Name generator

City district and street name generator for fantasy cities

Twenty street, alley and district names per click, built from the trades that work there and the things you would see on the corner. Choose grim, noble, cosy, comic or ancient and fill in the map between the gate and the palace.

These are 20 seeded examples. Press Generate for a new batch.

The Wheelwrights CommonsThe trade + kind of district
The Farthing NarrowsThe street-corner word + kind of district
The Weavers DocksThe trade + kind of district
Beggars Gatedescribing word + kind of street
Wrong Tallow Wynddescribing word + street-corner word + kind of street
Sparrowyardstreet-corner word + ending
Palace Farthingbridgedescribing word + street-corner word + ending
Obelisk Button Cornerdescribing word + street-corner word Corner
Plague Cutdescribing word + kind of street
Glaziers Gatetrade + kind of street
Dyers Cuttrade + kind of street
Cabbage Squarestreet-corner word + kind of street
Dyers Closetrade + kind of street
Mind the Pudding WalkMind the street-corner word + kind of street
Velvet Stairsdescribing word + kind of street
Vinegarmarketstreet-corner word + ending
Spigot Walkstreet-corner word + kind of street
The New LibertiesThe describing word + kind of district
Pepper and Spigot Mewsstreet-corner word and another street-corner word + kind of street
Mind the Chimney StairsMind the street-corner word + kind of street

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City district and street name generator: example names by style

Each group below is a fixed batch made with this generator, with only the style filter changed. 50 names are on this page before you press anything.

Grim and dark

Coiners Wynd
Pudding Walk
Drowned Bailiff's Yard
Ropemakers Yard
The Thatchers Quarter
Plague Slate Square

Noble and grand

Mustard Stairs
Gutter Square
Watchman's Close
The Furriers Parish
Butchers Way
Magistrate's Promenade

Cosy and homely

Wheelwrights Mews
Honeysuckle Button Street
The Bluebell Flats
Old Carters Lane
Quiet Lane
Smoke Walk

Comic and light

Almoner's Alley
The Ink Borough
Treacle Walk
Herring Row
Mustardcross
The Ragpickers Side

Ancient and mythic

Pepper Mews
Puddingwell
Steps of the First Coopers
New Ratcatchers Street
Catacomb Pepperrow
Obelisk Thread Street

How these district names are built

This generator draws from 192 hand-picked words in 7 lists and uses 19 naming patterns, plus 5 more that wrap around a keyword you type. The patterns can combine into up to 120,440 different names before filters. Every name in the list shows the pattern behind it, so you can see why it reads the way it does.

Word lists

List	Words	A few of them
Trade	30	Hatters, Cutlers, Tinsmiths, Thatchers, Butchers, Dyers, Ropemakers
Kind of street	20	Passage, Square, Bridge, Wharf, Hill, Cut, Street
Kind of district	20	Shambles, Bottoms, Side, Rookery, Flats, Liberties, Terraces
Street-corner word	30	Gargoyle, Chimney, Thread, Turnip, Smoke, Brick, Cabbage
Describing word	60	Pointless, Sunless, Forgotten, Pear Tree, Catacomb, Mulberry, Lost
Person	20	Hangman, Watchman, Bailiff, Orphan, Duchess, Admiral, Apprentice
Ending	12	market, bar, gate, cross, row, hithe, side

Patterns

Pattern	Example	Used for
trade + kind of street	Glaziers Yard	any style
street-corner word + kind of street	Herring Row	any style
describing word + street-corner word + kind of street	Laurel Button Wynd	any style
The trade + kind of district	The Wheelwrights Flats	any style
The describing word + kind of district	The Laurel Commons	any style
person's kind of street	Constable's Court	any style
street-corner word + ending	Garlicgate	any style
street-corner word and another street-corner word + kind of street	Smoke and Treacle Street	any style
person's kind of district	Provost's Docks	any style
The street-corner word + kind of district	The Mustard Warrens	any style
describing word + kind of street	Gallows Wharf	any style
describing word + trade + kind of street	Drowned Gravediggers Passage	any style
Drowned person's kind of street	Drowned Bailiff's Passage	Grim and dark
describing word + street-corner word + ending	Pointless Sootwharf	Grim and dark, Ancient and mythic
person's Promenade	Watchman's Promenade	Noble and grand
The describing word Mile	The Uphill Mile	Noble and grand
describing word + street-corner word Corner	Fever Pudding Corner	Cosy and homely
Mind the street-corner word + kind of street	Mind the Pepper Court	Comic and light
kind of street of the First trade	Way of the First Butchers	Ancient and mythic
your keyword + kind of street	Ember Yard	any style
your keyword's kind of street	Ember's Square	any style
The your keyword + kind of district	The Ember Parish	any style
your keyword + ending	Embercross	any style
describing word + your keyword + kind of street	Lamplit Ember Mews	any style

The words are written by hand for district names, not scraped. Pressing Generate runs the same seeded routine that built the names above, so the same seed always gives the same list.

Naming guide for your district

City streets are named by the people who walk them, not by a planner, so the names are blunt. The street where the tanners work is Tanners Row, and it smells the way that suggests. The first pattern here does exactly this: a trade and a kind of street. It also tells your players where to go, because a party looking for arrows will head for Fletchers Lane without being told.

The second pattern uses a street-corner word, something a passer-by would see, smell or step in: Vinegar Yard, Halfpenny Steps, Sootgate. One-word forms such as Saltwharf and Pigeoncross join the same words to an ending and read like names that have been said fast for centuries. Use them for the oldest parts of a city.

Districts are a size up. A quarter or ward is official, a rookery or warrens is where the watch goes in fours, heights and terraces are where the money lives. Pick the kind of district first and the mood second: grim for the slums, noble for the embassy mile, cosy for the lamplit neighbourhood the party might buy a house in, ancient for what lies under the paving.

Before you commit to a name

Say the name aloud twice. If you stumble, your players or readers will too, and a name nobody can say gets replaced by a nickname.
Check that it does not sound like another name already in your campaign or story. Two places that start with the same letter and end the same way get mixed up at the table.
Search the web for it. The names are built from this site's own word and syllable lists, but a random blend can match a name from a published book, game or setting by chance. If it does, pick another.
If you plan to publish or sell your work, treat the name like any other: you are responsible for checking it is not a trademark or a well-known name from someone else's world.
Write it on the map or the character sheet and read it small. Long names get shortened in play, so check that the short form also works.

Questions

How do I get only street names, or only district names?

Lock the street or district word. Open Lock a word on a name ending in Lane, Row or Ward and press that word. The next batches keep it and change the trade or the street-corner word in front.

How many streets does a fantasy city need names for?

Far fewer than it has. Name the main street, the market, one street per district the party will visit, and keep ten spare names from this page for the alley somebody runs down in the middle of a chase.

What are wynd, hithe and shambles?

Old street words. A wynd is a narrow lane that winds between buildings, a hithe is a small landing place on a river, and a shambles was a street of butchers' stalls. They give a city an older sound than street and road.

Can I name a street after a family or guild from my setting?

Yes. Type the name into the include-my-word box and you get forms such as Ember Lane, The Ember Ward and Embergate.