Rate my 100 Nation Names

[evolution_rex]

I am in the beginnings of a world-building project set in a massive Europe-like continent with early 1900s technology, set shortly after a great war. There were 100 nations at the start of this war but by the end of it 55 of those will have collapsed/taken over/or absorbed by other nations. I compiled a list of names I created using varying methods, influenced by different fantasy naming conventions. Some were made with logic and ideas behind them, some of them just sounded cool, and others purely made to sound acceptable so I could get to the desired number of countries.

I would appreciate opinions! The names you say are the best are definitely the names of the nations that win the war, and the bad ones won’t be used much in the project or get nixed if you have a good case as to why the name is bad. Would also love to know what mental images you have based solely on the names.

The names are separated geographically.

Central:
Dosbatten
Daggstan
Hunover
Hess
Roos
Taxssony
Traste
True Traste Republic
Duant
Rands
Losgartten
Ogweltch
Vergewalt
Flintracht
Jaruthern
Saintlund
Canslandzter
Grand Silver-Steel Empire
Krichton
Ogrelund
Kahemitten
Korpertocht
Bellendhund
Troldoggen
Mistlund
Queenstan
Farmenhost
Groglund
Whoolweltch
Lourland
Osteracht
Oaklund

West Coast:
Milton
Avrignon
Yire
Holy Unified Griffaine
Baylance
Narebel
Laybrick
Allstone’s Land
Virgille
Wicora
Olm
Elder Olm
Chastica
Caravany

Southern West Coast:
Cowapaia
Cutta Maystra
Modrenna
Tsamagrello
Dura Dora
Poretius
Apolla
Free Peoples of Amethysia
Sepeth Isle
Grenaldy
Civilia
Carlisi
Great Palasa
Cardinalia
Tyrus
Dragonia

Northern Coast:
Bjorbardty
Nakhaven
Whiteland
Swidos
East Norkiter
West Norkiter
Tullcoste
Somre
Krakencoste
Tusktonn
Rosco

East:
Gargantua
Zaar
Gorea
Soldier’s Kingdom
Arnov
Windrov
Mothros
Chevoski
Czeec
Dansc
Shashka
Chessa
Gawsgrovia
Drakaw

Southern East:
Arsakh
Azurjian
Eviran
Moresset
Blessed People’s Empire
Annhul
Republic of the Great Pathway
Nople
Lineese
Pasklor
Grekka
Manimore

 

[Queshire]

Even if you have 100 nations you're not going to want more than, hm.... twelve names or so? The 100 nations is a snappy enough title on its own, but readers aren't going to like trying to keep 100 names straight.

 

[evolution_rex]

Even if you have 100 nations you're not going to want more than, hm.... twelve names or so? The 100 nations is a snappy enough title on its own, but readers aren't going to like trying to keep 100 names straight.

This specific element is more for my internal world building rather than what might be on the page narratively. Correct, most countries will not be mentioned. Still, I would like opinions regardless, especially because the names people like more would help me determine which countries are those hypothetical twelve or so you mention.

 

[Jackarandajam]

I am in the beginnings of a world-building project set in a massive Europe-like continent with early 1900s technology, set shortly after a great war. There were 100 nations at the start of this war but by the end of it 55 of those will have collapsed/taken over/or absorbed by other nations. I compiled a list of names I created using varying methods, influenced by different fantasy naming conventions. Some were made with logic and ideas behind them, some of them just sounded cool, and others purely made to sound acceptable so I could get to the desired number of countries.

I would appreciate opinions! The names you say are the best are definitely the names of the nations that win the war, and the bad ones won’t be used much in the project or get nixed if you have a good case as to why the name is bad. Would also love to know what mental images you have based solely on the names.

The names are separated geographically.

