City name generator

Generate believable city names for fantasy worlds, sci-fi settings, novels, and games.

1 credit per search

City name ideas

  • Valdoria
  • Eldenmere
  • Thornspire
  • Highcrown
  • Aurelith

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How city names are built

Real cities are named for where they sit and who built them: a ford, a harbor, a hill, a founder, the thing they trade. A fictional city name built the same way sounds like it has been on the map for centuries. Describe the place, from a fantasy capital to a cyberpunk megacity, and the names carry its geography and culture.

  • A description + a place ending

    -wick, -mere, -ford, -gate and -port say why the town exists: a village, a lake, a crossing, a wall, a harbor.

  • A Latin root for a capital

    Latin sounds like law and empire, so a seat of government wears it well.

  • Named for what it trades

    A city known for one thing can carry it in its name, the way a marble town becomes Marmora.

  • Prime, Neo or Nova for the future

    Sci-fi and futuristic city names add a rank or a newness word to a root, so the city sounds planned and first of its kind.

  • The founders' language

    Gwynfa is Welsh for paradise, and Umbakari has the open vowels of a warm savannah. Who built the city shapes how it sounds.

  • A dark word + a place word

    Mourn, raven and dusk joined to cliff, march or wall. A gothic city name warns you before the walls do.

Fantasy city name examples

Real briefs from the generator, shortened and put in English, with one of the names it wrote.

  1. 90

    A Latin root all three languages share (Concord, Concordia, Concorde), spelled the same in each, and it means unity.

    Memorable
    90
    Pronounce
    90
    Brand
    90
    Asked forA trilingual capital that must be written and said the same in English, Spanish and French
  2. 90

    Ember for the warmth of a hearth, and -wick, an old ending for a small village.

    Memorable
    88
    Pronounce
    92
    Brand
    89
    Asked forWarm, small
  3. 87

    An elegant Latin form of marble, for a rich city of stone.

    Memorable
    85
    Pronounce
    90
    Brand
    85
    Asked forA fantasy city that lives on trading marble
  4. 87

    A golden root plus Prime, which marks it as the first city of its quadrant.

    Memorable
    88
    Pronounce
    85
    Brand
    87
    Asked forA huge capital with the best facilities in the whole quadrant

Want names made for yours? Describe what you're naming and Nomi finds names that fit.

6 tips for naming a fictional city

Readers say a city's name in their heads hundreds of times. These tips keep it believable and easy to say.

  1. Match the founders' culture

    Decide who built the city and let their language shape its name. Then reuse those sounds for the towns nearby, so a Welsh-style region doesn't hold a desert name.

    Instead ofZarqand
    Try

  2. Hint at the geography

    A port named like a mountain fortress confuses the map. An ending like -reach, -port or -haven tells readers it sits on the water.

    Instead ofThornspire
    Try

  3. Wear the name down with age

    Old cities have worn names. A place founded as Aurelianum might be plain Orlan a thousand years later, the way Lutetia became Paris.

    Instead ofAurelianum
    Try

  4. Keep it pronounceable

    Two to four syllables with clear stress almost always beat a string of apostrophes.

    Instead ofXh'tal'vorr
    Try

  5. Test the demonym

    What are people from your city called? If Valdorian rolls off the tongue, the name works. If you can't form one at all, try again.

    Instead ofNgthaxq
    Try

  6. Cyberpunk cities skip the neon

    Neon City is the first name everyone tries. A cyberpunk city name sounds like a brand or a lab product, a hard word with a chemical or corporate ring.

    Instead ofNeon City
    Try

City name questions

Anchor the name in who founded the city and where it sits. Combine a cultural sound palette with a geographic feature like a harbor, hill or river, and keep it short enough to say comfortably aloud.

Consistency and wear. Believable names share sounds with their region, reference geography or history, and feel slightly eroded by time rather than freshly assembled from cool syllables.

Yes. The names are free to use in personal and commercial projects. For a prominent use, a quick search to confirm the name isn't a real-world trademark is good practice.

Yes. Describe the technology level and mood, such as 'neon cyberpunk megacity' or 'domed colony on a frozen moon', and the generator will shift from medieval suffixes to futuristic constructions.

Districts usually sound more functional and local than the city itself: Dockside, the Ashen Quarter, Old Crown. Generate the city first, then ask for districts in the same linguistic style.

Small real-world towns sharing your fictional name is normally harmless and very common. Just avoid implying a connection to a real place, and check the name doesn't carry unwanted meaning in another language.

Yes. Ask for a small town or a village and the names get shorter and plainer, with endings like -wick and -ford. For a whole map of towns, the town name generator does only that.

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