So I have a bit of an issue with worlds that are purely fiction....

[Alison Lawrence]

Worlds that are largely based on 'reality' (like my current project) are fine, I can just use real world cities etc and add the fictional stuff as needed.
I realize now that I'm incredibly lazy sometimes with naming fictional countries/planets.
My go to method is look up x or y significant thing in that country (say an Oasis) and use the translated word for that thing in the language of the region it takes the most inspiration from.

This technique has it's uses, even with characters, but sometimes I feel like I am using it a bit too much, especially with google translate being one of my few resources for translating from english into other languages.

The other method I use is a random name generator which....works, especially for characters, but also feels uninteresting.

It is challenging! I let my imagination loose. I have an 11 year old and nine year old, plus an eighteen year old at home who all have great imaginations. They inspire me. I like Welsh, Irish, and even Afrikaans names. You can rework them a bit. Blessings

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

It is challenging! I let my imagination loose. I have an 11 year old and nine year old, plus an eighteen year old at home who all have great imaginations. They inspire me. I like Welsh, Irish, and even Afrikaans names. You can rework them a bit. Blessings

My main pet peeve with names (this is with any fiction, not just stuff that I write) is I like the names to sound/feel like a place that actually exists?
For example Legend of Zelda's world is called Hyrule, and often times, a lot of the places are entirely fictional names. But at the same time they feel like a world that exists. Hyrule sounds like a proper country name, Louriline village sounds like a real town by the seaside etc. Most games (particularly nintendo, but other companies too) do this kind of thing fairly well, even gacha games (Genshin Impact's planet is called Tyvat, it's tricky to pronounce but it sounds like a place) but when they're done poorly it kind of takes me out of the experience. Sometimes I wonder if there's some trick to it or if the writers of the games/movies/books that do it well, just be doing like me and throwing darts at a dart board lol

I'm kind of good at it? I just wish I was somewhat better at it and I didn't have to worry about using unoriginal stuff as much.

 

[Alison Lawrence]

I guess it's just a matter of time and practice for us all.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I guess it's just a matter of time and practice for us all.

One of my favorite gaming memes is a quote from someone describing the Final fantasy.
"Greek Cities, Latin Surnames, Roman titles (as in lord/lady etc, like society titles), Arthurian weapons"
I forget where the hell the quote comes from, but it's funny and it's absolutely true.

I may start just going with the silly but realistic river river river type naming that someone suggested. Instead of stressing over if it actually sounds lived in or not. I do want to use a general 'logic' though if I can. Like if the culture of a nation is inspired by say, Welsh and Britan, I'd try to use the words from those languages for place names.