Seeking cityname ideas

[Posidonius]

Have done all sorts of fun things with city names. Like using names of nations: African countries on one continent, South American countries on another, etc. Have used species of birds, breeds of dogs, and models of automobiles. Also have tried some ill-conceived city naming schemes, like the time i tried using only Australian city names, and ran out of ones i could think up off the top of my head after about 30. Once tried sports cars, but ran out after 45. Same with "first names of female characters in Game Of Thrones"... that stalled after about 45.

In the current one, am using names of famous scientists. Up to about 65 cities now, and know i can come up with at least 30 more which i haven't used yet, but might run out of scientists i can name off the top of my head, before i get to 128 cities!

So seeking suggestions for new categories. Could probably come up with 130 kinds of fish, certainly if including cephalopods and crustaceans. But what other categories are out there? There must be dozens i haven't thought about yet, categories of things where an average person could name over a hundred items. Any ideas?

 

[Osvaldo Manso]

So seeking suggestions for new categories. Could probably come up with 130 kinds of fish, certainly if including cephalopods and crustaceans. But what other categories are out there? There must be dozens i haven't thought about yet, categories of things where an average person could name over a hundred items. Any ideas?

This will be hard because you produce a lot of cities...
Before, suggesting anything, please tell us: What's the name of your civilization?

 

[Posidonius]

This will be hard because you produce a lot of cities...
Before, suggesting anything, please tell us: What's the name of your civilization?

That usually comes after the category of city names is decided. When i did automobiles, i was Henry Ford Of The Mechanics. When i was using first names of female Game Of Thrones characters, i was Aemon Of The Targaryens. In the current game i am King Bunsen Of The Scientists, soon to be President Bunsen. Yesterday the game said: "Scientist scientists have discovered the secret of Genetic Engineering!"

 

[Osvaldo Manso]

That usually comes after the category of city names is decided. When i did automobiles, i was Henry Ford Of The Mechanics. When i was using first names of female Game Of Thrones characters, i was Aemon Of The Targaryens. In the current game i am King Bunsen Of The Scientists, soon to be President Bunsen. Yesterday the game said: "Scientist scientists have discovered the secret of Genetic Engineering!"

I see... Well, I suggest you to name the cities using the year in which they are founded. So, your capital could be named "4000 BC" and so on.

This way you get an almost infinite number of names for cities. Besides, when you found more than on city in the same year, you can use "3260 BC-1" and "3260 BC-2" or the month (fictitious) in which they are founded, like "Jan. 3260 BC" and "Feb. 3260 BC".

However, besides not being very creative and causing the risk of turning the game monotonous, keep in mind that units are identified by the three first letters of their home city - this may cause you some troubles identifying where they belong.

 

[Tristan_C]

Saints? Maybe in order of prominence starting with Peter or Paul. Alternatively I'm sure there are more than 127 words for Hell, plus various places and landmarks thought to exist there.

If I were spod I'd name each city after a different alcoholic beverage.

The last time I renamed cities was in covering the EARTH map, which people do occasionally to play for score. This would just work on Earth, though. There it was easy, I used the regional names for the city's location. Like Iberia, New England, or Honshu. If I didn't know a place (like wtf is the Kamchatka Peninsula) I learned it then and became a better person. Fast easy A+++ names, would play again.

 

[spod]

Why not name your cities after your good self? I do this sometimes (Spod City, Spodbastopol, Spodhenge...)

For example you could start with:
Posidonius
Posidopolis
Posidonium
Pos Angeles
Poscow
Poston
Poslo
El Poso

Just a suggestion!

 

[Theov]

I've used dutch cities a lot back in the day, NFL football team names, Rio Grande City, 3 mountain town, Goldrush etc named after the location. Northwest Lake, East coast Central etc.

 

[Patine]

Randomly type on your keyboard to the maximum character limit for each city, just for fun...

 

[tjs282]

I see... Well, I suggest you to name the cities using the year in which they are founded. So, your capital could be named "4000 BC" and so on.