Central:
Dosbatten
Daggstan
Hunover
Hess
Roos
Taxssony
Traste
True Traste Republic
Duant
Rands
Losgartten
Ogweltch
Vergewalt
Flintracht
Jaruthern
Saintlund
Canslandzter
Grand Silver-Steel Empire
Krichton
Ogrelund
Kahemitten
Korpertocht
Bellendhund
Troldoggen
Mistlund
Queenstan
Farmenhost
Groglund
Whoolweltch
Lourland
Osteracht
Oaklund

West Coast:
Milton
Avrignon
Yire
Holy Unified Griffaine
Baylance
Narebel
Laybrick
Allstone’s Land
Virgille
Wicora
Olm
Elder Olm
Chastica
Caravany

Southern West Coast:
Cowapaia
Cutta Maystra
Modrenna
Tsamagrello
Dura Dora
Poretius
Apolla
Free Peoples of Amethysia
Sepeth Isle
Grenaldy
Civilia
Carlisi
Great Palasa
Cardinalia
Tyrus
Dragonia

Northern Coast:
Bjorbardty
Nakhaven
Whiteland
Swidos
East Norkiter
West Norkiter
Tullcoste
Somre
Krakencoste
Tusktonn
Rosco

East:
Gargantua
Zaar
Gorea
Soldier’s Kingdom
Arnov
Windrov
Mothros
Chevoski
Czeec
Dansc
Shashka
Chessa
Gawsgrovia
Drakaw

Southern East:
Arsakh
Azurjian
Eviran
Moresset
Blessed People’s Empire
Annhul
Republic of the Great Pathway
Nople
Lineese
Pasklor
Grekka
Manimore

Central:
Dosbatten - black forest-y, cottage in the woods, superstitious
Daggstan - proud and militant, iron
Hunover - coastal, arcadian
Hess - generic, small town with a tavern
Roos - generic, small town with a tavern
Taxssony - religious center
Traste - nomadic, tribal lands
True Traste Republic - cultivated tribal city center
Duant - knights, nobility, proud
Rands - generic, small town with a tavern
Losgartten - commune, peace loving flower people
Ogweltch - slummy
Vergewalt - neighbor of/ like Taxssony
Flintracht - piratey
Jaruthern - mountain stronghold
Saintlund - legendary land of the Golden Army to the west
Canslandzter - scummy, traders
Grand Silver-Steel Empire
Krichton - pearl divers, superstitious sea people
Ogrelund - hard winter warriors, ice-eaters
Kahemitten - neighbor of/ like Losgartten
Korpertocht - neighbor of/like Taxonny, meaner.
Bellendhund - hunters, valley dwellers
Troldoggen - competes with Ogrelund for who's meaner and harder
Mistlund - a sweeping swath of dont-go-there
Queenstan - generic, small town with a tavern
Farmenhost - generic, small town with a tavern
Groglund - haha, alcoholics
Whoolweltch - generic, small town with a tavern
Lourland - mining capital, miserable place
Osteracht - small pointy place in the mountains, hermits
Oaklund - close to Dosbatten

West Coast:
Milton - fancy
Avrignon - fancier
Yire - banks and beat up homeless people
Holy Unified Griffaine - think they're cooler than they are, subsect of the major religion
Baylance - coastal, generic, small town with a tavern
Narebel - generic, small town with a tavern
Laybrick - generic, small town with a tavern
Allstone’s Land - commune, run by a charismatic nutcase cult leader
Virgille - boring people
Wicora - vacation spot, lots of willow trees
Olm - generic, small town with a tavern
Elder Olm - run down, grumpy squatters in ancient ruins
Chastica - fancy
Caravany - fabulous

Southern West Coast:
Cowapaia - pizza eating turtle ninjas
Cutta Maystra - creepy magicians
Modrenna - big city, infighting
Tsamagrello - generic, small town with a tavern
Dura Dora - floating city on a huge volcanic lake
Poretius - Roman, fat and proud, fancy
Apolla - debates with poretius on how to cook pigs feet
Free Peoples of Amethysia - rebellious by nature, difficult to deal with
Sepeth Isle - tough weed-eating goatherds
Grenaldy - militant, rowdy
Civilia - generic, small town with a tavern
Carlisi - generic, small town with a tavern
Great Palasa - trade center
Cardinalia - generic, small town with a tavern
Tyrus - spartans
Dragonia - rocky foothills, falconers

Northern Coast:
Bjorbardty - jolly
Nakhaven - untrustworthy lickboots
Whiteland - not black
Swidos - incredible navy, ninjas
East Norkiter - very religious and superstitious
West Norkiter - hedonists
Tullcoste - generic, small town with a tavern
Somre - generic, small town with a tavern
Krakencoste - piratey
Tusktonn - oldest city in the continent
Rosco - generic, small town with a tavern

