# Naming a Fantasy World



## Black Dragon

Have you given your world a name (i.e. Middle Earth, Narnia)?  How did you go about choosing it?

What elements make a world's name sound credible, as opposed to laughable?


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## Chase Simba

Think of what the people would call the world.  "Earth" is just the word for ground, but it's been used in so many different texts that it has become the name of our planet.  Similarly, any name must have a basis in the world.  Middle Earth is fine because it sounds like a point taken from the Earth's fantastic past (fantastic in this case meaning fictitious).  Narnia works because it sounds like an actual country.
But this is the thing:
In the end, it doesn't matter.
If people complain about the name, then they weren't paying enough attention to the book.  Whether or not the name is good shouldn't matter if you wrote your book well enough.  People shouldn't focus on the name, but the story.


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## Raziel

Chase Simba said:


> But this is the thing:
> In the end, it doesn't matter.
> If people complain about the name, then they weren't paying enough attention to the book.  Whether or not the name is good shouldn't matter if you wrote your book well enough.  People shouldn't focus on the name, but the story.



    I agree, with you there, it is truly the story that matters not the names given to help it flow. 

    Although, names; I believe; should have somewhat of a 'flow' of their own.  As in they shouldn't be so complex that you can't even pronounce them. (unless that is the point you are trying to make with the name).  When I read The Dark Tower series Mr. King refers to his world(s) as Mid-Earth and End-Earth.  I honestly thought it was a bit of a rip off at first from the Lord of the Rings Books but then I read his wordslinger notes and realized that Mr. Tolkien was the one who inspired him to write an epic tale of his own.  So I think he used the terms for his world in a flattering tone not a plagiarist one. 
    I myself am begining to form a world of my own and have been truly inspired by Kings 'fantasy' epic The Dark Tower.  I may use a few of his ideas to help start my world building.  I might need some pointers on what may or may not be 'stealing'.  For instance in the 'Dark Tower' series he speaks of the Spheres and I was thinking of using something like that as a plot device in my own story but have them do different things and have a completely different back story. I don't want to be blamed for copying though either.  
    Then there's the whole 'naming the world' thing.  Well, if you'd like to go on with this conversation maybe we could find another thread to brainstorm some things.  Any comments are appreciated.


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## BeigePalladin

Depends, is this a world where they have a belief in the classical four elements? If so, earth...

other than that, well, it's generally a variation of earth


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## Joe the Gnarled

This link 20000-NAMES.COM: Classical element names, page 1 of 1--meaning, origin, etymology may be useful.  It has a list of words that have roots in other languages and translate to one of the four elements (earth, fire, wind and water).  You may want to use the earth words as part of, or the root word for the name of your world.


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## razzazzika

I named my world Xexia(pronounced ZEHCK-SEE-AH). I have no idea how I came about the name. Honest to God I don't. It's the name of the planet, and just like when we say "The earth beneath her feet rumbled." I say "The xexia beneath her feet rumbled." to stay consistent. Instead of having earth magic, they have xexia magic. But honestly... No clue where I came up with it.


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## sashamerideth

I have multiple worlds and I have taken them from Greek mythology, parents and their children. I am thinking of renaming them. 

I have to look at the recent Kepler data and find a main star from there then name my planets appropriately.


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## SlimShady

My world doesn't officially have a name now.  Although it has went through many.  First Alroth, Anaria, and then Aragoth.  But, eventually I decided those were far to fantastical.  The humans have named it the Fatherland.  (As they believe there God: The All-Father has created it.)


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## SeverinR

JOe-the gnarled
Love some of those names.

Great link thanks.


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## Draconian

I have had trouble with a name so just said earth but then I thought to call it Terra or elvarg (don't ask me how i got the name elvarg you don't wanna know) but finally after a lot of thinking and word playing I thought i'd call my world Sileni but I still might change it.


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## Joe the Gnarled

My all time favorite name for a world is Earthsea.  If you have read A Wizard of Earthsea you will understand why it is such a perfect name.  The known world is made up of many islands.  I would totaly steal that world if it was not such a well known book (j/k  )


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## invisibleturtle

There are two 'worlds' in my story, the dream world and the real world. I called the dream world Somnium, Latin for dream, and then wanted to name my real world in Latin to keep a parallel to the dream world. I was originally going to go for the Latin word for Earth, but then I realized there is 'earth' in both of the worlds. So my real world is now called Verum, for truth.


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## Amanita

My world isn't named at all, the continent where my stories are happening is, though. It's Silaris, a name I made up when I tried to create a fantasy language as a young child. Silar meant "river" in that language and Silaris was a genitive form supposed to mean something like (land) of the rivers. I've been working with this name for over ten years now even though the world has changed profoundly since then it still fits and I intend to keep it if there are no copyright issues keeping me from doing so.

When reading, I don't really care much about the names of the worlds. I don't really like it when the worlds are called things like "the middle lands", "the southern lands" and "the northern lands" but if the rest of the story is good I don't really care.


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## Meg the Healer

My world is called Rudea - which means land of elements. It's basically one giant landmass with a few islands way off the coast. I came up with that name because my gods each have a major element associated with them. Like Nirvelli is the Water Goddess and Braedan is the Dark God. I'm still figuring out the names of the "sections" of land - the North, South, East, and West. I did come up with the Midnight Isles, the Undying Lands, and Frostfire Mountain.


