Whimsical names for cities

[Optical]

City A, City B, City C... did that one at one point when I was still playing vanilla, had to go AA, AB, AC eventually as I kinda overexpanded. Also, I will often rename captured barb cities to fit with the civ's flavour.

 

[bestbrian]

I love offensive names, too. I once cracked a gynecology textbook and went a-naming. I thought it was pretty impressive until my wife looked over my shoulder and said "What the hell is wrong with you?!?"

The Water Supply of Urethra has been poisoned.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Lemon: "Hmmm. Where to settle? Oooh! This looks like a lovely spot. I'll call it Gräfenberg."

 

[bestbrian]

Lemon: "Hmmm. Where to settle? Oooh! This looks like a lovely spot. I'll call it Gräfenberg."

I have the very same thought, just not in a civ context.

 

[Michael d' York]

I always re-name my cities. In Earth maps, I try for geographically correct regional names like Labador, Dakota or Texas. This helps me find the damned things later in the game when a message pops up like "enemy spotted near..." Using regions, states or provinces avoids city-name conflicts with other civs.

In games on fictional maps, I generally have geograph "themes". My capital is always "Brooklyn", and nearby cities are Brooklyn neighborhoods like Flatbush, Bay Ridge, Red Hook, etc. If I settle a new area, I pick a new theme: names of my children and grandchildren, dearly departed pets, sports teams.

I always re-name captured cities, because the AI will sometimes build a new Aachen or Nottingham. I try for names that reflect the culture of the evicted civilization, such as "Fort Kaiser" or "Cromwell Heights".

What's important to me is finding the city in a hurry on a Huge map because I like huge maps, so my names are seldom totally whimsical, but themed.

 

[Calanthian]

One easy way to come up with nice sounding and original city names is the following:

a city near HORses and FISh I would name "Horfis", units made in this city would then be 1st Horfian Guard, 3rd Horfian Elite Bowmen etc..

Other examples are:
Pigiro Mera (pigs, iron, near sea) ;
Eleca Oasis (elephant, cattle near oasis) ;
Pico Rivero (pigs, copper, near river)

The silly thing is: once you named your cities and units you will notice that by the time they get killed you have learned to love them..

 

[Chronos I]

In a multiplayer game I am playing now as the Germans, I renamed my civ the Brohaness and my capital is called Brohanessburgh. Other cities are named: KommeAtMeBroh, DuMaddeburgh etc.

 

[Copaczin]

I once named all my cities after places from Bioshock.

I generally give names to units, mostly spies and units that win 10% chance battles.

 

[b.orchid]

The Water Supply of Urethra has been poisoned.

Brilliant!

I have never been that creative with my city renaming, but it would definitely add some humor!! Sometimes from the outset I'll rename cities, usually just get the ideas from other games or comics or other general pop culture. Also occasionally I'll name them after cities in Australia because there is no Australia civ to play as yet (maybe there is a modded one but i haven't looked yet to be honest).

 

[A_Hamster]

Also occasionally I'll name them after cities in Australia because there is no Australia civ to play as yet (maybe there is a modded one but i haven't looked yet to be honest).

There is an Australian civ in the DB, as well as Industrial Age flavor units.

In an early review of the first civ, the reviewer mentioned he edited the text file so one of his opponents was Anatomy of the Bodyparts, and the city list had names like, Heart, Spleen, Kidneys etcetera.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Brilliant!

I have never been that creative with my city renaming, but it would definitely add some humor!! Sometimes from the outset I'll rename cities, usually just get the ideas from other games or comics or other general pop culture. Also occasionally I'll name them after cities in Australia because there is no Australia civ to play as yet (maybe there is a modded one but i haven't looked yet to be honest).

<Shameless Promotion> There is also an available Australian civ pack for BAT. If you use BAT, see the link for BXP in my sig. If you don't use BAT, the link for that is there too. </Shameless Promotion>

 

[xarver]

Disclaimer: I am a computer geek.

One time during a game I named all of my cities as linux distributions and pieces of hardware. My leader was Linus Torvalds.

 

[Sian]

never seen the funny part of renaming a city on random maps ... earth maps (which i for the record never play unless its rpc where its moot anyways) is the only place where i would think of doing it

 

[Grassland Farm]

When I have a large empire I use names to help (GP Farm, CultureTown, ProdTown, WonderTown, etc...)
Otherwise, when playing earth maps, I try to get the historical names.