World-Building: How I Name Places

Rivendell, Piltover & Zaun, Panem – these names instantly invoke an image of a fictional world, and we know which places they represent. Naming places can be a time-consuming task for new writers, so in this making-of article, I’ll talk about what steps I use to come up with names.

World-building typically involves coming up with a lot of names. For example, for my upcoming book, Shadows of Cerulean, I needed to name several districts of the submerged City of Cerulean. The names all needed to sound cohesive and as if they’re really from the same city. So, how did I do that?

The tool I use to come up with names

Before thinking about names, I needed to decide on a theme for the city. This is why I recommend having some idea of your fictional world before beginning to work on a map.

Once I had decided on a theme for the project, I opened a blank project on Procreate – it also works with blank paper or a project on Canva – and wrote down all words that I felt would sound like they realistically could show up on a map for the city. At this point, it’s important to just write down the words without overthinking or trying to come up with names. Next, I tried to find pairs of words that would sound like a district when combined. I recommend using some form of color for this – if you’re using a drawing app, this might be easier. Below, you can see the sketch I made to group the words:

For this map, I used English words to name the places in the story. If you prefer naming places in your story with words from an invented language, I recommend the same way of merging and trying out combinations to come up with the best results. If you don’t have a map yet, maybe this guide can help. In the map below, you can see some of the districts from the naming tool after the words were merged. Examples are Salt Fields, Emerald Spires, Upper Reef, Lower Reef, Ember Shores.

Prioritizing names

In this book, most scenes take place in three of the city’s districts – which are the main locations of the story – so I spent most effort coming up with names for these places. I wouldn’t recommend spending too much effort naming any “background” places. They are a little like background characters: They should make the world feel immersive and lived-in, but shouldn’t take too much time to craft.

AI and world-building

While we can’t ignore AI and the fact that most world-building details can be generated with AI within seconds and could save worldbuilders a lot of time, I personally don’t generate names for characters and places using AI, as I usually come up with enough names using my own tools and prefer the names my mind comes up with.

Did you try coming up with names using the tool above? How did it work for you? What tools are you using to find names? Let me know in the comments!

Shadows of Cerulean will be available February 2026.