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## Map the Dragon

Joe the Gnarled said:


> My all time favorite name for a world is Earthsea.  If you have read A Wizard of Earthsea you will understand why it is such a perfect name.  The known world is made up of many islands.  I would totaly steal that world if it was not such a well known book (j/k  )



I've never read A Wizard of Earthsea. Is it YA fantasy or epic/high, or something else altogether. I read everything though, so I'll be sure to find a copy somewhere.



As to my own world, I refrained from naming the world or even the continent. And I published my novel for gods sake. I don't know why, I just didn't feel like naming it at the time. In the inside of my dust jacket (and many times in the novel) I mention that magic is missing from The Eastern Empires. I have a map at home that I didn't include in my first edition that is called the Eastern Empires. Part of my 2nd novel takes place in what I then deem the Northern Empire. There will be five books (2 are so far contracted with the publisher with an agreement to take all 5). I will have some action in the Western Empires in Book 3, and thus South in Book 4. In my fifth and final installment, we're going to put a map in the front that might just name the continent finally (if I don't do so in the literature before that).

Within my novel, there are many Empires with names - the Treynen Empire, The Thanten Empire, and so on.


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## Joe the Gnarled

Map the Dragon said:


> I've never read A Wizard of Earthsea. Is it YA fantasy or epic/high, or something else altogether. I read everything though, so I'll be sure to find a copy somewhere.



It is listed as YA fantasy, but has elements of high fantasy.  If I lived near you I would give you my copy.  It is defiantly on my Fantasy "must read" list.  

Here is an Amazon link:

Amazon.com: A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1) (9780553262506): Ursula K. Le Guin: Books


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## Raziel

BeigePalladin said:


> Depends, is this a world where they have a belief in the classical four elements? If so, earth...
> 
> other than that, well, it's generally a variation of earth



The name for 'my' world is "US". The literal and true form of us, my story is to be about the fantastical ways we live life and literaly have if taken away..then have to deal. That is the forefront that brings the title into focus. Us..no one but us, our kind to watch out for when everything else fails. Even the fail-safes.  It plays upon the irony and poetic reality of 'us' as a species and an unified reality(earth) when nothing's left.

Thank you, really, you helped me find the name for my world with your words. 

Can't thank you enough so I bid you ado. An say 
"We all have our variations.." 

All the best,
Raziel


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## Garolsh

I haven't named my world yet; the main story line takes place on a certain continent, and in my notes I have many other nations and continents that will later on play a role via invasions and such. This is based on a rough story I wrote in high school, and I just called it "earth." Yet earth really played no role in the centralized story. In my new version it will play more of a role, as in more locations as opposed to say, Azeroth for fellow WoW nerds, where the story line and lore revolves around the whole world.


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## Ice Queen

There are some very interesting names here. At the moment, I am not sure what to call my world. I'm flip-flopping. I like the name 'Illium' - in the old tongue, it means 'moon-land' but I wasn't sure whether to name the world this or just the continent the story takes place on... :s


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## Raziel

Ice Queen said:


> There are some very interesting names here. At the moment, I am not sure what to call my world. I'm flip-flopping. I like the name 'Illium' - in the old tongue, it means 'moon-land' but I wasn't sure whether to name the world this or just the continent the story takes place on... :s



    When you speak of naming your world after the moon I completely feel that.  I have had a fascination with the moon since I was young.  It saddened me to hear some scientific reports that it is getting farther away every year (about 3ft r so, it might take a while but sooner or later it will be noticeable; our sister is floating away.)

      I say my world is 'us' in the simple fact that this is how my main character will come to see the world he is living in.  (Yes, it might seem kinda cheesy..we already have the U.S. as an acronym for the United States.)

 Well, this world I'm creating, my character wakes up and there is a complete destruction of everything he has ever known. Hence the planet has come to depend on each other for survival.  The term 'us' comes about in honor of what was destroyed and that make sense to me.  We are helping each other all the while becoming a tribe of 'us'. Just us. (A tribe of just us/justice? mm good play on words maybe the forefathers were on to something.) I think I found another good idea while ranting.
Thanks for listening.
All the Best,
Raziel


I've always liked the term 'Quicksilver', it reminds me of the moon.  Sometimes hidden sometimes not. I know it is supposed to be mercury, but the moon has been associated with shape shifting. Sometimes hidden sometimes not.


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## Dante Sawyer

Joe the Gnarled- Thanks for the link man, it's fantastic!


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## fcbkid15

I've named my world Elimithy, but i'm still not sure about it.


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## legacyblade

Unless the inhabitants in your world have space travel, they'd have no reason to name their planet. They wouldn't really have the concept on a planet. They'd have a word for "world" and a word for "dirt". If you want to give your world a name, use whatever the inhabitants would call dirt or the world (in keeping with the mentality that works of fantasy are translated from another language, so the translator would have used the native word for dirt or world to help his readers differentiate between the other world and our own). But since dirt is common and the world is common as well (they see it all the time), they both would be frequently refereed to. Words that are used frequently eventually become smaller as the language evolves. I mean even Japanese, which has really long words, uses a 2 syllable word (sekai) for earth. Off the top of my head, I can't think of many words that short in japanese. I don't think I can think of any 1 syllable words either (unless you're counting honorifics)

However, if you want to name a country, that's different. Narnia was a country in the alternate world, so it had a fancy name. Either name the country after something the inhabitants would be proud of (even if it's in a different language, such as a fictitious word for moon) or something related to their religion.

Hope that helps.


