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need a name for a town

Queshire

Auror
I'm working on a side project and I need a name for my character's home town, it's a modern day setting, and it's a small Minnesotan town, I don't want to use a real town since I'm afraid of insulting somebody but coming up with a name is hard. The town's very small, so small that the nearest walmart is a half hour's drive away and its most famous for the factory that makes lawn gnomes were a good chunk of its citizens work.

By the way this is based (loosely) on my hometown.

Currently I'm thinking of Wyrd, Minnesotam but that's a bit corny.
 
If the name itself doesn't have to convey anything, then pick a small town from another state and use that. That way it sounds plausible but isn't a real place (e.g. there's no city named Freeville in Colorado, but there is one in New York).
 

DPayne

Dreamer
For some reason when I read the part about the town being known for it's lawn gnome producing factory; I was looking for a way to use the term "Gnome-land Security".
 

Ghost

Inkling
My personal tactic is to look at common names like the ones in this list and check it against what exists in that state.

Minnesota has a lot of lakes, so you could have a town named after a lake. You could combine any two common words to make a new one up like Elk Town. I don't see a Polk or a Monroe (eta: oops, there's a Polk County). Some names of Minnesotan governors sound good for towns. You could borrow a name from another state or country, like Frankfurt, Bergen, Antioch, Carthage, etc. I see a Badger, MN. Maybe you could have a Gopher or Marten to match. ;)

You could really use any word or name, famous or not. Honestly, they have names like Blackduck, Plato, and and Staples. Half the names I brainstormed came up on a Google search. I think you'd have to try to make a town name that doesn't fit because there's everything from Alpha to Zemple.

I really like Bigtooth (a kind of Aspen) for a Minnesota town name. It makes me think of trappers in cabins who make their own hard liquor.
 
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Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
Not to mention there are loads of NAtive American names. I'm from Wisconsin, and there are mostly Native American (Algonquin, Milwaukee...) named places, places named for features (Whitefish Bay, River Bend, Whitewater...) and things named by settlers (Germantown, New Glarus, New Berlin...)

Hope that helps!
 
You could look up the names of towns in Norway, pick one that sounds interesting or kind of funny, and Anglicize it. Sandefjord could become Sanderford, Larvik could become Larvick, Haugesund could become Hoggeson, and so on.
 

Leif GS Notae

Closed Account
Actually, Wyrd works for me on a personal level. Wyrd is a concept of fate to the Norse, so I think with it being in Minnesota, it would work. You can change it up a bit, if you'd like.

Sometimes going with your gut works out better than overthinking it, right? I'd say take the name and run with it.
 

SeverinR

Vala
Half hour to the nearest wal-mart? :O (fifteen minutes to the closest for me, 15 minutes to one, 17 minutes to the second and 20 minutes to a third.)

I would look at names of towns in our around the state. Towns sometimes have a theme or pattern to them. You could always do a persons name as a town.
 
I don't know - down here in the South, we have some very interesting names for cities in Alabama. My favorite city names here are Slapout, Opp, Waugh, and Sylacauga.

The story beyond Slapout, Alabama was there was an old Mom and Pop place that is pretty much like the general store. Any time someone would come in and ask for something they didn't have the owners would say they were "Slap Out" of it. As the general store was the hub of the small town - it's how the town got named.

My reason for Opp is because there is a customer that calls every so often asking we go to O-P-P. He doesn't realize that it's said Opp (like Hop) - he always spells it out.

Waugh is also a fun one because people aren't sure how to pronounce it either. It's like AAW with a Wh sound in front. Wh-aw.

And who doesn't like saying the word Sylacauga.
 
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