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Random name generators are pretty awesome. Place names have always been a fun thing to do for me, when it comes to my fantasy world planning, but I’ve been working on that world for over a decade, and plenty of the names I thought sounded all cool and shit 15 years ago, I’ve since changed because now they sound pretty ridiculous. But when I changed them, I just removed a few letters or rearranged the letters until they didn’t sound silly anymore. For most of those places, I just smooshed a bunch of sounds together until I liked it. Sometimes I’d use a fantasy name generator and mix and match the sounds. My favourite generator for that job is the rinkworks one. And then there’s the description name that you and TCR mentioned. I think taking a description and putting it in a different language, as you explained, is an excellent way to find something that might be unoriginal and make it sound cool for your English audience. Like in one story I had that took place in a central american inspired island. Decided to name it after a marine animal, but used the Spanish name. Isla Raya. In a chinese setting, you could also take words or names from other languages of countries that have warred and fought over land with China, such as mongolia, or indigenous groups in the area. I’m not sure what there is in China. Hmong? Or different dialects. Or just take a given name or a surname in your mythos or from history and use that!

Ok so Ive seen post about naming characters and such, but that's really not what I have a problem with. Like the title says I oftenly find it hard finding names for places and cultures, cities, countries, names of gods and such. I know it depends what type of culture and setting were talking about, for example if I'm doing an ancient China inspired culture I'm not calling a city London or something. I usually gather the names I like and try to kinda spin them or something or I translate words (in google translate if I'm doing a foreign language) like idk “red mountain” or whatever. But I still come up short for many things. Ether the name I really like already exists or it sounds stupid. Does anyone have any suggestions or advice?

Snow? It’s almost spring! Right now, I’m in favor of global warming….

Got super inspired for a scene on Blackbird this morning while listening to Megan Mullally sing “Guilty”. Grabbed my laptop, opened up chappie seventeen, then the inspiration just friggin floated away. Where the frig did it go?! So if y’all see this bitch floating around somewhere, tell em to come home to mama. I got a pair of shackles with its flaky bitchass name on em. For the record, I don’t know why I’m talking like that either.

Well that seems great! Ill try that. Tnx Desi!

Heck, the name for Portland, Oregon was decided by a coin flip. Boston was a contender because one party was from Boston, MA, the other from Portland, Maine, (naming it after the towns they had left) and they agreed to the coin as a way to resolve their disagreement. For regular normal places, if I don’t want it named after an existing location, is I’ll take an existing city, tweak it phonetically. Outside of that, if I’m stuck, I’ll use a random name generator for assistance.

Ramble? You didn't ramble at all tcr wtf are you talking about?! Yeah I think that the description names are mostly the best naming tool for landmarks, especially if I translate them into a different language – red mountain would be Hong mountain in Chinese for example or crvena (planina) mountain in Serbian. So if I'm writing in English it would seem more special to the reader, you know. Anyone else have suggestions?

I’m looking for a REALLY old Seto/Jou fic that I read either here or at the now defunct A_Dragon’s_Lair yahoo group. I remeber that Jou asks Seto to teach him how to act refined so he can impress the person he likes. Kaiba already likes Jou so he is super jealous but agrees anyway. Twos scenes I remember are that 1. Jou ends up living at Seto’s mansion and Kaiba has shampoo specially made for blondes just in case Jou ever spent the night. And 2. Kaiba uses corks to teach Jou how to conjugate his words and discovers that Jou has no gag reflex. Also I believe that Mokuba also had a crush on Jou.

Is it bad that I don’t realize a package has arrived until I’ve checked the tracking status with amazon? (And, it was sitting in front of my porch.)

Ok...I got nothing more to add. But yeah thanks clovey as always you are most helpful!

TCR on Worship I was tempted to go all bitch and just say “Fuck you” to this. But of course I would say it with love and I worried that wouldn’t translate in text without an explanation lol. Blame it on a week of watching drag queens read each other. Bitch, the library is closed! God, I’m sorry! I can’t get Rupaul out of my head!!!! *Clears throat* anyway… Thank you for the review hun. I don’t remember what I altered after you betaed, but I’m glad you approve.

I've pinned this thread, and I’m leaving it up for you guys, as a back up, in case the Chatbox fails, or something…

Been a couple years since I’ve had a JP marathon! Totally have to do one now.

Like Mister Luflaraoisjd?  Oh, wholeheartedly agree. Mont Rouge sounds better that Red Mountain... Versaute Berg sounds a little better than Kinky Mountain... Although, I'd love to see the description there . Oh, and CR, thanks... Now I have the urge to watch Jurassic Park...

It’s like rolling the dice, picking a name or two out of a hat. I’ll typically google for one. “Random name (blah)” where “(blah)” is what I’m looking for, be it a religion, a horse name, etc. By just having something to look out, it lets my head filter out, modify it, etc, until I do have something that makes sense for what I’m up to.

A random name generator? Whats that and where can I find it?

Well, I don't have much of a problem naming most places, thanks to the majority of those posted being in contemporary times. However, that said, for a few (one I don’t have posted and the other being Come Hell or High Water), I understand. In my case, for those, I fall back to old naming conventions, historical, or myths. Such as, for example, if I'm writing about a mountain and I describe it as looking red in the sunset, that may give it it's name (to use your example, Red Mountain), a city on a different planet may take its name from its location (For example, a city on Mars by the Gusev Crater may be named Gusev City, not exactly original, but then how many bloody Victoria cities are in the world? Or Lincolns? Berlins?). There are quite a few examples of a lack of originality when it comes to naming, whether to honour or simply out of euphoria. So, don't worry about repeating something (in my opinion... Although the chairs are moving again...) Of course, there's always trying to get it to fit. A throwaway line of Gerganbalia can be fine (although, who was drunk that day?), but it's probably not something one wants to write constantly. Many old naming conventions weren't exactly the greatest of creations... Many were simple descriptors (Red Mountain, Devil’s Mouth, Chimney Rock...et cetera...) So that could be something to think of, too. Apologies for the ramble... TCR

Searching for a Fic? If there's a story on AFF that you're looking for but can't remember the name of then this is the place to post your query. The best thing you can do is to describe as much of the story as you can remember. “I'm looking for a story that had sex in it” isn't going to be of much help to anyone. This isn't the place to then discuss the story once it's been named for you. Nor are you permitted to ask for people to send you copies of the story if it's been removed from AFF. If the story is gone then that's because it's either broken AFF's Terms of Service (written while under-age, for example) or, more likely, the author took it down for one reason or another. Either way, respect our decision or the author's decision. This also isn't the place to ask someone to write a story for you. We have a Challenges/Requests section for that. If you've located a story for someone, and you're a member of this forum, then it would be helpful if you could post a link directly to that story. That will really help the person searching for it. Keep in mind, though, that if you're a guest then you're not permitted to post links; you can thank spammers for that.