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## Forsta-Phoenix

I'd have to disagree with you there, cultures throughout history have observed the stars at night and have noticed that certain points of light move around with a regular motion and ascribed them to be orbiting a body. This body has changed from the earth (wrong) to the sun (still wrong) and now we understand that the planets orbit the centre of mass of the solar system (discovered in our world fully in 1619), but I would assume that a culture in a typical fantasy setting would believe one of the first two methods. So I think that most fantasy cultures that are at least as advanced as say the ancient egyptians or greeks to have some definition of orbiting bodies, and call them something similar to a planet and have names for most of the bodies, and heck even some of their moons! For instance chinese astronomers claimed to of seen bodies orbiting jupiter as early as the 3rd century BCE! So even if a fantasy culture isn't any where near as technologically advanced as ours that doesn't directly imply that they don't have a clue about their stellar surroundings.

Whilst I agree that frequently used words are shortened in general usage that doesn't mean that the official title for the land (because who's to say it's a planet, i.e. diskworld) that a culture is based upon wouldn't have a longer more lyrical/poetic name. Personally I think that provided it fits in with the culture that a character is from they can call it whatever they like, but it would tend to be one to three syllables long. 

One way I sometimes resort to for naming a world, continent or what have you is to choose a word that describes your setting pretty well and then see what it the literal translations are in a variety of different languages and see if you can mash a few together or borrow some syllables from one or two of them!


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## legacyblade

I should rephrase what I meant. I was saying that they're just kinda lumped together as celestial bodies, even if they do have a distinction between stars and planets. As far as I know (which I will admit is very little) on the history of astronomy, life on other planets and inhabitable other planets are a modern-ish concept. And that's why names for the planet (As aside from just calling it "the world" or referring to the dirt) is a modern concept. I could be wrong, but that's what I think.

Though i will concede that ya, it makes sense that a culture could have a more poetic way to refer to the earth (such as "lunar sphere" instead of moon). Though I think they'd also have, for lack of a better word, a nickname for the planet (for use during everyday conversation). I know that if a game, book, or movie has a long title, I always come up with a short version of it that I call it during conversations on the subject.


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## Forsta-Phoenix

Actually ever since people have been able to use telescopes to actually resolve planetary bodies as more than specks of light on the night sky, and probably long before that, people have thought that life existed on other planets. Whilst not believing in aliens per se they did believe that similar forms of life were around on other planets and this was thought to be the case right up until till the viking landers we sent to Venus that proved it to be an acidic uninhabitable place, and then we designed telescopes powerful enough to see how most planets and moons were infact just balls of rock or gas and the idea of life on most planets began to fade from public opinion. My father had a book about what other planets were like and it showed an illustration of dinosaurs! on venus! Really dissapointed that was not the case!  As a bit of an aside I recall that the vatican has even made some decree or other about whether God loves aliens in the same way he loves humans, can't remember what was decided though.

And I do agree with you on having a shortened name for the planet will be used in every day conversation, I was just pointing out that a group of people might have a longer more officious name for it!


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## Ophiucha

Both of my worlds, oddly enough, only have one continent, so the name for the world is the same as the name for the land. In one of my stories, it is Molusk, which was chosen for a couple of reasons: one, the world is inside a large shell (like a mollusk, with the extra L), and two, it is the name of a satellite of some sort mentioned in the third Gormenghast book. So that. In my current project, I am undecided, but I am heading towards Miseria. All of the names in my story are Latin, so I went with 'Miseria' instead of just 'Misery'. I went with 'misery' for two reasons, the first being that the continent is all but uninhabitable (most people live at sea, or on the small islands scattered around), and the second being that a lot of the world is based on Egypt, and the Arabic word for Egypt is (romanized) Misr. I wanted an M-name, too, both for the likeness it holds with Mexico (the other dominant basis for the world) and because I just like the letter M (I did name my other world Molusk, after all).


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## legacyblade

Forsta-Phoenix said:


> Actually ever since people have been able to use telescopes to actually resolve planetary bodies as more than specks of light on the night sky, and probably long before that, people have thought that life existed on other planets. Whilst not believing in aliens per se they did believe that similar forms of life were around on other planets and this was thought to be the case right up until till the viking landers we sent to Venus that proved it to be an acidic uninhabitable place, and then we designed telescopes powerful enough to see how most planets and moons were infact just balls of rock or gas and the idea of life on most planets began to fade from public opinion.



Oh wow. I didn't know that. Well I guess I can factor ideas about life on other planets into religion in world building  Gives me more options. I really should study history more, it'd help give me insight into smaller things like this.



> My father had a book about what other planets were like and it showed an illustration of dinosaurs! on venus! Really dissapointed that was not the case!  As a bit of an aside I recall that the vatican has even made some decree or other about whether God loves aliens in the same way he loves humans, can't remember what was decided though.



I wish venus was that cool. Plus it'd help with overpopulation  But seriously? Decree about God's love for aliens? That's freaking awesome! I don't think I'll ever forget that interesting tidbit.



> And I do agree with you on having a shortened name for the planet will be used in every day conversation, I was just pointing out that a group of people might have a longer more officious name for it!



Aye, that's the point I was going for. And I will concede that people will come up with longer poetic ways to refer to anything, if they want to be formal.


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## Joe the Gnarled

Dante Sawyer said:


> Joe the Gnarled- Thanks for the link man, it's fantastic!



I do what I can around here


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## JustSpiffy

Joe the Gnarled said:


> This link 20000-NAMES.COM: Classical element names, page 1 of 1--meaning, origin, etymology may be useful.  It has a list of words that have roots in other languages and translate to one of the four elements (earth, fire, wind and water).  You may want to use the earth words as part of, or the root word for the name of your world.





