October 21, 2026
100 Fantasy Town Names for D&D Villages and Cities
Players notice town names more than you might expect. They write them on character sheets, argue about how to pronounce them and use them to guess what kind of place they are walking into. A good name tells them roughly where they are, how old the place is and who lives there, before you describe a single building.
Below are 100 original fantasy town, village and city names, grouped by culture and region, along with the naming rules behind them. If you need more, the free Name Generator can make as many as you like.
How real places got their names
Most convincing fantasy town names copy how real towns were named. In Britain and much of northern Europe, a settlement was named after a feature of the land plus a word for the settlement itself. Learn a few of those endings and you can make names that sound right every time:
- -ton, -ham, -stead: a farm or homestead. Cobbleton, Wetherstead.
- -by, -thorpe: a village, from Old Norse. Ashby, Ulfsby.
- -wick: a trading place or dairy farm. Kettlewick.
- -ford, -bridge: a river crossing. Brackenford, Orebridge.
- -bury, -burgh, -hold: a fortified place. Hazelbury, Cinderhold.
- -mere, -well: a lake or spring. Dunmere, Ironmere.
- -leigh, -hurst: a clearing or wooded hill. Thornleigh, Oakhurst.
- -vik, -holm, -ness: a bay, an island or a headland in northern languages. Kaldvik, Ravnholm, Ormsness.
Village, town or city?
Size changes the name. Villages tend to have short, plain names that describe something nearby, because nobody outside the valley needs to know them. Towns often add a word that marks their trade, such as Port, Market or Bridge. Cities are old and important, so their names are often worn down from something longer, or named after a founder, a god or a king. Valcaster sounds like a capital. Little Pellam does not.
100 fantasy town names by region
Farming villages and market towns
English-sounding names for the heartland. Most of them describe what the first settlers saw.
- Ashby Wold: a village on the edge of open downland
- Thornleigh: hedgerows thick enough to stop a cart
- Marrowfield: famous for its autumn fair
- Brackenford: the ford floods every spring
- Hollin Cross: a holly tree grows at the crossroads
- Wetherstead: sheep country
- Oakhurst Green
- Dunmere: a grey lake below a grey hill
- Cobbleton: the only paved street for twenty miles
- Hazelbury: an old earthwork rings the village
- Little Pellam: and nobody remembers what happened to Great Pellam
- Kettlewick: a dairy village that smells of cheese
Northern and seafaring settlements
Hard consonants and endings like -vik, -by and -holm suggest a cold coast.
- Kaldvik: a cold bay, frozen half the year
- Ravnholm: an island village known for its ravens
- Ulfsby: named after a founder called Ulf
- Grimsfjord
- Isafell: under a mountain that is always white
- Brennstad: burned twice and rebuilt twice
- Varnholt: a timber town in a pine forest
- Skjoldby: the shield-makers’ village
- Ormsness: the headland where a sea serpent was beached
- Steinvik
- Eikland: oak country, rare this far north
- Frosthaugr: built around a burial mound
Mountain and mining towns
- Copperdeep: the whole town glows green after rain
- Greyhollow
- Highmantle: the last town below the snowline
- Cinderhold: a smelting town under a permanent haze
- Orebridge: built around a bridge over a mine shaft
- Slatefall: every roof is the same dark grey
- Ironmere: a lake stained red by the mines
- Cragmoor
- Deepdelve: more of the town is underground than above it
- Tinwhistle: named after the shift whistle
Coastal towns and ports
- Port Varrow: a busy trade port with a bad reputation
- Gullhaven
- Brinecastle: a fortress town on a salt flat
- Wrackmouth: the river mouth is full of wrecks
- Sealsby: seals sun themselves on the harbour wall
- Driftholm: built on an island of driftwood and stone
- Tidewick: the market is held at low tide
- Kelpton
- Low Harbour: and High Harbour, up the cliff, which looks down on it
- Cape Merrow: the lighthouse keeper sees things
- Lantern Bay: lit by a hundred lamps every night
- Shellbrook
Desert and southern cities
Softer sounds, long vowels and names that mention water, because water is what matters.
