# Comming up with a name for a fantasy world; how do you do it?



## Vidar (Sep 6, 2012)

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to come up with a name for my fantasy world but find myself being tainted with what has already been done, middle earth, third earth etc etc and would like to know how everyone else creates the names of their worlds?

My world is loosely based on the ancient real world similarly to "Middle earth" but with a comparitive religion to modern Christianity, there are no Elves, Dwarves and trolls etc in my world but other than humans there are to be werewolves, vampires and other religious based entities such as daemons.

Just some idea's on the thought processes of naming a world would be a big help!


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## Astner (Sep 6, 2012)

The worlds you mentioned all have the suffix _earth_ in them, so I'm going to assume that's something you want yourself. So High earth?

You have to be more specific if you want more examples.


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## Jared (Sep 6, 2012)

Names come from somewhere and are generally specific to each people. Look at the cultures and religion you have.

Is it really-really-really like modern Christianity? Could you adopt (don't just take, people will spot that) words from Hebrew, Coptic, Aramaic, or some other older language? Were there older cultures that existed before your current ones? We get Terra and Gaia from previous civilizations.

Was there an old civilization that conquered the entire known world? Could you imagine that that ruler's (or tribe's or lineage's) name would be adopted into a name for the entire planet (like a large-scale version of France)?

What's the culture? How do they see the planet? Is it something that comforts, something that inspires fear, or something that is a wild mix?

You mention supernatural creatures. Do they come from the earth? How would that affect the cultures' views of the planet?


Hope those thoughts help.


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## Astner (Sep 6, 2012)

Planet Earth is written כדור הארץ (read from right to left) and is pronounced _kadur ha'arets._

But it the world — as in the speck of dirt we live on — was commonly referred to as תבל and pronounced _tevel_ in the old testament, and the world — as the universe — as עולם and pronounced olam.

I'd probably use a compression cipher. To create something similar but unique.


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## Mindfire (Sep 6, 2012)

What real-world region is your world most like? 
If it's very Nordic-influenced, I'd suggest a name like Nemgard or Mennerheim. If it's British or Celtic, I'd suggest something like Malleigh or Galvalon. If it's your standard "land o' barbarians", something like Kalkaroth or Bakaren will do. It all depends on what kind of feel you want to evoke.


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## FireBird (Sep 6, 2012)

Names aren't important to me. I use placeholder names and whenever I find or come up with a name I like I'll write it down. At the end I'll take all the names on my list (There are hundreds) and place them into the story accordingly. There is no reason to get hung up on a single name.


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## Anders Ã„mting (Sep 6, 2012)

First of all, does the world require a name? Most people just say "the world."

And even if you do use an actual name, it should probably be something very basic and simplistic, because the world is kind of a fundamental thing. We just call ours "Earth", because that's what ancient people saw when they looked down at what they were standing on. Names like "Terra" or "Gaia" are just Earth is different languages. The Swedish word for Earth is "Jord" which was the name of the norse earth-goddess, comparable the the greek Gaia. 

As for Middle Earth, that's a bit of an oddity, but I believe Tolkien derrived it from the Norse concept of Midgard. "Gard" literally means "enclosure", and can refer to a farm or estate, but in this context is probably closest translated as "realm". Another word the shows up is "heim" or "heimr", which literally means "home." 

The norse basically imagined their cosmology as similar to their own society, divided into territories belonging to the various peoples - Midgard, Asgard, Vanaheim, Nifelheim, Alfheim, Svartalfheim, Jotunheim, Muspelheim and Hel(heim).  These names literally translate as: The Middle Realm, Realm of the Aesir, Home of the Vanir, Home of Mist, Homes of Elves, Home of Black Elves (dwarves), Home of Giants, Home of Muspell, and Home of Hel.

So it's not very complicated. What the people call their world will depend a bit on how they think of it, but it will probably still boil down to something like "the stuff we're standing on" or "the place where people live."



Vidar said:


> My world is loosely based on the ancient real world similarly to "Middle earth" but with a comparitive religion to modern Christianity, there are no Elves, Dwarves and trolls etc in my world but other than humans there are to be werewolves, vampires and other religious based entities such as daemons.



See, calling it Middle Earth or anything similar implies that it's actually in the middle of something larger, and that there are other surrounding realms. In other words, you would need a complete cosmology, not just a single world.

Try looking up the medieval concept of Celestial Spheres, Dante's Divine Comedy and so on. That might give you some ideas.


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## Ireth (Sep 6, 2012)

What if there's a deity or deities involved who name the world, as Aslan did with Narnia? I would think that is a different question. I'm pretty sure Narnia doesn't mean anything, much less anything having to do with earth.


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## ThinkerX (Sep 6, 2012)

Probably the name would come from the religion or mythology of its inhabitants - ideally an old civilized nation which had lots of contact with other, newer nations.


