How do I come up with names for fictional kingdoms?

[StillStunned]

Don't fret over it. I sometimes write stories with xxxxx, yyyyy, etc for character names. Eventually a name will come. A place name doesn't have to be oscure or unpronounceable. Many places were named after a geographical feature or event in history. Here in England, Exmouth is at the mouth of the River Exe, Newhaven is a port. The village of Battle is at the site of the Battle of Hastings.

I'm writing a sci-fi story where the outlaw town is called Hidden. Because it is.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Biggus Diccus and Pussigalore

Biggus Dickus from Life of Brian... That scene is a masterpiece...

 

[Bamagan]

The Dominion of Kuntwat lies in the fertile delta of Deloinze, and its hidden capital of Klitterus lies among the foothills at the Canyon of the Crescent Moon. Their adversaries are the people of Dickspurtz, a rugged land of geysers and basaltic pillars. Their capital is Glans, a domed fortress city atop the spire of Mt. Shaft.

[In case anyone here still took anything I said seriously, this should have put a rest to that phallusy.]

 

[Britva415]

Kingdom backwards is Modgnik. Sounds fictional to me.

Nah, Modgniks are real. They're those Slavs who fetishize the mother on The Simpsons.

 

[KeithD]

I don't write many stories that make this a necessity. When I do, I pick out a name or variation of a name in the past history of the actual geographical setting I'm thinking of.

 

[Trionyx]

Go to a detailed map of Europe. There are hundreds of villages particularly in Germany and Eastern Europe that can easily be manipulated with a few vowel changes and: Voila! A new place name.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I want to write a medieval fantasy story. Game of Thrones style, but more focused on sex. The main settings are two kingdoms and their capitals.

What should I call them? Is it OK if I use names from real, historical places? The world is totally fictional, not our Earth.

Here is the link to a Fantasy name generator (and the page includes links to other types of name generators). It's the lazy writer's way to come up with place names, but it works as a good jumping off point.

Fantasy Name Generator

*And here the URL for suspicious folks https://codexnomina.com/place-name-generator/

 

[Bramblethorn]

One of my stories involved a fictional Eastern European country loosely inspired by Ukraine and Belarus. The locals speak a variety of Russian, so I looked to Russian for naming.

"Belarus", formerly "Byelorussia", means "White Russia", so I thought I'd try forming a country name in the same sort of way. My first try was "Black Russia" = "Chernarus", but when I googled that somebody else had already used it for a computer game. So then I tried "Grey Russia" which gave me "Sera(y/j)a Russia", which I smooshed down to "Serjarus".

The Warhammer Fantasy setting is heavily influenced by historical/mythical Europe and the names hint at its inspirations: "Estalia" is roughly Spain (España/Hispania), "Tilea" is Italy/Italia, "Bretonnia" is the French region of Brittany but also influenced by Britain (very Arthurian-chivalry vibe). The Empire is approximately German/Austria, with a lot of Germanic names like "Nordland", "Ostermark" (East-Border), etc.