Whimsical names for cities

[Kehgrehdid]

For the sake of humor, do you ever ignore the default names for cities and come up with your own list? (Besides mods, I'd almost expect a new list of names if it was different enough.) If so, what themes have you chosen?
Though I've done it more often with SMAC than IV, the principle still applies.
Here are some ideas I've gone with before:
Bands
Dances (I enjoy ballroom dancing, and Tango/Waltz/Jitterbug seem decent town names)
Theologians
Friends
Hobbies
Places I have lived
Places I have visited

What themes have you found distinct enough (and with enough options) that you use or would use them?

 

[Farm Boy]

Though I do rename cities fairly frequently, I cannot say I generally have a theme to the names. Pretty sure I had a game a while ago where all the city names roughly referred to anatomy. I was in a cranky mood that day.

 

[mynystry]

Yes, i shamefully admit to sometimes take minutes thinking about how to name my new cities hehehe... Sometimes I play with the "metal civilization" and name my cities after metal bands, as you can imagine i play with vikings haha. Other times I put names of cities in my state (Guanajuato, Mexico), or if I play using the Mayans or the Aztecs I use the real names of most important cities they built, cos some are mispelled or ignored in the original game. The most silly names I used was while I was teenager and played Civ1 and Civ2 and named my cities after the girls I liked Luckily that´s left in the past

 

[ParadigmShifter]

So you name them after boys you like now?

I put names of girls I had "known" as the default names for golfers in a PS1 game I converted once. I was going to change them before the release but one day I got a fax from Sony saying "here is the list you (i.e. the test team) have submitted as a list of all text data in the game, please do not change this data before your final submission for release approval". Oops... They do that so if they see a word not on the list displayed in the game, they fail your submission (so you don't try and sneak swearwords and such in).

 

[Turquoiside]

When I play Japan I usually make the capital Edo, and if I'm Chinese I may use Chang'an or Luoyang as the capital or as my first few cities. And then there's Native America, whose city names are just a mess...renaming is almost mandatory.

 

[mynystry]

So you name them after boys you like now?

HAHA! Nah, my girlfriend would get jealous

 

[vornan19]

I put names of girls I had "known" as the default names for golfers in a PS1 game I converted once.

Were there really that many golfers?

 

[tranx]

My capital is usually called 'Disneyland'.
I fancy portraying Donald Duck, dressed as my military advisor, telling me that "Disneyland has just been nuked!".

I also like to call one of my city 'Gotham City', in reference to the infamous Penguin quote: "You’ve got to admit, I’ve played this stinkin’ city like a harp from hell!"

Sometimes I would slightly modify a city's name to adjust to toponymic or cultural facts, like 'Krasnoyarsk-Of-The-Two-Whales' or 'Frozen Frisco'.
One or two 'Nuke City' are also to be expected
Renaming conquered cities can be fun too: 'Stinky Heliopolis' comes to mind.

I can't remember what else but yes!, I love to give funny names to my cities, especially in multiplayer, and also to put signs on tiles near my borders, like 'No trespassing', that kind of stuff.

Leader's name can also be quite fun to make up : 'Venom The Almighty Interstellar' was one dearly cherished leader. Also 'Berthold-Sandwich' or 'Kermit the Fifth'.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Only you or your team mates can see your signs in multiplayer though...

 

[tranx]

Only you or your team mates can see your signs in multiplayer though...

I suspected that (a friend of mine never complained about the 'YOU'RE NEXT' sign hanging over his capital). Bah, it's still fun!

"There was a SIGN! Ain't you read it? Sheesh!"

 

[Peregrine]

I use the city names from an old SPI boardgame called Strategy I. They're alphabetical. Capital is always Aesgaard, then Bornhem, Chessex, Drammikos, (etc.) The German city names are ok, but I prefer to name them myself. Thematically, there are some quirks. Drammikos and Hombierge are always coastal cities. Gastonny is usually in less-than-optimal territory, Istria is usually reserved for cities in high latitude. I do adjust the names somewhat. In Strat I, B was Bjarnheim, but that sounds too "viking" to moi. It was Ispanos in Strat I, but that sounds too Spanish (obviously).

 

[Ataxerxes]

I don't get as entertaining as some people. I might rename a city depending on its' specialization, resources, or location. On Earth maps I'm always renaming cities to major cities or countries in that area. Examples on regular maps would be The Barracks, Newton's Landing, or Wall Street. On Earth maps I always seem to wind up with New Orleans.

 

[yturk39]

I've wondered sometimes if you were to capture a city and rename it on the same turn, if that might work as a kind of disinformation ploy against a third rival who isn't familiar with the map, and doesn't have the eyes on the ground to see what just happened.

For example, I sack Constantinople on my turn. The game asks me what I want to build there, and I examine the city screen, click on the city name and rename it "Istanbul".

Consider this: I just took a city on one turn, and the following turn it doesn't appear in the list of cities I have, but a new one does. Did I just found a new city with a Settler and raze another simultaneously, or did I just play the name game?

 

[awesome]

sometimes i change the name of a city i just captured to "poop"

 

[Farm Boy]

Did I just found a new city with a Settler and raze another simultaneously, or did I just play the name game?

Nobody knows but the Turks...

 

[Vaidd]

If I'm playing as a civ with unpronounceable city names (I'm looking at you, Tlaczipanvxlbml), I rename cities after cities and towns in my home state of Nebraska. It's always fun to see Omaha become the holy city of Taosim.

 

[A_Hamster]

Renaming I did more often in SMAC. A base would be named "Denied!" or "In Your Face!" if I beat the AI to a choice site (sometimes by one turn)! Occasionally a planned staging base would be renamed "Fort Mayne" which is a pun on the French for "strong arm" and referred to the strong arm tactics favored by medieval nobility. And at first, I would renamed all of Miriam's bases when I captured them, either to something insulting or when the University, to reflect the triumph of science over superstition.

Presently in Civ 4, if I found Buddhism or Confucianism, I rename the city to Bodh Gaya or Qufu, which is where those religions were founded historically. When playing Germany, the capital is not Berlin, but Das Kapital (I don't know if the pun works in any language but English). And like an earlier poster, I rename the capitals of both Japan and China to the older names rather than the modern.

In the case of Greece, I actually edited Civ4CivilizationInfos to make the early cities those important to Athens, thus Piraeus (the main port for Athens), Marathon (the great victory of the 1st Persian War), Salamis etc. Sparta and other Dorian Greek cities come very late in the list.

Playing FfH or any of its mods, I rename far more often trying for names that are civ-appropriate and say something about what the city is to specialize in. It's easier for some civs than others.

 

[iggymnrr]

Not a city name, but sometimes I like to play as a distant cousin of the native American leader, Full of Bull.

 

[Riflin'Joe]

I must confess that when playing SMAC (all those years ago, where did time fly to?) I would sometimes derive a certain childish pleasure in renaming Sister Miriam' s cities to things too offensive to be repeated on this site.

 

[oldskald]

I used to do this a lot in Civ2 when there were hundreds of cities to deal with. The names almost always related to embarrassing deeds by my friends.

With the reduction of cities in Civ4 I don't bother. But the leader is ALWAYS renamed. Rudely. Particularly if its Cathy.