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## Zero Angel (Sep 6, 2012)

Even if you use a name, don't get too attached to it. I developed a lot of my draconic language, and in it I came up with the word IIo (that is two I's, not ILO) to describe the universe and primary world in the universe. Over time (and many miscommunications), I finally switched it to Ao. 

I left IIo in as the main draconic word, but have it having been bastardized by the common races to make the word Ao. Still, even if I am telling stories from a draconic viewpoint, I will probably use the bastardized versions just to avoid people screwing it up.


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## Astner (Sep 7, 2012)

Ao? As in alpha-omega?

Anyway, using both Iio and Ao would make it more interesting, especially if people made varying theories about whether or not they are the same.


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## Jabrosky (Sep 7, 2012)

I don't have a name for my whole current world yet and probably don't really need one yet, but I name my civilizations after the natural elements they worship (e.g. Sun, Moon, Earth, Water, etc.).


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## Vidar (Sep 7, 2012)

I have found a name now that I feel fits pretty well to my overall idea, the Latin word for Expanse "Spatium". 

I had come up with "Jordheim" until I realised its used in an MMO! lol


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## Astner (Sep 7, 2012)

I personally feel that directly translated words are a bit transparent, especially now when we have Internet access. It literally boils down to: _What is this word in Latian? Let's Google it!_ That's why I take the extra step ciphering it by changing a segment of the translated word or twist it to fit a pronunciation I prefer more.

Though I'll admit that Spatium is a bit difficult to work with because _spatial_ is an English word, and _-um_ a common suffix in Latin.

Either way to a native English speaker would put an emphasis on the r in Jord. But it's actually closer to Jōd.

So you can work with that creating Iōrd-, Iord-, Jōd-, Jod-, and then end it with some prefix like -iem, -ien, -ard, etc. An example would be Iordien.

A structure like that would make it more unique and seem more creative once you put it into Google's search engine.


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## FatCat (Sep 7, 2012)

I agree with Astner about direct language translations, thats a bit lazy in my mind. Personally, I just get an idea of what the cultures are like and roll with it from their, so usually its within the same styling as country/personal names.


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## Vidar (Sep 7, 2012)

Astner said:


> I personally feel that directly translated words are a bit transparent, especially now when we have Internet access. It literally boils down to: _What is this word in Latian? Let's Google it!_ That's why I take the extra step ciphering it by changing a segment of the translated word or twist it to fit a pronunciation I prefer more.
> 
> Though I'll admit that Spatium is a bit difficult to work with because _spatial_ is an English word, and _-um_ a common suffix in Latin.
> 
> ...



What Cipher technique do you use out of curiosity?


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## Astner (Sep 7, 2012)

The closest to a direct cipher would be the Hill cipher. Of course the word that comes out of it has to sound good.


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## Zero Angel (Sep 7, 2012)

Astner said:


> Ao? As in alpha-omega?
> 
> Anyway, using both Iio and Ao would make it more interesting, especially if people made varying theories about whether or not they are the same.



-_- never even thought of that. No, just the phonetic pronunciation of IIo, although "ee-o", "a yo" "ee-yo" as well as even "eye -o" are all acceptable pronunciations.


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## CupofJoe (Sep 7, 2012)

For those of us with too much time on their hands... Seventh Sanctum


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## Jabrosky (Sep 7, 2012)

The problem with naming a whole world, especially a multicultural one, is that each of your various cultures will probably have their own name for the planet assuming linguistic diversity. I don't want to privilege one of my cultures over the rest by choosing their name for the world.


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## Astner (Sep 7, 2012)

Jabrosky said:


> The problem with naming a whole world, especially a multicultural one, is that each of your various cultures will probably have their own name for the planet assuming linguistic diversity. I don't want to privilege one of my cultures over the rest by choosing their name for the world.


You don't have to name every location in every language, just the main one. Smaller cultures are probably very limited in their understanding of the world.


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## Mindfire (Sep 7, 2012)

Jabrosky said:


> The problem with naming a whole world, especially a multicultural one, is that each of your various cultures will probably have their own name for the planet assuming linguistic diversity. I don't want to privilege one of my cultures over the rest by choosing their name for the world.



Well presumably all of those diverse languages have a common orign, right? That is, assuming all of your cultures have a common origin. If that's the case, their name for "earth" could be a legacy word that's been passed down from that ancient common language and is now rendered only slightly differently in their various dialects.


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## Snowpoint (Sep 7, 2012)

Earth = Dirt. The world is just a thing you stand on. And you stand on dirt. 

The main world in Magic: the Gathering is Dominaria. Long story short, Dominaria = Song of the Universe. Refering to the main world as the largest and most important there is.

So there are a couple of ways to name your world. Use Real Languages, or made-up ones. The names of places isn't the most important thing. 

Name your planet Sluggmaggot until the first draft is finnished, and then change it.


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## Zero Angel (Sep 7, 2012)

Jabrosky said:


> The problem with naming a whole world, especially a multicultural one, is that each of your various cultures will probably have their own name for the planet assuming linguistic diversity. I don't want to privilege one of my cultures over the rest by choosing their name for the world.