> TIT (Тит): Russian form of Roman Latin Titus, meaning "fire; to burn" or "straining."



My world shall be called Tit! No, but seriously, for me the name of the world is just as important as the name of the characters. I've been struggling with this one for a while. I really like middle earth, or mid-kernia (from the magician's apprentice), but of course those are taken! And even using middle makes me a little nervous that people will accuse me of plagiarism.

Maybe i'll use Terranus... The world off Terranus! A play of terrain.


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## legacyblade

JustSpiffy said:


> Maybe i'll use Terranus... The world off Terranus! A play of terrain.



Must resist making jokes about tearing an anus...


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## sashamerideth

Ouch! No fun.


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## myrddin173

My world is an artificial world, created by the ancestors of the living peoples.  In the language of magic the name of the world means "lock and key."  The ancestors originally lived on Earth but removed themselves when they removed the "evil people" after they caused the Black Plague.  The world the ancestors created was the "seal" between Earth and the world the evil people were forced into.


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## Black Gate of Mordor

Personally, the name has to fit the world in some way. Not only does it have to sound right, but it has to look right.

Anyway, for my world I named it Rasadae (there is a trema on the 'e', so it is pronounced 'RAS-a-DAY-e'). Really, naming a world shouldn't be that hard and shouldn't take too long. The decision to name it Rasadae took about five seconds. I simply decided that was the world's name, and it stuck. It is somewhat unconventional (doesn't end with -ia) but I like it.


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## Caged Maiden

Just because no one else has said it... Tolkein didn't invent Middle Earth, he borrowed it from norse mythology.  If you look at one of the old covers, the Hobbit cover has runes all over it.  A lot of his story was inspired by norse myth, so I don't think it would be at all plagiarism.  The Norse believed there were many levels to the world, and the middle one, Midgard (Middle Garden), was where people lived.  
It stands to reason that any people might call their world "middle-something" after all, the Norse believed we were in the middle, Christians thought we were in the middle, who knows how many peoples' mythology puts humans below the gods and above the underworld or creepy crawly things they don't understand, or whatever.
The Norse have one of the richest mythologies, and a lot of artists (authors, musicians, painters, sculptors) have drawn inspiration from their stories.  In fact, if you have some time, I'd recommend one I own, "Myths of the Norsemen from the Eddas and Sagas," H.A. Guerber.  It is readable, which some I've seen are not, but not dummed down.  It might give you some more naming ideas, they use lots of names derived from words and nature and element and whatever else.


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## Black Gate of Mordor

But Norse mythology is actually a lie, because it's not actually Norse.

The 'Norse' mythologies were based on a document that may have been Norse, in very bad condition. The man who wrote them out was Christian too, so Norse mythology isn't actually norse.

Oh, I forgot to mention the other world that I've mildly fleshed out. It doesn't have a proper name, but I'm just calling it Manchuria for now (the name of the central region of the empire, and I made the name up before realising it was a region of China). Currently the story surrounding that isn't very solid, but I'm going to work out the kinks in it over the next couple of months/years whilst I write my other books.


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## Hans

Black Gate of Mordor said:


> The 'Norse' mythologies were based on a document that may have been Norse, in very bad condition. The man who wrote them out was Christian too, so Norse mythology isn't actually norse.


You mean Snorri Sturluson? He was Icelander, which could be considered Norse.
Yes, he was christian, so his handbook for scalds could be christianized. But in the foreword he says he did not do that, because no good christian would believe these myths anyway.


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## JustSpiffy

legacyblade said:


> Must resist making jokes about tearing an anus...



Oh god! Well, back to the drawing board... :l


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## Kaellpae

I didn't read it like that originally. Ahah!
Sadly, anything with Annus or Anus would probably get a few chuckles.
Poor, poor Uranus.


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## Theankh

I haven't named my world. Or half the places in it, even. I'm not very good at that aspect - I just write the scene and then go 'actually, I should really put a name for that in here'.


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## myrddin173

anihow said:


> Tolkein didn't invent Middle Earth, he borrowed it from norse mythology.  If you look at one of the old covers, the Hobbit cover has runes all over it.  A lot of his story was inspired by norse myth, so I don't think it would be at all plagiarism.  The Norse believed there were many levels to the world, and the middle one, Midgard (Middle Garden), was where people lived.



He may not have come up with the name but most of the world his his creation, though there are some distinct Norse influences he was actually working to come up with a British mythology.


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## Forsta-Phoenix

Heh, after struggling with making names that I actually liked the sound of I decided to just sum up the nations character in 3 words and use the first letter of each as an acronym to refer to it in my notes. Now my brain has found ways to pronounce these acronyms as actual words and lo with a bit of tweaking they seem to work pretty well as names for countries!


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## Thaumicist

I only gave my world a name because people kept asking what it was called and then refusing to understand when I said "whatever the Mir word for earth is". Actually, that's probably the main reason I expanded from a single country to a world in the first place.

Usually I would hold to the theory that the name of a world means 'the ground we're standing on'. But for the world my current project is set in that didn't seem right, as it's a world of three separate planes: the people with the authority to name planets are and have always been those with magical access to the other planes, gods and mages and so forth. But the world's name has to mean something, and so the three worlds have been named for their relative supernatural standing. In some places, the word for 'the ground' is actually a back-formation from this name.

World names also need to fit with the language of the characters; I'm very particular in making sure different cultures call it different things. One lot call it Angvar, another lot Aea. There is a culture that calls the world Earth, or their equivalent word, but it's the one that banned magic a long time ago.

So yes, it has a name, the horrible thing. But most of the time I just call it The World, and hope nobody notices.