East:
Gargantua - real big
Zaar - friendly, dangerous indigenous
Gorea - Zaars enemy
Soldier’s Kingdom - mercs, dumpster fire of a city
Arnov - generic, small town with a tavern
Windrov - generic, small town with a tavern
Mothros - religious center
Chevoski - schools, learning center
Czeec - party city next to Chevoski
Dansc - generic, small town with a tavern
Shashka - close to Zaar
Chessa - generic, small town with a tavern
Gawsgrovia - secretive forest ninjas
Drakaw - untrustworthy

Southern East:
Arsakh - traders, untrustworthy
Azurjian - if you told me this was a real country I would believe you.
Eviran - basically Hawaii but close to the coast in a shallow sea
Moresset - boring people
Blessed People’s Empire - sounds like some supremists to me
Annhul - warlike
Republic of the Great Pathway - trading capital of the world
Nople - generic, small town with a tavern
Lineese - generic, small town with a tavern
Pasklor - small enthusiastic kingdom
Grekka - Pasklors friendemy competition
Manimore - boring people

 

[evolution_rex]

Central:
Dosbatten - black forest-y, cottage in the woods, superstitious
Daggstan - proud and militant, iron
Hunover - coastal, arcadian
Hess - generic, small town with a tavern
Roos - generic, small town with a tavern
Taxssony - religious center
Traste - nomadic, tribal lands
True Traste Republic - cultivated tribal city center
Duant - knights, nobility, proud
Rands - generic, small town with a tavern
Losgartten - commune, peace loving flower people
Ogweltch - slummy
Vergewalt - neighbor of/ like Taxssony
Flintracht - piratey
Jaruthern - mountain stronghold
Saintlund - legendary land of the Golden Army to the west
Canslandzter - scummy, traders
Grand Silver-Steel Empire
Krichton - pearl divers, superstitious sea people
Ogrelund - hard winter warriors, ice-eaters
Kahemitten - neighbor of/ like Losgartten
Korpertocht - neighbor of/like Taxonny, meaner.
Bellendhund - hunters, valley dwellers
Troldoggen - competes with Ogrelund for who's meaner and harder
Mistlund - a sweeping swath of dont-go-there
Queenstan - generic, small town with a tavern
Farmenhost - generic, small town with a tavern
Groglund - haha, alcoholics
Whoolweltch - generic, small town with a tavern
Lourland - mining capital, miserable place
Osteracht - small pointy place in the mountains, hermits
Oaklund - close to Dosbatten

West Coast:
Milton - fancy
Avrignon - fancier
Yire - banks and beat up homeless people
Holy Unified Griffaine - think they're cooler than they are, subsect of the major religion
Baylance - coastal, generic, small town with a tavern
Narebel - generic, small town with a tavern
Laybrick - generic, small town with a tavern
Allstone’s Land - commune, run by a charismatic nutcase cult leader
Virgille - boring people
Wicora - vacation spot, lots of willow trees
Olm - generic, small town with a tavern
Elder Olm - run down, grumpy squatters in ancient ruins
Chastica - fancy
Caravany - fabulous

Southern West Coast:
Cowapaia - pizza eating turtle ninjas
Cutta Maystra - creepy magicians
Modrenna - big city, infighting
Tsamagrello - generic, small town with a tavern
Dura Dora - floating city on a huge volcanic lake
Poretius - Roman, fat and proud, fancy
Apolla - debates with poretius on how to cook pigs feet
Free Peoples of Amethysia - rebellious by nature, difficult to deal with
Sepeth Isle - tough weed-eating goatherds
Grenaldy - militant, rowdy
Civilia - generic, small town with a tavern
Carlisi - generic, small town with a tavern
Great Palasa - trade center
Cardinalia - generic, small town with a tavern
Tyrus - spartans
Dragonia - rocky foothills, falconers