- Tal Mirra: a city on a mound of its own older ruins
- Zafira Wells: seven wells, three still sweet
- Ibraz
- Hassari: a caravan city of tents and towers
- Qeshtan: carved into a red cliff
- Duneharrow: half buried by sand every few years
- Kesh Imaran: a temple city that charges at the gate
- Saffron Gate: the spice road starts here
- Barakh
- Seven Palms: an oasis town that has never had more than five
Elven settlements
- Aelindor: a city of bridges between great trees
- Ithrasil
- Celenwy: a riverside village of reed houses
- Ilvaris: a city that only lights its lamps by starlight
- Myrrowen
- Faelith: a hidden glade, found only by invitation
- Silverleaf Hollow
- Starfall Glade: built around a crater
Dwarven holds
- Grundmar: a great hall cut into a mountain
- Kelddun
- Thrumhold: you can hear the forges through the rock
- Hammerdeep
- Ormgrund: a hold built over a dragon’s old lair
- Brodrik’s Gate: the trading town outside the hold’s doors
- Dunhalg
- Stonemoot: where the clans meet to settle disputes
Cities and capitals
- Valcaster: a walled capital on a river bend
- Aurenhall: the golden city, mostly gilded wood
- Kingsreach
- Solmara: a sun-temple city with white walls
- Veyrun: a canal city, ruled by its merchants
- Drevenport
- Corvanne: a city of spires and crows
- Highmarch: a border capital that has changed hands nine times
- Belcaris
- Esterholt: the eastern capital, older than the kingdom
Marsh, forest and frontier settlements
- Fenwick Stoop: houses on stilts above the marsh
- Reedmoor
- Bogsend: where the causeway gives out
- Alderholt: a woodcutters’ village
- Mossgate
- Wolfsden Post: a frontier stockade with a trading counter
- Fort Callow: a garrison town on the border
- Briarwatch: the watchtower is older than the village
- Hunter’s Rest
- Pinecrest Landing: a logging camp that became a town
Dark, cursed and ruined places
- Gallowmere: a marsh town with a gibbet at every gate
- Ashenford: burned in the war and never rebuilt
- Grimswick
- Mourn’s End: the last village before the haunted wood
- Cinder Vale
- Rotbridge: the bridge is rotten, and so is the reeve
- Widowsbridge: no man in the village lives past forty
- Lastlight: the sun sets an hour early here
How to make your own town names
Pick a rule for each culture. Decide on three or four endings and a set of sounds for each people in your world, and use them consistently. When every northern town ends in -vik or -holm, players can read your map without a legend.
Describe the land. Look at where the town sits. A river crossing, a lake, a hill, a forest clearing or a mine each gives you a root word. Combine it with an ending and you have a name with a reason behind it.
Wear it down. Real names erode over centuries. Start with a longer phrase such as “Brecca’s ford” and let it smooth into Brackenford. Old cities should have the most worn names.
Add a pair. Little and Great, Upper and Lower, Old and New. A pair of names hints at history, and one half of the pair being missing is an instant mystery.
Avoid apostrophe soup. A name like Xy’threl’vaan is hard to say and hard to remember. One unusual sound per name is plenty.
Frequently asked questions
How do I come up with a fantasy town name?
Take a word describing the land (ash, thorn, brine, iron) and add a place-name ending such as -ford, -wick, -by or -mere. Ashford, Thornwick and Brinemere all sound like real places because they are built the way real places were. Then decide what the name says about the town’s history.
What are some good D&D village names?
Short, plain names suit villages best: Thornleigh, Kettlewick, Hollin Cross, Little Pellam or Brackenford. Villages are usually named after a local feature such as a ford, a tree or a hill, so their names should sound ordinary to the people who live there.
What do endings like -by, -wick and -ton mean?
In English place names, -ton and -ham meant a farm or settlement, -by a village (from Old Norse), -wick a trading place or dairy farm, -ford a river crossing, -bury a fortified place and -mere a lake. Using them gives a fantasy town a sense of where it is and how old it is.
How should town names differ between cultures?
Give each culture its own sounds and endings and stick to them. A northern culture might use -vik and -holm with hard consonants, a desert culture softer sounds and words for water, and elves long flowing names. Consistency is what makes a map feel like one world.
Is there a free fantasy town name generator?
Yes. LoreKeeper’s free Name Generator creates town, village and city names for fantasy settings, and the free Map Generator can draw the region they sit in.
Generate town names and maps for free
The free LoreKeeper Name Generator creates town, village and city names in any style. When you have a few you like, the free Map Generator will draw the region around them, and the NPC Generator can give each town a mayor, a priest and a troublemaker. Save them in a LoreKeeper world and your notes, maps and characters stay together.
Try the free generators