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## fcbkid15

Hey guys, I want some thoughts on my world's name. I'm stuck between Elimithy (Ele-myth-ie) and Kreod (Kree od). Tell me what you think.


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## sashamerideth

fcbkid15 said:
			
		

> Hey guys, I want some thoughts on my world's name. I'm stuck between Elimithy (Ele-myth-ie) and Kreod (Kree od). Tell me what you think.



Kreod. It looks like it sounds, and my brain didn't stumble over it the first time I read it.


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## Kaellpae

I like Kreod as well. Has a more neutral sound to it than Elimithy. Elimithy brings to mind magic, faeries, and Elves.


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## fcbkid15

yeah, thats what i was thinking. It probably brings faeries and elves to mind because i came up with it in the 5th grade, a long long time ago. I don't really know why I stuck with the name for stories, i just kinda remembered it.


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## Mreichardt

Been holding off naming my world for awhile. Seiros is what I've decided to use for now, but it might change.


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## Kevlar

When I was in grade seven, just starting off, I came up with a new name every time I scrapped my story and started a new draft. As mystical creatures, non-human hominids and even magic dwindled practically to non-existance it simply became Earth. In my current reboot it _is_ Earth, and it shows. (Or maybe its just my cynical view of people that shows) Either way, why call it anything _but_ Earth when it _is_ Earth? And as far as I'm concerned your world _has_ to be connected to Earth in order to have humans, horses, dogs and the like. This coming from an atheist cynic. Religious people probably have a different opinion, but as far as I'm concerned that connection has to be there, whether stated or not. Does this mean your world HAS to be Earth? Far from it, if you have even a little magic, it might not even be the same planet, or it might be the same planet on a different level of existance. (Sphere, dimension, plane or what have you.) But what it all boils down to is that you should name your world what YOU want to name it and what YOU think is appropriate. If you don't write for yourself your writing will never be at its best. Satisfy yourself first, and everyone else second.

Just realized how know-it-all that could come off. The 'Write for yourself' thing I read somewhere, from some author. All about breaking clichÃ©s and making your own trend.


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## Akatosh

Skaleon(Sca-le-in), it just looks and sounds cool to me


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## Antaus

I name worlds the same way I name characters a lot of times, pick a word, then start mangling it until I get something that sounds catchy. My fantasy world is named Elderash, I don't remember where I got it from. Also about mangling names, I'll cite an example. I have a character named Magnox, source: MagnAVox


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## Shadoe

I often do that too - start with a word then torture it until it gives me something I like.

In my world of Araith, if I need a new word, I begin with a word in Swahili. (No reason in particular for Swahili, I just picked that one at random.) I pick a word then torture it a bit and end up with something workable. I have a neighboring kingdom, and the base language I use for them is Croatian. For city names, I've been starting with cities in India because they have such wonderfully complicated names.   But I try to stick with one language as the base for certain things, just to give them all a similar "flavor."


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## Codey Amprim

Well, ask yourself this: What do you name a newborn child? There aren't many defining traits about a baby that you can give a name to. That's kind of with a fantasy world. It starts at the conception of it in your mind and it grows. You don't think the name of your baby when you're... I'll leave it at that before I get too far ahead.

In reality it doesn't truly matter, but my 2 cents are requested, and my 2 cents you shall recieve.

I would choose something that sticks out, something that defines your world, something people will remember, and for God's sake something that you can pronounce on the first read.

Generally, I like to keep my names short and inpressionable... surrounded by a shroud of mysticism, as your world should be. Think of our world. Earth, we call it today. In ancient times, its name was Terra. I think Terra sounds a lot more interesting than plain old Earth, but then again times change and perhaps my point of view is folly.

My world's name is Aros. Take from it what you will. I'm sticking to it. 

My 2 cents have been delievered.

Hope I helped.


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## myrddin173

Codey Amprim said:


> Think of our world. Earth, we call it today. In ancient times, its name was Terra.



Neither of these statements are strictly true.  Certainly in the English-speaking world we call the planet Earth but the rest of the planet does not.  There are as many names for  "Earth" as there are languages, and no one is more the "right" name than any other.  For example the French-speaking world calls the planet Terre.

Also Earth may have been called Terra in areas that spoke Latin or were under the control of the Roman Empire but relatively that doesn't amount to much.  The West RE lasted about 1,000 years and the East RE another 1,000.  They both were centered around the Mediterranean.  There were a number of different civilizations before, after, and during that time that used different names.  Egyptian civilization, which is significantly more "ancient" than the RE, began around 5,000 years ago and they certainly didn't call the world Terra.

Sorry if that sounded like I was attacking you, I didn't try to.  Anyways I agree that Terra sounds better than Earth, but that has more to do with the fact that English is a Germanic language and Latin is a (the) Romance Language.


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## Codey Amprim

*Gah, that's twice today that when I've finished typing something, it didn't go through. Anyways, what I was going to say was:

No harm done! I don't mind getting my arse kicked every once in a while, and besides, that was pretty educational. I merely meant it as a comparison from today to the past. Having a world rich with history amplifies its mysticism and opens new opportunities for the world and writer as well!


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## Argentum

When I named my world, I had noticed so many times that fantasy worlds often started with an A. I've forgotten them now, but I had a small list of them. So I decided to do opposite and go backward. I named it Zyra off the top of my head (found out later, it's possibly a girl's name?). Either way, I'm thinking about renaming it into something a bit more. Maybe I'll keep the first four letters, jumble them a bit and/or add a few more syllables to make it look a bit more impressive, but still simple so it rolls off the tongue.