Northern Coast:
Bjorbardty - jolly
Nakhaven - untrustworthy lickboots
Whiteland - not black
Swidos - incredible navy, ninjas
East Norkiter - very religious and superstitious
West Norkiter - hedonists
Tullcoste - generic, small town with a tavern
Somre - generic, small town with a tavern
Krakencoste - piratey
Tusktonn - oldest city in the continent
Rosco - generic, small town with a tavern

East:
Gargantua - real big
Zaar - friendly, dangerous indigenous
Gorea - Zaars enemy
Soldier’s Kingdom - mercs, dumpster fire of a city
Arnov - generic, small town with a tavern
Windrov - generic, small town with a tavern
Mothros - religious center
Chevoski - schools, learning center
Czeec - party city next to Chevoski
Dansc - generic, small town with a tavern
Shashka - close to Zaar
Chessa - generic, small town with a tavern
Gawsgrovia - secretive forest ninjas
Drakaw - untrustworthy

Southern East:
Arsakh - traders, untrustworthy
Azurjian - if you told me this was a real country I would believe you.
Eviran - basically Hawaii but close to the coast in a shallow sea
Moresset - boring people
Blessed People’s Empire - sounds like some supremists to me
Annhul - warlike
Republic of the Great Pathway - trading capital of the world
Nople - generic, small town with a tavern
Lineese - generic, small town with a tavern
Pasklor - small enthusiastic kingdom
Grekka - Pasklors friendemy competition
Manimore - boring people

Thank you for the in-depth response! The teenage mutant ninja turtle country will be noted. As for Azurjian, I believe that was one of 20 or so I created while researching real former nations, so there was once a country with a similar name.

 

[Ban]

I will be blunt in this comment, so I hope you don't mind. You seem to have gone for five main approaches here. Number one being the bastardization of real world places. The second is the creation of portmanteaus and compounds via garbled German and English. The third is a noun + a variation of land. The fourth is extending an English word. And your fifth approach is to string a number of English words together. My honest opinion is that these methods do not create an engaging list of names, because of two reasons. For one, the source material in many of these is far too apparent for me to believe that the world you are creating is distinct from our own (and thus worth exploring). And number two is that you aren't creating a sense of place here. Why are half of these places either English or German derived? How would that come about in a fictitious setting? Using either English or German I could conceive of as a stylistic choice to streamline the setting, but using both at the same time strikes me as a lack of a strong creative vision.

If I were you, I would sit down and figure out what I'd want to achieve. Is this setting a serious fantasy, or is it a satire? Using methods one or two would be fine if you are writing an overt satire or parody, but would otherwise grate on me (one's mileage may vary). Personally, I don't like the fourth method in any instance, as I find it far too obvious as a reader and thus rather dull (Could there be dragons in Dragonia I wonder?). If you want to create a fantasy that stands on its own two feet, then I'd remove the names from one and four entirely, and figure out for yourself what your precise vision is. To illustrate my point, I made the lists below. In the sixth list I organized the names that didn't obviously align with any of your five naming patterns from what I could gather on a first read. While I don't like all of them, they have the most potential for creating a unique setting (that isn't satirical).

1. Real world places
Hunover: Hannover
Hess: Hesse
Taxssony: Saxony
Osteracht: Österreich
Lourland: Courland
Avrignon: Avignon
Yire: Éire (i.e Ireland)
Modrenna: Modena
Olm: Ulm
Traste: Trieste
Grenaldy: Grenada
Czeec; Czechia
Dansc: Dansk (i.e Danish, i.e Denmark)
Drakaw: Krakow
Arsakh: Artsakh
Azurjian: Azerbaijan
Moresset: Neutral Moresnet
Annhul: Anhalt (From Saxon-Anhalt)
Grekka: Greece
Gorea: Korea
Swidos: Sweden

2. German and English portmanteaus and compounds
Losgartten: Loose garden
Vergewalt: Far Violence (Dutch + German)
Flintracht: Flint Garb (English (flint) + German (tracht))
Bellendhund: Bellend Hound (So just a jerk of a dog?)
Troldoggen: Troll dog (Again, a bad dog?)
Korpertocht: Body journey (German + Dutch)
Farmenhost: Farm host
Whoolweltch
Laybrick
Baylance

