Good town names sound like they were chosen by a tired surveyor a hundred and fifty years ago. That's the secret to making one up: aim for ordinary. This list has 102 fictional town names for novels, games and maps, from cozy small towns to spooky ones, with township names and regional styles.
For a fantasy or medieval setting, use the town name generator or see fantasy town names.
We made these up, but real towns are named the same way, so a few will match a real place somewhere. Check a map before you publish.
- Harlow Creek: a one-stoplight town with a good diner
- Pinder's Crossing: named for a ferryman nobody remembers
- Quillan Falls: the falls are four feet high
- Bexley Hollow: quiet until the county fair
- Wendover Mills: the mill closed and the name stayed
- Calloway Junction: two rail lines and a grain elevator
- Cooper's Landing: founder plus feature, the most common recipe
- Hadley Corners: where two county roads meet
Alder Springs, Birchfield, Dalton Forks, Ellery Point, Garnet Ridge, Ivy Bluff, Juniper Flats, Kestrel Gap, Linden Bend, Pruitt's Mill, Sawyer Bend, Upton Falls
- Butterfield: sounds like it smells of toast
- Dovecote: named after a pigeon house
- Sugar Hollow: famous for one bakery
- Puddleford: it rains, and they like it
Applewick, Daisy Mills, Figtree Landing, Gingerbrook, Marigold Springs, Nutmeg Corners, Plumtree, Quince Meadow, Teacup Lake, Willowby
- Flint Harbor: gray stone, gray sea
- Lodestar: a mining town that outlived the mine
- Cinder Mesa: built on an old lava field
- North Reckoning: nobody agrees on what was reckoned
- High Lonesome: an old ranch name that stuck
Arrowhead Flats, Blue Mesa, Copperline, Driftwood Key, Echo Basin, Foxfire, Granite Pass, Kingfisher, Wolf Run
- Hollow Pine: the trees there grow in rows nobody planted
- Mournfield: the name is older than the cemetery
- Last Lamp: where the streetlights stop
- Quiet Harbor: no gulls, ever
Ashen Hollow, Fogmoor, Hush Creek, Lantern Marsh, Mothwood, Shiver Lake, Cold Chapel, Wickerby
In much of the United States a township is a division of a county, so township names tend to be plain: a founder, a tree, a direction.
- Calder Township: named for the first surveyor
- East Pruitt Township: there is no West Pruitt
- Stonebridge Township: one bridge, well maintained
- Lower Marrow Township: the upper half incorporated and left
Ashby Township, Birch Hollow Township, Clearfork Township, Dunning Township, Hartsell Township, Prairie Rose Township, Walnut Bend Township, Northmoor Township
A name should sound like the place on the map where you put it.
- Tidewell Harbor: lobster boats and a white church
- Barnaby Light: named for its lighthouse
Wickham Cove, Greywharf, Pennock Neck, Osprey Point
- Magnolia Bend: slow river, long porches
- Cypress Landing: the ferry stopped running in 1960
Pecan Hollow, Sweetbay, Live Oak Crossing, Dogwood Flats
- Elkhorn Prairie: grain elevator, water tower, Friday night football
- Lindholm: founded by Scandinavian settlers and proud of it
Cedar Fork, Wheatley, Otter Lake, New Halden
- Sagebrush Wells: the well is the reason for the town
- Lone Juniper: the tree is on the town seal
Copper Gulch, Mesa Blanca, Antelope Springs, Rimrock
- Little Wexcombe: one pub, one church, one bus a day
- Thornby Magna: Magna is Latin for "great", used for the larger of two villages
Upper Thrindle, Marsh Hadlow, Stoke Ambry, Ashcombe Parva
Real American town names come from a handful of recipes. Use the same ones.
1. Founder plus ending. Take a surname and add -ville, -burg, -ton or -field, or make it possessive with a feature: Pruitt's Mill, Cooper's Landing.
2. Nature word plus landmark word. Pick one from each list:
- Nature: alder, birch, cedar, elk, flint, fox, garnet, juniper, otter, sage, willow
- Landmark: Creek, Falls, Ridge, Hollow, Springs, Bluff, Forks, Gap, Bend, Flats, Crossing, Junction
3. A virtue or a hope. Harmony, Liberty, Prosperity, Hope. Settlers were optimists.
4. New plus the old country. New Halden, New Dresden. Add a direction for a neighbor: East Pruitt.
The best trick is to ask why people stopped there. Towns grew at a river crossing, a spring, a mine, a mill or a rail junction, and the name usually says which. If you know the reason, the name writes itself.
- Match the region. Mesa and Gulch belong in the West, Hollow and Bend in the South and the hills, Cove and Neck on the coast.
- Keep it plain if the story is serious. A realistic town with a wacky name pulls readers out.
- Say it the way a local would. Real towns get shortened and mispronounced, and yours should too.
- Search the name with a state after it. If a real town comes up, decide whether you mind.
For castles and market squares, see fantasy town names. For bigger places, see city names. And for proof that real towns are stranger than fiction, read funny town names. The town name generator is free if you'd like to roll a few.
Harlow Creek, Bexley Hollow, Wendover Mills and Calloway Junction. A surname or a nature word plus a landmark like Creek, Hollow or Mills sounds the most believable.
Butterfield, Dovecote, Sugar Hollow, Plumtree and Teacup Lake. Food, flowers and small animals do the work.
Decide why the town exists, such as a mill, a crossing or a spring, then combine a founder's surname or a nature word with that feature.
Something plain: Calder Township, Stonebridge Township, Prairie Rose Township. Townships are administrative areas, so their names are usually modest.
