Place Name When Playing England

[Quelquechose]

Rather than just accept the machine generated, I tend to create settlement names that could have been realistically generated when playing England.

Few people realise that there is a structure to English town names which can be used to create interesting Civ 3 city names...

British Prefixes...

Aber- A city at the mouth of a river
Nor- To the north of
Sud - to the south of
Caen - Based on a Roman fort
Brad - Broad as in a wide valley, stream, estuary or lake
Cul- Narrow as in a narrow valley, stream, estuary or lake
Apple - Near water
Cant- or Canter- Named after an ancient tribe in the South East of England
Sand - On a beach, but NEVER simply on a river
Ac- or Acc- Near Oak trees (Forest)
Tam - Built by a lake

Middle parts

- Ing - A city, usually built on a hillside or incline
- ham - A small settlement with possible Saxon or German influence
- ford - Shallow crossing at a stream
- minster - Based around a church so should be founded after 300AD at least.
- burn- or -bourne- or -beck- By a stream or river
- worth - People
- Ness - Built on a promentory
- Pont - Built by a bridge over a river

Postfix

- mouth ...City at the mouth of a river
- ton ... A large settlement or pre-existing (built by a barb village?)
- thorpe ... A town with Viking influence
- chart ...A small settlement near another where pigs are kept.
- wells ... Either wells or a spring. In England the American "Springs" is pretty much never used.
- chester or -caster ...Base on a Roman fort
- Den or -dean or -dene or -don ... Built in a forest clearing
- wick or -Wich ...Farm, near good arable land or cows etc... may have Viking influence
- Church ....Has a church, so built after about 300AD
- bury or -burg or -borough or -burgh ... Built by a fortress
- folk ...People
- sex ...Saxon or German influence
- vale ... Built in a valley
- fen ... Beside a marsh
- derby ... Place near wild animals, such as a forest
- pool ... Beside a large area of open water, such as a lake, the sea or an estuary
- ry ... By a group of trees
- grove ... By a group of trees
- by ... Amorphous settlement
- Ley or -lee or -ly or -leigh Shielded by trees, possibly from seaborn winds
- Hythe ... Port or landing
- Low ... Built on a single, lone hill
- Shaw ... Built by a wood

Prewords...

Stoke - Place
Royal - Self-explanation!
Bishops - Self-explanatory
Chipping - Has market or is important commercially

Trailing words...

- Magna ... Big - Likely Roman influence
- Parva ... Small - Likely Roman influence
- Forum ...Has market, Roman influence
- Cross ... Possibly at a crossroads
- Fosse ... By a ditch (or maybe river)
- Street ... Build on a road

Also, if founding beside wine, it is worth considering that the centre of English vinyards and wine production is at Lamberhurst.

 

[lance1412]

Thanks for sharing this. Very interesting.

 

[Civinator]

This is a very interesting information. Thank you very much!

 

[Buttercup]

So what does that make The Mumbles?

lol

 

[Quelquechose]

ACTUAL CASE...

During the Second World War, the Germans used to broadcast propaganda radio news to try to break the British morale. Although their broadcaster Lord Haw-Haw (real name William Joyce) was thought to be an English aristocrat, he was actually a German who had learnt great English.

In one famous broadcasting mishap, he announced that "the Luftwaffe had been bombing at random" ...resulting in the destruction of Random Town Hall, the Random Water Works and the Random gas works!