3. Noun + land (These are obvious, but why use an English noun without using the corresponding "land"? Why "lund" and "stan"?)
Mistlund
Ogrelund
Oaklund
Saintlund
Groglund
Queenstan
Daggstan
Canslandzter
Whiteland

4. Word extension
Virgille: The poet Virgil
Apolla: Female version of the god Apollo
Civilia: Civil +ia
Chastica: Chaste -e +ica
Dragonia: Dragon +ia
Cardinalia: Cardinal +ia
Caravany: Caravan +y
Gargantua: Gargantuan -n
Free Peoples of Amethysia: Amethyst -t +ia
Holy Unified Griffaine: Griffin -in +aine

5. List of English Words
Allstone’s Land
Blessed People’s Empire
Republic of the Great Pathway
Soldier’s Kingdom
Grand Silver-Steel Empire

6. The rest
Dosbatten
Roos
Duant
Rands
Jaruthern
Krichton
Wicora
Cowapaia
Cutta Maystra
Tsamagrello
Dura Dora
Poretius
Sepeth Isle
Carlisi
Great Palasa
Tyrus
Bjorbardty
Nakhaven
East Norkiter
West Norkiter
Tullcoste
Krakencoste: Kraken Coast presumably
Tusktonn
Rosco
Zaar
Arnov
Windrov
Mothros
Chevoski
Shashka
Chessa
Gawsgrovia
Eviran
Nople
Lineese
Pasklor
Manimore
Kahemitten
Narebel
Ogweltch
Somre: The Somme? Not too obvious if so.

7. Bonus list: Milton
Milton: A fairly common surname. I'd also leave it out.

 

[evolution_rex]

I will be blunt in this comment, so I hope you don't mind. You seem to have gone for five main approaches here. Number one being the bastardization of real world places. The second is the creation of portmanteaus and compounds via garbled German and English. The third is a noun + a variation of land. The fourth is extending an English word. And your fifth approach is to string a number of English words together. My honest opinion is that these methods do not create an engaging list of names, because of two reasons. For one, the source material in many of these is far too apparent for me to believe that the world you are creating is distinct from our own (and thus worth exploring). And number two is that you aren't creating a sense of place here. Why are half of these places either English or German derived? How would that come about in a fictitious setting? Using either English or German I could conceive of as a stylistic choice to streamline the setting, but using both at the same time strikes me as a lack of a strong creative vision.

If I were you, I would sit down and figure out what I'd want to achieve. Is this setting a serious fantasy, or is it a satire? Using methods one or two would be fine if you are writing an overt satire or parody, but would otherwise grate on me (one's mileage may vary). Personally, I don't like the fourth method in any instance, as I find it far too obvious as a reader and thus rather dull (Could there be dragons in Dragonia I wonder?). If you want to create a fantasy that stands on its own two feet, then I'd remove the names from one and four entirely, and figure out for yourself what your precise vision is. To illustrate my point, I made the lists below. In the sixth list I organized the names that didn't obviously align with any of your five naming patterns from what I could gather on a first read.

1. Real world places
Hunover: Hannover
Hess: Hesse
Taxssony: Saxony
Osteracht: Österreich
Lourland: Courland
Avrignon: Avignon
Yire: Éire (i.e Ireland)
Modrenna: Modena
Olm: Ulm
Traste: Trieste
Grenaldy: Grenada
Czeec; Czechia
Dansc: Dansk (i.e Denmark)
Drakaw: Krakow
Arsakh: Artsakh
Azurjian: Azerbaijan
Moresset: Neutral Moresnet
Annhul: Anhalt (From Saxon-Anhalt)
Grekka: Greece
Gorea: Korea
Swidos: Sweden
Somre: The Somme?