This way you get an almost infinite number of names for cities. Besides, when you found more than on city in the same year, you can use "3260 BC-1" and "3260 BC-2" or the month (fictitious) in which they are founded, like "Jan. 3260 BC" and "Feb. 3260 BC".

However, besides not being very creative and causing the risk of turning the game monotonous, keep in mind that units are identified by the three first letters of their home city - this may cause you some troubles identifying where they belong.

If you're going to 'name' your cities by (date) order of founding, you might just as well go all the way, and simply number them: i.e. 001, 002, 003, 004, ... all the way up to 128(?). That way it would also always be clear which of your units belonged to which city...

(Is 128 the max Civ1-city-limit? I know that number applies to units, but I don't think I ever tried to build that many cities... Though the 128th city would be the AI's last one, wouldn't it? Because as soon as you took it, the game would be over...)

 

[snuffychan]

I name my city after every family pet that we ever had. My family is a bunch of animal lovers, so I've never run out of names.

 

[Posidonius]

I've used dutch cities a lot back in the day, NFL football team names, Rio Grande City, 3 mountain town, Goldrush etc named after the location. Northwest Lake, East coast Central etc.

Interesting idea. If a city is mainly in the plains, call it Plainsville. A coastal city with access to 3 fish might be called Cod Harbor. Certainly encourages the player to cultivate a more intimate relationship with his/her cities. On the other hand, might be easy to forget just which lake "West Laketown" is to the west of.

Have used NFL teams before, but there's only 32 today, and even if one includes teams which folded in the past (like the Canton Bulldogs and the Tonawanda Kardex) you're still going to run out after 50 or so. But thank you for the idea, just what i was asking for... i could sure as heck name 128 NFL players off the top of my head.

That might work out great. If i come across a medium-sized island which can support 5 cities, could make it Bear Island: McMahon, Urlacher, Ditka, Payton and Refrigerator.

 

[Posidonius]

... Though the 128th city would be the AI's last one, wouldn't it? Because as soon as you took it, the game would be over...)

Or not. One thing i'm working on now is techniques for trapping the last opponent civ as an impotent Settler freshly spawned, unable to found a city, thus enabling me to found 128 cities of my own without ending the game.

 

[Posidonius]

Why not name your cities after your good self? I do this sometimes (Spod City, Spodbastopol, Spodhenge...)

Usually name the first city after my King, but try to avoid using the same first 3 letters for any two cities, because once the civ starts expanding widely it's hard to know which city a unit is eating a shield from. But "Pos Angeles" cracks me up, thanks!

 

[Posidonius]

Saints? Maybe in order of prominence starting with Peter or Paul.

Now that's workable, thank you. There's 12 right off the bat, plus a bunch of martyrs like Thecla and modern-day ones like Padre Pio, JP2, and Mother T.

Alternatively I'm sure there are more than 127 words for Hell, plus various places and landmarks thought to exist there.

Actually, did try that last year, but ran out faster than i thought i would. Hell, Hades, Gehenna, Acheron, Samsara, Charon, Styx, Sheol, Shades, Inferno, Pluto, Lake o' Fire, Hephaestus, Vulcan... think i had a few more, but not enough for a long civ game.

If I were spod I'd name each city after a different alcoholic beverage.

Aha, best idea yet. I could think up 128 brands of beer, now that even gas stations stock microbrews.

The last time I renamed cities was in covering the EARTH map, which people do occasionally to play for score. This would just work on Earth, though. There it was easy, I used the regional names for the city's location. Like Iberia, New England, or Honshu. If I didn't know a place (like wtf is the Kamchatka Peninsula) I learned it then and became a better person. Fast easy A+++ names, would play again.

Used Kamchatka before when i did a series of territory names from Risk, and used Iberia when i ran through old Roman province names, but both of those categories are not broad enough to cover a whole Civ planet. Ended up branching out to places which the Romans knew about but never conquered, like Cathay, Nubia, Ubar and Hibernia. Still not enough.