What's wrong with having multiple names? Just have the name that the cultures you are following use. For instance, I have that dragons named the world. Since they were alive before the creation of the world, this name became pretty pervasive. They named it IIo. This name has been adopted throughout the younger races of the planet, typically written as "Ao". 

When the elves invaded from their universe, they called the new world "true home", which in their language was written, "Faeritas" which eventually devolved to "Aerth". When their slave race (the humes) overthrew their race, they started calling the planet "Earth". 

To the dwarves, which came into existence as the planet's natural reaction to the invasion of the outsider elves, they also adopted the word "Earth" but used it strictly to refer to the physical constitution of the planet--i.e. dirt and rocks and so forth. For the planet itself, dwarves call it "Wochirden", or basely, "Wochan". This is the name (formal and familiar forms respectively) of the eternal, internal star of the planet that is their chief deity. 

In fact, dwarves will usually argue that the came up with the word "earth" and the elves perverted it for their own use. Nowadays, the elves only call their chief continent "Aerth" and when they speak of the world itself, they speak of Ao. When a dwarf uses the word "Ao", they are either bowing to the customs of other races (rare) or they are referring specifically to the universe that houses Wochirden. 

When dragons (or demons) speak the undiluted versions of their true language(s), a single word can fill up a book with meaning. Their languages is (are) ultra-condensed (ultra ultra ultra). "IIo" is usually translated as "The Last Sanctuary", but it has a plethora of other denotations and connotations.


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## Mindfire (Sep 7, 2012)

Zero Angel said:


> I have that dragons named the world. Since *they were alive before the creation of the world*, this name became pretty pervasive.



_Space dragons?_


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## Vidar (Sep 7, 2012)

Jabrosky said:


> The problem with naming a whole world, especially a multicultural one, is that each of your various cultures will probably have their own name for the planet assuming linguistic diversity. I don't want to privilege one of my cultures over the rest by choosing their name for the world.



Actually that is kind of a central premise to my idea, the ruling class as it where with supernatural abilities and knowledge....


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## Astner (Sep 7, 2012)

Mindfire said:


> _Space dragons?_


I think he means that the dragons were more abstract entities before they took the form of what's now known as dragons.


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## Chime85 (Sep 7, 2012)

well why not a combination of sounds. Surely at some point in history, these three species have contacted each other? I personally imagine one of the first things they wanted to get out of the way was to talk about the name of the rock they were standing on.

Now consider that this: 





Jabrosky said:


> The problem with naming a whole world, especially a multicultural one, is that each of your various cultures will probably have their own name for the planet assuming linguistic diversity. I don't want to privilege one of my cultures over the rest by choosing their name for the world.



is likely to have happened *before* the big three got together, perhaps consider what each species would call earth, then combine that idea.

silly example, but:

Humans (H), Vampires (V) and warewolves (W);

H=d*we*lling
V=*s*urrounding
W=hunting grou*nds*

why not a mix, eg: Swends.

Very silly and primitive example, but you get where I'm driving at, surely, please..... lol. Make a decision of a name for the planet and create a mixture to determine a common cause. You said they communicate, use that as a solution instead of a problem


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## JacobMGibney (Sep 7, 2012)

In my universe the Gods name the planet, (there are many Gods and many human inhabited planets) and the one I'm working on is called Varsule  It makes it easier for me this way at least, the name doesn't really have to have any real meaning!


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## Zero Angel (Sep 8, 2012)

Mindfire said:


> _Space dragons?_





Astner said:


> I think he means that the dragons were more abstract entities before they took the form of what's now known as dragons.



I guess space dragons is the most apt way to describe them...I guess--although they're really from another universe. Here's the quote from a "history of the world" document I wrote a few years back for my own reference:



> In the beginning, there was magick. In every way, it was and still is the very fabric of the cosmos. Over the aeons, the magick polarized into the Aether and the Nether. The two magicks were the antithesis of each other, and upon meeting in such infinite quantities exploded and formed the Biverse: the two universes, one of Aether and one of Nether.
> 
> The Aether Realms were ruled by the many god-creatures that would someday be known as dragons. Utilizing the magicks of Aether they created a Paradise for the trillions of creatures spawning from the Aether.
> 
> ...


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## JadedSidhe (Sep 10, 2012)

This may seem too simplistic, but I have a world map and a map of the United States on my wall for, among other things, naming people and places when I get stuck. It happens a lot, I am terrible at names. 

If you take the time to look at some of the cities on a map, there are a lot that have strange or exotic spellings and sounds (not that I'm pronouncing them correctly). There will be places on the maps that draw my attention, the 'yes, these have the right feel'  moment. I'll find a name that I like and I'll start tweaking it. 

Macara in Ecaudor became Maccarra. Its still going through changes, currently its Makkara.

Elysia was derived partly from my love of Equilibrium and Greek mythology. The largest human base culture of Elysia was Greek with a few other cultures derived from a demographics of Greece.


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