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## Meka

I had my characters name their own world. 
By putting myself into their position and their culture I found it pretty easy to come up with names. For example, in one story I have been working on, a group of elves find a large island and when they claim it for themselves they name it _Ilen-Ulmor_. The name has no real meaning, unless you count the meaning I gave to the name ... but it sounds elvish (let me know if you disagree, so I can change it ).     The dwarven island is named _Kimek_, again, just because I think it sounds like a dwarfish word. The land, as well as towns and cities, will have been named by those who live there, so use their imaginations to inspire you.


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## Rowancool

It seems like using Earth in the name has been overused a bit. But it still works(i think)


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## Xanados

I would just go with what sounds good. I'd try not to make it sound too ridiculous, but at the same time have it sound nice. I think in Orcs by Stan Nicholls, the world was called Maras Dantia...a name I am a fan of. Azeroth, Maras Dantia, Randland...any name works, clearly.


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## AnotherGeek

My favorite is still calling the planet Terra, makes me feel like the world is a beautiful wonderful place.


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## Misusscarlet

Names are hard to pick. I wanted to name my planet Avalon, I always liked books about Avalon, but then I realized there are a ton of books with the name Avalon. So I named my planet Avaria. Simple, elegant and makes you think of a vast beautiful place.


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## AnotherGeek

Misusscarlet said:


> Names are hard to pick. I wanted to name my planet Avalon, I always liked books about Avalon, but then I realized there are a ton of books with the name Avalon. So I named my planet Avaria. Simple, elegant and makes you think of a vast beautiful place.


 
Your planet name makes me think of birds and makes me think of a carefree society.


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## Misusscarlet

Now that you  mention it you're right. 





> Your planet name makes me think of birds and makes me think of a carefree society.



Avaria is very close to sounding like Avian which in definition means flight.


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## Lia-Art

I'm stuck between three different names for my world.
Vieorsa
Suiverra
Vuissula
They are all a mix of Spanish and Latin, which are the only two languages I'm going to use to name places in my world.
The worlds main sentient creature is a dragon like animal.


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## JBryden88

The world doesn't have a name, well, not known to the people in it. The continent does. Arnhaal. I don't think anybody's used that


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## Zak

I don't think it's a good idea to name your world. Is our world named? No. We have continents, countries, cities, etc. and that's all there needs to be in a fantasy world.


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## Devor

Zak said:


> Is our world named? No.



"Earth."

The fact that you're saying that, though, probably goes to show how unimportant it is.  "Earth" doesn't appear on a map, and it's probably weird when characters talk about their planet, unless maybe they're the fantastical version of environmentalists.


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## Wordweaver

I actually named my world after someone I know: Auria. It's probably been used before, but I thought it was nice, and elicited a sort of fantasy-fiction-y feeling when I heard it. Also I didn't want something that was complicated with to many syllables or other-worldly pronunciations because I want it the reader to feel at home in the realm of the story.

But I have to say I agree with Devor on ths one...not many people actually refer to the entire world in everyday conversation by name, except in science fiction interstellar types of stories. My current WIP does have a tribe of treehugging geomancers that have something of a connection to the "spirit of the land," so they tend to refer to Auria by name, more as a deity then a planet though.

Also consider the fact that a thousand years ago, the fact that we live on a "planet" in the sense of a spherical heavenly body floating around the galaxy was not known, let alone that there are other "worlds" out there floating alongside us. So there was really no need to refer to the world by name, other then the names of countries or continents. Thinking from the POV of the technologically undeveloped people in the realm where my plot takes place, it wouldn't make much sense to have them refer to Auria as a planet.


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## Ghost

I'm not sure that naming a world is useless just because the inhabitants don't care about it. As a reader, it's nice to sum the world up in one or two words instead of saying, "You know, the world Ouroboros writes in that series with the long, stupid name."

I recently destroyed many of the original names (don't worry, I made them up in high school so they are pretty bad). The name of my world was originally made for the northern continent. I realized it actually worked better as a name for the world. I don't remember how I originally came up with it.

I don't know what makes a world's name sound credible. I'd expect something short unless it was a formal name. Apostrophes and difficult to pronounce names make me wince. For it to be laughable, it could mean (or sound like) something naughty, like Terranus (sorry, JustSpiffy).


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## Terra Arkay

In my story, the name of the world will play a lesser role compared to the role of the uber mega city Arkaydia. OR... I haven't decided on a world name


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## Johnny Cosmo

I think it's useful to name a completely fictional world, so you have something to refer to.


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## Jabrosky

I came up with my conworld's name (Gorrinth) a long time ago, but exactly how I thought it up, I don't know.


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## The Blue Lotus

Zak said:


> I don't think it's a good idea to name your world. Is our world named? No. We have continents, countries, cities, etc. and that's all there needs to be in a fantasy world.



Last time I checked our world had a name "Earth" and if you really look hard some people have gone to the trouble of going so far as to give our Earth it's own deity type personality "Mother Earth". 

Mother Earth has shown up in mythology for nearly as long as people have been here. Mother Earth represents Motherhood. Since humans did not have the information that we do today they tried to explain things as best they could with their primitive skills, and knowledge. Mother Earth was belived to be the litteral Mother of the first people. Having given 'birth' to them and then 'mothered' them by providing the means to substain them for their whole lives. Not unlike a real mother if you think about it. 


 However, unless someone is refering to this quasi-deity one does not say Earth in a normal conversation. At least not outside of the science minded circles or scientific type conversations. 