2. German and English portmanteaus and compounds
Losgartten: Loose garden
Vergewalt: Far Violence (Dutch + German)
Flintracht: Flint Garb (English (flint) + German (tracht))
Bellendhund: Bellend Hound (So just a jerk of a dog?)
Troldoggen: Troll dog (Again, a bad dog?)
Korpertocht: Body journey (German + Dutch)
Farmenhost: Farm host
Whoolweltch
Laybrick
Baylance

3. Noun + land (These are obvious, but why use an English noun without using the corresponding "land"? Why "lund" and "stan"?)
Mistlund
Ogrelund
Oaklund
Saintlund
Groglund
Queenstan
Daggstan
Canslandzter
Whiteland

4. Word extension
Virgille: The poet Virgil
Apolla: Female version of the god Apollo
Civilia: Civil +ia
Chastica: Chaste -e +ica
Dragonia: Dragon +ia
Cardinalia: Cardinal +ia
Caravany: Caravan +y
Gargantua: Gargantuan -n
Free Peoples of Amethysia: Amethyst -t +ia
Holy Unified Griffaine: Griffin -in +aine

5. List of English Words
Allstone’s Land
Blessed People’s Empire
Republic of the Great Pathway
Soldier’s Kingdom
Grand Silver-Steel Empire

6. The rest
Dosbatten
Roos
Duant
Rands
Jaruthern
Krichton
Wicora
Cowapaia
Cutta Maystra
Tsamagrello
Dura Dora
Poretius
Sepeth Isle
Carlisi
Great Palasa
Tyrus
Bjorbardty
Nakhaven
East Norkiter
West Norkiter
Tullcoste
Krakencoste: Kraken Coast presumably
Tusktonn
Rosco
Zaar
Arnov
Windrov
Mothros
Chevoski
Shashka
Chessa
Gawsgrovia
Eviran
Nople
Lineese
Pasklor
Manimore
Kahemitten
Narebel

7. Bonus list: Milton
Milton: A fairly common surname. I'd also leave it out.

Oof, I wasn’t expecting such a critical comment. You did a pretty good job at dissecting the origins of my methods BUT you interpreted meaning into some names where there were none and didn’t catch the origin of quite a few so I’ll take that as a win. I guess I did go too far in being inspired by real life places but I’ll just say Avrignon and Dansc were actually complete coincidence, but I will definitely nix those because they are way too close to real world counterparts. Some of those I still have no problem with the similarities. Olm is actually an animal.

I will defend list number 4, as many real life places have obvious origins. Of course Cardinalia and Dragonia are clearly named after the bird and the legendary creature, I have no problem with that sort of obviousness.

As for the use of ‘lund’ I imagined it as land in a slightly different language. As the nations get more inland the less English it sounds and the more Germanic it becomes, and while ‘lund’ isn’t German it was sort of my reasoning. You ask why some things are in English some in German, and that’s simply because geographically some areas or more English inspired and some more Germanic. I don’t see that as inconsistent. I felt my vision for that was strong. I deliberately want to evoke Germany and Great Britain in a story inspired by WWI and WWII, and I’m not necessarily trying to hide that aesthetically. I understand that I asked people to rate these without context, but I was hoping they’d somewhat speak for themselves. They do, you noticed it, so I’ll call that strong (though perhaps not good, which I’ll simmer on).

What do you consider good methods of naming? You disliked the methods I use for naming anything for fantasy. Outside of conlanging, which I have no interest or skill to do, I’m out of methods.

 

[Ban]

Oof, I wasn’t expecting such a critical comment. You did a pretty good job at dissecting the origins of my methods BUT you interpreted meaning into some names where there were none and didn’t catch the origin of quite a few so I’ll take that as a win. I guess I did go too far in being inspired by real life places but I’ll just say Avrignon and Dansc were actually complete coincidence, but I will definitely nix those because they are way too close to real world counterparts. Some of those I still have no problem with the similarities. Olm is actually an animal, as I have never heard of Ulm.

I will defend list number 4, as many real life places have obvious origins. Of course Cardinalia and Dragonia are clearly named after the bird and the legendary creature, I have no problem with that sort of obviousness.

As for the use of ‘lund’ I imagined it as land in a slightly different language. As the nations get more inland the less English it sounds and the more Germanic it becomes, and while ‘lund’ isn’t German it was sort of my reasoning. You ask why some things are in English some in German, and that’s simply because geographically some areas or more English inspired and some more Germanic. I don’t see that as inconsistent. I felt my vision for that was strong.

What do you consider good methods of naming? You disliked the methods I use for naming anything for fantasy. Outside of conlanging, which I have no interest or skill to do, I’m out of methods.