As far as learning new locales, if i played with a map next to my head tacked up on the wall, then it'd be easy. I like it as a game-within-a-game... what can i think up off the top of my head, without checking Wikipedia or Googling? Nice coincidence, that a long-form game takes weeks or months to play. Since i started the "Scientists" game, have remembered Fleming (of the Left-Hand-Rule) and the "raisin pudding" model of molecular theory which predated atomic theory, and i think i recall that was the idea of a guy called Lewis. Others not used yet but remembered since starting the game, and now waiting in my mind's wings for a nice citysite to be developed: Bell, Oppenheimer, Heraclitus, Archimedes and Curie.

 

[Osvaldo Manso]

If you're going to 'name' your cities by (date) order of founding, you might just as well go all the way, and simply number them: i.e. 001, 002, 003, 004, ... all the way up to 128(?). That way it would also always be clear which of your units belonged to which city...

Yeah, you're right!

 

[Osvaldo Manso]

Why don't you use country's names? There are more than 200 independent States in Earth so...

On the other hand, you can also use girl's names, like Amanda, Barbara, Claudia and so on, all the way to Zelda and then back to Alicia and Bianca.

And if you like music, as I do, why not: Air, Beatles, Cake, Dire Straits, ELP, Faith No More, Genesis, Hooverphonic, INXS, Jethro Tull, Keane, Lambchop, Marillion, Nick Cave, Oasis, Placebo, Queen, Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens, Tindersticks, U2, Vampire W., WASP, XX, Yes, Zero 7 and many more (sorry, I got carried away).

 

[Posidonius]

Why don't you use country's names? There are more than 200 independent States in Earth so...

Been and done.

On the other hand, you can also use girl's names, like Amanda, Barbara, Claudia...

I can see it now, i'd be Boudicca Of The Martiarchs But actually, that's exactly the kind of idea i was looking for. The way i play, try to organize citynames within the genre so i know generally where a city is by its name. In the current one, the Scientists, have clusters of biologists on one "lobe" of the continent, astronomers in the far North, a "mathematicians corner," and one island is cities named after Italian scientists. Both of them.

With your idea, i could populate a peninsula with Diane, Doris, Deena, Daphne and Doreen, and always know where that city is. More importantly, i would always know where a unit far across the seas is costing me a shield to support. Very useful. And most importantly, this is a category of names which is damn near inexhaustible.

And if you like music, as I do, why not: Air, Beatles, Cake... (sorry, I got carried away).

You've got good musical taste. Great taste. In a recent game i was King Ringo Of The Beatles, but the citynames petered out after branching out to the various people sometimes called the "fifth Beatle"... Clapton, Havens, Mayall et alia.

Using band names has one drawback. For decades, the music biz has known a secret about consumers: they start at "A" when browsing. In record stores, sales were always higher in the letters A, B, and C, tapering off as the alphabet marches on. Same for online sales when a download shopper sets out to broaden their collection, as opposed to iTuners who hear a certain song and go right to it. If your goal is to compile an ultimate British Invasion playlist on a $40 monthly music budget, chances are great that you'll complete a Beatles collection much sooner than the Kinks, and months before starting on the Rolling Stones. So the names of bands (and stage names of artists) are front-loaded earlier in the alphabet; on purpose, it's not a random distribution. It's not by chance that the British Davey Jones became David Bowie, and not David Youngman.

Love the idea, only would have to enlarge the regions i usually use. Maybe half a continent as A-musicians, the other half B-musicians, and the 'C' artists used on not just one island, but over an archipelago. Using larger regions, i'd only get up to 'H' and can sure name 15 of them. Thanks!

 

[spod]

Am currently playing as the Insultings. My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to name every city with a good natured insult. And (this is the tricky bit) the insult has to be printable on this forum.

I'm off to a reasonable start so far...


Your suggestions for city names would be most welcome!

 

[hannurabi]

Try periodic table: Hydrogen, Helium... or just H,He,Li,Be...

 

[Posidonius]

Try periodic table: Hydrogen, Helium... or just H,He,Li,Be...

Good one, thanks. But you can have 128 cities in Civ. Are we up to 128 elements yet? I think i could only name about 100 without looking it up (or without listening to that Tom Lehrer song!)