Alas since our world does have a name, you wil never hear something like this:

"Hey Todd, I was wondering do you happen to know how old our spherical, rotating globe is? It was a question that I was told would come up on the test." 

That is silly... you would however expect to hear:

"Hey Todd, Do you happen to remember how old the Earth is estimated to be? It is going to come up on the test and I totaly flaked in science class." 

Hope that helps clear up some confusion... 

So all in all NAME your WORLD! Even if you only use the name once in blue moon.


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## Liu Xaun

I had named mine Millenis. Latin for thousand. That number is a recurring theme I throw around.
I usually find anything that ends in "s" really cheesy and cliche, but I stuck with it due to lack of anything else. It slowly grew pn me.


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## Thalian

I simply called mine Renin.


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## The Blue Lotus

So, err... Mars, Uranus and, Venus are "cheesy"?
Or are you talking just in fiction work?


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## Liu Xaun

Lolol. Maybe they used to! Maybe they grew on mankind over the years!


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## Ireth

In one of my newest WIPs I named the planet Rakar-ai, which is Draconian for "The Nest". That being the place the two dragon deities created for their eggs to hatch on. Right now it's the places and such IN the world that I'm having trouble with, especially since the world is currently populated by both humans and dragons.


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## Mindfire

For the world at large, I chose Ensis. It came to me while I was rearranging the syllables of the word "existence". But I hardly ever actually use it in the text. The characters don't much need to refer to anything beyond their own continent.


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## Manalodia

I'm like Mindfire, the name of the world seldom comes up except maybe from scholars. Most people refer to surrounding locations and their own. There is no real actual name for the world aside from the different cultures possibly having one. That can go for a world with a varied background of races, though I can see how one would be used if the world only had no more than one or two indigenous groups.


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## AlexanderMiracoure

When it came time for me to name my world, I decided that I'd like to tie said name into the lore and mythology of the world. So I looked at my creation story:
_The Greatest of Gods, Father to All, Ivranar, spun himself into the world so as to give his children a place to practice their arts, under the rule that 'that which they create, they must not interfere with, and instead let it go on living as it wishes.' _
Then I thought, okay, well if the world itself is the Great God, then shouldn't it be named for him. So.... poof! My world was named Ivranar =D


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## Kobun

The Blue Lotus said:


> Last time I checked our world had a name "Earth" and if you really look hard some people have gone to the trouble of going so far as to give our Earth it's own deity type personality "Mother Earth".
> 
> Mother Earth has shown up in mythology for nearly as long as people have been here. Mother Earth represents Motherhood. Since humans did not have the information that we do today they tried to explain things as best they could with their primitive skills, and knowledge. Mother Earth was belived to be the litteral Mother of the first people. Having given 'birth' to them and then 'mothered' them by providing the means to substain them for their whole lives. Not unlike a real mother if you think about it.
> 
> 
> However, unless someone is refering to this quasi-deity one does not say Earth in a normal conversation. At least not outside of the science minded circles or scientific type conversations.
> 
> Alas since our world does have a name, you wil never hear something like this:
> 
> "Hey Todd, I was wondering do you happen to know how old our spherical, rotating globe is? It was a question that I was told would come up on the test."
> 
> That is silly... you would however expect to hear:
> 
> "Hey Todd, Do you happen to remember how old the Earth is estimated to be? It is going to come up on the test and I totaly flaked in science class."
> 
> Hope that helps clear up some confusion...
> 
> So all in all NAME your WORLD! Even if you only use the name once in blue moon.



I mostly agree, but I think you need to take into account the relative level of theological or scientific sophistication of the society living on said world. We refer to the world as Earth only to differentiate it from other planets. A thing is named in relation to other similar things. Does the society think of its world as one of many other worlds? In the modern day we have planets that we know are other celestial bodies like our own. The nordic civilizations had the Nine worlds of which ours was one of many. The Abrahamic and other Middle Eastern traditions might have referred to this world in comparison to its relationship with the underworld and heaven. 

On the other hand there were societies where there wasn't other worlds. The gods lived here, the spirits lived here, everyone lived here. It was just the world. 

Really what it comes down to is how your society thinks of the world. Are they liable to think of the world as one of many? If so, then yeah they'll have a name for it. If not...


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## osimur_wil

I go about collecting other names for Earth and rearrange and combine names, throw them in to anagram generators, change some words. It's a long and arduous process and most of the results are unsatisfying but I do find some nuggets of gold.


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## Gurkhal

I've come to call my present version of my world for Itzaya, and its a long and ardeous road behind that name. But to put it short I took it from the Chicken Itza Maya city and reworked the name untill I like the sound of it.


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## HowlingWriter

Coming up with your own name for your own Fantasy world can prove to be quite the task, and it took me a while before I settled on one that I really liked. Which, well, with three worlds total there are Arlaum, Lucethia and Lybaris.


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## Shreddies

Considering 'Earth' is practically synonymous with 'ground', then how about naming your world 'Dirt'? 

The world I'm writing in was accidentally named, both in-universe and out, as 'Nowhere', after the leader of the settlers said: 'This is the middle of nowhere . . . Bring me my sandwich!'
After that it just stuck.


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## Kazzan

Named my primary world Jurr, rolls off the tongue well enough. It basically means world in one of my worlds languages, thouggh I gave it that meaning after the fact. Initially Jurr was the WIP name for a mod I was doing.


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## Enthods

I use a word generator and alter what it is to create names for anything that fits.


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## MeanMachine

My world's name is Aura, which is also the name of the magical energy that is omnipresent in the world.


