter off from Elric because FMAB is still relevant, darnit!). The current king has pushed to change the name to Kingshold (and in fact, his estate and the land immediately surrounding it is called Kingshold) but he gets shot down every time since the country's historical association with elves is not only embedded in the culture but also actively sacred. I don't feel up to make a conlang so the names are mostly piecemeal from existing languages. The protagonist's hometown is called Novastead, from "nova" or star (or supernova), and "stead", meaning settling place. The name was chosen by the city's oldest member and founder, an elderly wind elf who wanted to name it something star-themed as good luck, but it gains a double meaning when the second main character, the first baby star elf to be born in centuries, falls from the sky (that's how they're born don't worry) and lands there. A massive stretch of tall grass nearly impassable by horse full of venomous snakes is called the Moat, and the city of Haven Town is named that because it's in the middle of Haven Forest.
Sorry for another wall of text

Not watched the video yet, I always say towns and villages get named by the people around them. If you live there you just say "town,the village" if you don't you say the village with the bridge or the castle or in the forest clearing (leigh) or that makes salt(wich) so you can also add other descriptors salt makers with a church Whitchurch, forest clearing to the west westleigh, the new castle Newcastle, the town on the hill Pendleton (Pendle hill means hill hill hill, but Pendle would be replaced with the hill/mountain name). Obviously doesn't work for everywhere but I love place names.

Name them after Elements. If those run out, use Compounds.

no, russia isn't "the land of the Rus", historically it's muscovy (the land of the muscovites), they changed name to be like Rus' and appropriate their history

I did something super dumb but kinda love it; I first came up with the planet's name, a word I thought sounded nice. From that I then made 3 more words; [home - the place where you live], [home - the place where you feel at home], [the feeling of home]. Because I wanted the planet to be called "home". I did the recipe backwards but got the same solution

The whole thing about different names sticking because of colonialism is actually kinda sad

russia is not the land of the Rus tho. In russian they call their country "rosiya" wich is greek name for the Rus BUT it was renamed as such only in 1721 to have claims over the territories of an old empire of Rus.

So basically they took greek version of the name Rus. The situation is similar to the actual Roman empire and HRE. HRE took RE's name even though it had almost nothing to do with it

Treeland... do you mean holland?

I'm gonna debunk you real quick about that coke thing and the USA. Less than 20% of the entire population calls soda coke. I'm an American, this severely irritated me, AMA.

There is a Greater Poland andLesser Poland. It's acctualy close to bigger/smaller :p

I don't call it earth I call it dunya literally "world"

Excellent video on a topic I have always had a problem with. Thank you.

You can also add misspellings as well, case in point Albuquerque, New Mexico, is named after the Duke of Alburquerque. (specifically the 10th Duke).

Remember there was once an asia minor, but we never had an asia adult.

Thank you for this video. I’ve been trying to come up with names for my world for awhile now. And this video will make it much more easy to come up with these names.

Half of america does not call all fizzy drinks coke. A state, at best, does. More accurately a single city.

Most of the country does call it soda though when it should be called pop.

"The place names in your fantasy world aren't just 'Tree Land' or 'Big Battle'"

The small English town of Battle, found near the larger town of Hastings, takes offence at this comment