Lund indeed isn't German, which wasn't what I meant to imply. But the nouns you combine with lund are all regular English nouns. If you want to represent a linguistic change, why only change the land portion to lund and stan (Queenstan), without also altering the nouns (Ogre, Oak, Saint, Grog)?

I didn't state that the naming conventions you have used are wrong, nor that I disliked them. What I did state is that the way in which you use them creates an inconsistent view without a clear apparent vision. Are you creating a satire or a serious setting? Is this world dependent on the real world? Do you want to represent reality or create a stylised world? These questions ought to guide your naming conventions.

 

[evolution_rex]

Lund indeed isn't German, which wasn't what I meant to imply. But the nouns you combine with lund are all regular English nouns. If you want to represent a linguistic change, why only change the land portion to lund and stan (Queenstan), without also altering the nouns (Ogre, Saint, etcetera)?

I didn't state that the naming conventions you have used are wrong, nor that I disliked them. What I did state is that the way in which you use them creates an inconsistent view without a clear apparent vision. Are you creating a satire or a serious setting? Do you want to represent reality or create a stylised world?

I edited my comment which gives a little more context into the world. But, yes, serious, and of course stylized.

 

[Ban]

I edited my comment which gives a little more context into the world. But, yes, serious, and of course stylized.

With the additional context it would be more than fine to use both German and English sources. If anything, I'd say you should commit to that choice and lean into it. An immersive setting does not need to represent reality, but it does need consistency and confidence. That way you show that you have made an intentional aesthetic choice. I'd recommend you cut down on the real-world names, as well as the non-obvious names (1+6) and replace many of them with English and German derived names (2+3+4+5). That way you tell the audience that you know what you want from your world and that there is a vision behind the setting.

And as stated before, if you wish to include linguistic shifts, I believe those should more holistically diverge. Not "Saintlund", but "Sintlund" for example.

 

[Finchbearer]

The thing that stands out to me is that the ones that are intended to sound British, don’t. Where I’ve set my worldbuilding in a British inspired place, I’ve looked at the map. OS maps are also way more detailed and give more local names.

These are some names I’ve made up to sound ‘English’ for example;

Guild
Haylestone
Lym
Buton
Brampton
Milborne
Witford
Skiping
Stotfield
Watchbird
Midbury
Seading
Axborough

Some of them are just slight spelling variations, as you’ve done, but they’re more in line with smaller cities and towns. I’m not as knowledgable as ban on these things, but as far as etymology goes, many, many place names in England derive from Old English and Norse, where they are Germanic in origin or proto-Germanic. (I think).

These are a few examples of names for another story where I’ve literally lifted them from the real world, but all have far older origins and lend themselves well to my particular setting;

Thurtle Wood
Bog Hall
Head Hag
Easthorpe Hall
Sparrow Hall
Brambling Fields
Whinflower Hall
Five Beeches
Crake hall
Foulbridge
Yedmandale

Not saying what I’m doing is right or wrong, and there may be some purists who nay say taking real world names and using them, but with such great names it’s impossible to bypass some of them.

It’s fun to make these lists nevertheless. Obviously I have similar lists scattered about.

 

[Finchbearer]

Bellendhund: Bellend Hound (So just a jerk of a dog?)

I won’t lie, this one did make me stop in my tracks. Don’t use that one.

 

[Gurkhal]

Personally I wouldn't worry overly much about what kind of associations most of these names gives. The association between the names and their role in the story is in my experience what will matter to the player. Sure, if its a outright special name like "Howdotee" that might be hard to link to neferious and sinister associations in a grimdark or dark and gritty story but unless its on that level the associations through the story will matter more than what reading the name in a list will ever do.

Finchbearer I hate to be that guy, but you might want to reconsider on using "Crake hall" as a name. "Crakehall" is prominent House in A Song of Ice and Fire and while it isn't a name that GRRM originally came up with, it might be too heavily associated with that story in fantasy circles to used without readers thinking you've lifted the name from Asoiaf. If you feel strongly about the use of this name then you can absolutely use it, but I thought that I should mentioned it for your information.

 

[Finchbearer]

Crakehall Hall. It’s a place down the road from where I live. I haven’t yet used any of those specific names yet, and given that they’re real place names, it might be a good idea for me to adapt them as I see fit.