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## Alpha

I names my world Ouran because the word Rann means world in my language and Ouran sounded nice. There's also Idran, Ekeran, Falran and Vakran. I didn't have much trouble coming up with my names but there are a lot of name generators on the internet you can use.


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## Mythopoet

I named my world Erresuma, which is a Basque word for kingdom or realm. I like the sound of the Basque language and it's pretty obscure, so I use it as a resource for a lot of words and names in my world, sometimes altered and sometimes not.


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## MeanMachine

MeanMachine said:


> My world's name is Aura, which is also the name of the magical energy that is omnipresent in the world.



Edit: I've changed the world's name to Gaea, and the name of the magical energy is going to be mana, and it's crystalline form Manacite  (who needs originality?),


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## Gurkhal

And I named my world, or at least how I presently think of it , as Gaia both because of the Greek inspiration and because its a nice name.


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## Mythopoet

MeanMachine said:


> Edit: I've changed the world's name to Gaea, and the name of the magical energy is going to be mana, and it's crystalline form Manacite  (who needs originality?),





Gurkhal said:


> And I named my world, or at least how I presently think of it , as Gaia both because of the Greek inspiration and because its a nice name.



lol I just watched an anime set in a world called Gaea: Vision of Escaflowne. Some people would call the use of the name Gaia or Gaea cliche, but I think it's more like an old friend. You see it and it immediately conjures up memories and images. It's traditional and familiar in a comfortable way. I like Gaea.


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## Gryphos

I usually don't name my worlds anything special. But I suppose that's mainly because my stories tend to be on a smaller scale and so don't require any kind of wider world building. However, on the occasion that I did have to name the world, I just called it 'the Continent', because it was one big continent. Most of the time I find that characters just referring to it as 'the world' works just fine.


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## Darron

I'll admit that I use my geology degree and use ancient landmass names like pangea, laurasia, rodina, etc or celestial bodies.


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## Barian Bedrich

My way to name my worlds is, build a solarsystem. Then I feed a random generator with lists of names and greek alphabet, and i have lot of inspiration.


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## skip.knox

Mine is Altearth.

The name just popped into my head almost 20 years ago now. I knew it was a good name, since it's an alternate history Earth. Everything I've written is set there.


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## ThinkerX

Lets see...

'Char' - my current main world, mostly arid, with a number of large, almost landlocked seas.  Name came to me years ago, decided to keep it.

'Aquas' - the secondary world (which I'll have to get back too someday).  Almost all ocean, apart from a single large continent, a bizarre landmass, and a few island chains.

'Spiral' - A minor world that will be the setting for one of the tales in the sequence of novellas I am writing.  Named not for any features of its own, but the barred spiral of stars which dominates the night sky.  World itself is borderline habitable at best, consisting mostly of a red, utterly barren plain with air far too thin to breathe.  There are, however, a few very deep craters and canyons with a breathable, if very thin atmosphere along their floors (earth equivalent would be 3000 meters elevation, basins are on the order of 4000 meters below the bulk of the planets surface).

Also contemplating other worlds for more or less straight SF tales.


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## ArenRax

I try to choose something that sounds cool although there are times I will try and name the world with something from another language. preferably an old one or a fictitious one. Like I try to my own set of runic languages and such and yet it is easy unless you try to map out every word ever. If I can think of anything else Ill post it because I know there is more I'm just not feeling to well right now.


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## Tom

My main world is named Issadai, a word which means "beautiful place" in one of the languages I've invented for it. I've also nicknamed it "Terra Alta" in my notes, because it's an earth-like planet with similar ecosystems and life-forms. One of its old names was Rondenne, an invented name that meant something like "many lakes". That name had to do with the fact that this world is riddled with lakes from an ancient glacial age, much like most of Upstate New York.


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## thedarknessrising

I call my main country Andalus. Couldn't tell you why though. When I started writing fantasy five or six years ago, that name sort of came to me. The book has gone through many rewrites and revisions, and I've changed the map of my country millions of times, but I've still stuck with the name. 

Fun fact: Andalus is actually a font on Microsoft Word. Found that out a year ago. I was pleasantly surprised.


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## Ban

thedarknessrising said:


> I call my main country Andalus. Couldn't tell you why though. When I started writing fantasy five or six years ago, that name sort of came to me. The book has gone through many rewrites and revisions, and I've changed the map of my country millions of times, but I've still stuck with the name.
> 
> Fun fact: Andalus is actually a font on Microsoft Word. Found that out a year ago. I was pleasantly surprised.



It's also the arabian name for the hispanian peninsula.


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## Miskatonic

When we are talking about world names are we talking about specific regions, like North America, or are we talking about the planet name? Middle Earth for example is just a certain part of the world, a region. 

We really don't have a specific name for our "world" other than Earth.


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## Wilmont the Watcher

I have always struggled with names, spending hours, days even on finishing and reiterating all the sounds and spellings and etymologies. Over the course of three days, I came up with something I took a real liking to, and that would be *Harthe*. I got it from messing with the word _hearth_, meaning the area or floor before a fireplace. There is another definition for the word hearth though, that being _home_, or a symbol for home. What better symbol for home than one's own world? Also, the name Harthe, in some ways, is very similar to the word Earth - the [th] sounds, having one syllable; and both of them contain the exact same roster of letters.


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## Vadosity

It is an issue that I haven't named my world at all in my main WIP? I haven't even named the heros village.


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## Steerpike

Banten said:


> It's also the arabian name for the hispanian peninsula.



Thus, Andalusia?


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