Name generator

Mountain, forest and river name generator for fantasy maps

Twenty landmark names per click for the blank parts of a map: peaks, woods and waters. Names are plain descriptions, one-word compounds such as a frost and a fell, or older blended words. Choose grim, ancient, wild, noble or cosy.

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

Drowsy Hail Rilldescribing word + first part + water word
Rainwealdfirst part + landmark ending
The Weeping Tooth of SolisThe describing word + mountain word of old-tongue opening + old-tongue ending
Fennorn Shallowsold-tongue opening + old-tongue ending + water word
Little IronholtLittle first part + landmark ending
Cloudpeakfirst part + landmark ending
Old TarvionOld old-tongue opening + old-tongue ending
The Titan Pike of JordineThe describing word + mountain word of old-tongue opening + old-tongue ending
The Storm BrakeThe describing word + forest word
Old KaraelOld old-tongue opening + old-tongue ending
Buttercup Snow Streamdescribing word + first part + water word
Ravenspire Scarpfirst part + landmark ending + mountain word
The Rune GroveThe describing word + forest word
Thulion Fallsold-tongue opening + old-tongue ending + water word
The Majestic HornThe describing word + mountain word
Windrun Boughsfirst part + landmark ending + forest word
The Dread RillThe describing word + water word
The Rune BrookThe describing word + water word
Little RimeburnLittle first part + landmark ending
Mendach Brookold-tongue opening + old-tongue ending + water word

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Mountain, forest and river 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

The Hawk Falls
The Red Shallows
Otterfell
The Red Stream
Ironburn
The Snow Run

Ancient and mythic

The Titan Massif
The Grey Pinnacle
The Solitary Peak
Hawkbeck
Old Braeath
The Nameless River

Wild and rugged

Otterrun
Mount Jordir
Rainrise
Dunara Rill
The Eagle Copse
The Bramble Stream

Noble and grand

Shining Gloom Massif
Hawkpool
Moonspire
Mount Braeost
Hailcrown
Winding Fern Crest

Cosy and homely

The Sleet Stream
The Buttercup Flow
Windwood
The Mossy Falls
The Kindly Canopy
The Ulmir Thicket

How these landmark names are built

This generator draws from 205 hand-picked words in 8 lists and uses 18 naming patterns, plus 6 more that wrap around a keyword you type. The patterns can combine into up to 672,750 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
Mountain word	15	Peak, Tooth, Crest, Massif, Pike, Scarp, Fang
Forest word	15	Wood, Boughs, Grove, Pines, Timberland, Copse, Forest
Water word	15	Stream, Burn, Falls, Rill, Brook, Run, River
Describing word	60	Amber, Dread, Titan, Roaring, Storm, Silver, Wild
Old-tongue opening	30	Rhud, Jord, Iss, Orm, Skar, Grath, Olv
Old-tongue ending	20	ion, eth, is, oth, ow, ey, ura
First part	30	Gloom, Pine, Shale, Mist, Sleet, Shiver, Rain
Landmark ending	20	peak, beck, spire, gap, horn, shaw, pool

Patterns

Pattern	Example	Used for
The describing word + mountain word	The Whistling Crag	any style
The describing word + forest word	The Amber Thicket	any style
The describing word + water word	The Storm Flow	any style
first part + landmark ending	Thornholt	any style
old-tongue opening + old-tongue ending	Grathine	any style
Mount old-tongue opening + old-tongue ending	Mount Tharoth	any style
The old-tongue opening + old-tongue ending + forest word	The Olvow Copse	any style
old-tongue opening + old-tongue ending + water word	Skareth Shallows	any style
River old-tongue opening + old-tongue ending	River Bryneth	any style
first part + landmark ending + mountain word	Briargap Tor	any style
The first part + water word	The Mist Rapids	any style
first part + landmark ending + forest word	Emberbeck Brake	any style
describing word + first part + water word	Sleepy Sun Brook	Grim and dark, Cosy and homely
Old old-tongue opening + old-tongue ending	Old Yrrion	Ancient and mythic
The describing word + mountain word of old-tongue opening + old-tongue ending	The Thunder Fang of Bryneld	Ancient and mythic, Noble and grand
The describing word + first part + landmark ending	The Kingly Mossshaw	Wild and rugged
describing word + first part + mountain word	Buttercup Thorn Pinnacle	Wild and rugged, Noble and grand
Little first part + landmark ending	Little Mistburn	Cosy and homely
The your keyword + mountain word	The Harrow Pinnacle	any style
your keyword + forest word	Harrow Chase	any style
your keyword + water word	Harrow River	any style
your keyword + landmark ending	Harrowbeck	any style
Mount your keyword	Mount Harrow	any style
The describing word + your keyword	The Starved Harrow	any style

The words are written by hand for landmark 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 landmark

Landmarks get three kinds of name, and this generator makes all three. The first is what a traveller would say: a describing word and a landform, The Grey Scarp, The Winding Beck. These are the names local people use, and they suit features near a road or a village.

The second kind is the one-word compound, a first part and a landmark ending pressed together: Frostfell, Mistwood, Heronmere. The endings are real words for landforms. A fell is a bare upland, a shaw and a holt are small woods, a beck and a burn are streams, a mere is a lake, a dell a small valley. If you keep mountain endings for mountains and water endings for water, the name alone tells a reader what to draw.

The third kind is older than the language of the map. An old-tongue opening such as Skar, Bryn or Hroth takes an ending such as ach, orn or eld, giving Skarach or Brynorn, and usually appears with a plain word beside it: Mount Skarach, River Brynorn. Use these for the great features, the ones visible from three kingdoms, and leave the plain names for everything a shepherd can walk to.

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 mountains, only forests or only rivers?

Lock the landform word. Open Lock a word on a name that contains Peak, Wood or Beck and press it; the next batches keep that word and change the rest. For one-word compounds, lock the ending instead, such as fell for uplands or mere for lakes.

What makes a landmark name sound old?

A sound that the everyday names on the map do not share. The ancient mood favours the blended old-tongue words and adds forms such as Old Tharoch. One or two per map is enough to suggest that somebody lived there before.

Can a mountain range and its river share a name?

They often do. Lock the blended word, for example Skarach, and generate again to get Mount Skarach, Skarach Beck and The Skarach Weald in the same batch.

Which mood suits the wilderness around a starting village?

Cosy for the nearby woods and brooks, wild for whatever lies a day's walk beyond them. The change of tone on the map is a signal to players that the safe country has ended.