Alright so last week I was hitting a wall. Building this fantasy continent for my novel, right? Got the maps kinda sorted, some lore bits, but every time I needed a name for a kingdom or a little village, my brain just… froze. Total blank. Felt like scraping my knuckles against brickwork. Needed something better than just staring at the ceiling whispering “Eldoria… no… Arandor? Ugh.”
The Hunt Begins
Decided enough was enough. Jumped online, coffee cold beside me. Typed in stuff like “fantasy name creator” “made up country names” – you know, the obvious stuff. Tons popped up immediately. The trick? Figuring out which ones weren’t pure junk or trying to sell me something complicated. Didn’t want some fancy worldbuilding software suite, just a quick, dirty name fix.
Diving Into the Tools
Bookmarked a bunch. Started clicking.
- The First One: Looked ancient, like maybe 1998 vibes? Seriously. Green text on black. Typed in “mountain kingdom”. Spat out: “Grumfyr”, “Stonhold”, “Kragpeak”. Okay, not bad! A little heavy, but usable for dwarven stuff maybe. Easy to use, zero fuss, just hit the button and boom. Kinda liked the simplicity even if it looked busted.
- The Second One: Much fancier. Had sliders! “Length,” “Complexity,” “Theme.” Cool. Set theme to “Elven Forests.” Hit generate. Got… “Sylvaniathalas.” And “Elowenvarenth.” Whoa. Mouthful city. Felt like I needed a degree in elvish to pronounce them. Tinkered with the sliders, made things shorter, but then they got too simple, like “Greenwood.” Swing and a miss for that mid-range elven feel I wanted. Felt cumbersome after a while.
- The Third One: Promised “culturally inspired names.” Sounded promising. Had dropdowns: “Choose Real-World Inspiration.” Picked “Nordic Coastal.” Names popped out: “Havskal”, “Fjordheim”, “Isenvik”. Now we’re talking! Had weight, felt real-ish, but still fantastical. Easy to tweak, saw a “mix” button, combined ideas, got some decent river-town names too like “Fenwik.” Felt like hitting a little goldmine for that region of my map.
What Stuck & What Sunk
Played with maybe five or six in total. Here’s the real deal, the honest takeaway:
- Most free tools ain’t perfect. Some names were total bullcrap. One gave me “Blargtopia.” Yeah. No.
- They’re idea starters, period. That “Sylvaniathalas” was too much, but chopped down? “Sylvathal” or just “Thalas”? Suddenly usable.
- Simple usually wins. The clunky old generator was often faster and less headache than the fancy slider one. Don’t need bells and whistles for a name spark.
- Knowing the vibe helps tons. That “Nordic Coastal” setting clicked because I knew the feeling I needed. Random clicking gave worse results.
Ended up with pages of scribbled names. Some pure garbage, sure. But sprinkled in were gems like “Havskal” and “Isenvik” I’m absolutely using. Saved “Fenwik” for a swamp port. Even “Kragpeak” might stick for a grim mountain fort.
Here’s the thing: these generators? They unstick you. When you’re blank, they spit out random junk, and in that junk, sometimes a sound or a fragment clicks. Then you run with it, twist it, make it yours. Free tools worked like hot garbage sometimes, but they did work. Finally got names on my map without wanting to chuck my notebook out the window. That’s a win.
