I cannot for the life of me come up with a good city name that I like. Its set in a kind of post apocalyptic world, but its not nearly as dreary, more cheerful and goofy. Its set way in the future and the city is a steampunk style floating island since everything has gone to hell on the ground. Id like a quirky English sounding name like New Tottenham or something similar, but anything else that sounds good and fits would be great. Im at a loss...anyone have any ideas?
how about "caelum terra" which roughly translated from latin means "the land of heaven" or "the land of the sky" hope that this is a useful idea tough i know it is not tecnicaly what you asked for but though a play on words would be fun.
Don't call it Waterworld! A lot of city names grow from what the place was called before people settled there. For instance, the valley where I live is called Eagle Valley, not because there were a lot of eagles here, but because the only trader in the area had a dead eagle nailed above his door. In other words, it was a way for people to identify the place. A nearby city was originally called Lake's Crossing because there was a ferry over the river run by a guy named Lake. Later the city was named Reno but they named a street Lake Street (no where near a lake - get it?) If you look into the history of some of those quaint English city names, you'll find a similar naming history - usually pretty boring, really. So think about your back-story - how this floating city came to be and what people might have informally called it.
How does Dagonheim sound? Dagon is the last name of the scientist who created the floating island for them to escape to right before he died...so it would mean Dagon's home.
You could just give it an actual city name. If it's the same universe as ours then it's not out of the question for Venice or something to have been revived as a floating city in a rebooted society.
If the -heim suffix makes sense in your little universe, go for it. Otherwise, if it's a little British place I do not suggest Dagonheim. And there's something I don't like about the look of it; like it's a bit too close to being a cliché. I suggest you go with something like New Tottenham, but with a different word to Tottenham. This floating city is something big that has never been seen before. The guy is going to want to name it something that can be remembered, and the best way to do that is to look at history. New Zeppelin. New Constantinople. New Cairo. New London. New New York. Find a name that fits, and roll with it. Find something Dagon liked and that can be his inspiration. I mean, most people who think of that sort of thing are going to have architectural inspirations. Maybe it looked like a huge middle eastern palace (think of how the city looked in Aladdin); New Constantinople would fit. Or even just drop the "New" and name is Constantinople.
Id prefer something original, not a normal city name in existence all ready, since it is a whole new place waayy in the future, and no where on earth really exists anymore since it is all just hell all over on the ground. There is just a series of these floating islands now WAY up in the sky that have been built and that is the only place the human race can survive now...But the people living on the islands have no idea whats on the earth anymore since its been several generations, and the government has kept all the creatures on the ground hidden, so its a cheery oblivious place for now with science and experiments booming. Ive been trying to combine some places now, still cant really find anything that I like that sounds unique and quirky, but not ridiculous or stupid or cliche. What about Kentinderry?
If the government stops people knowing about the past, how would any of their naming strategies be mildly British or ANYTHING from Old Earth? Just give the cities denominations like the different Zeppelins. C21, C22, C23. Just make it a series. Eventually, C1 will go out because by C10, they've probably started building a more efficient one. If you give it a denomination like that, it depersonalises the nature of the place, which gives it a more personal boundary. The inhabitants will think, "Yes, C21 is the world I live in. This is where I live and that's it." They'll know about the other cities, but won't really think about them unless it's a topic of news or something, but more importantly, they won't think about all that stuff below them. Giving it a name like Kentinderry makes the place they live seem automatically smaller. It makes them realise, "Oh, wow. There's a whole world out there." And then they break into song.
If the government stops people knowing about the past, how would any of their naming strategies be mildly British or ANYTHING from Old Earth? Just give the cities denominations like the different Zeppelins. C21, C22, C23. Just make it a series. Eventually, C1 will go out because by C10, they've probably started building a more efficient one. If you give it a denomination like that, it depersonalises the nature of the place, which gives it a more personal boundary. The inhabitants will think, "Yes, C21 is the world I live in. This is where I live and that's it." They'll know about the other cities, but won't really think about them unless it's a topic of news or something, but more importantly, they won't think about all that stuff below them. Giving it a name like Kentinderry makes the place they live seem automatically smaller. It makes them realise, "Oh, wow. There's a whole world out there." And then they break into song.
Use translators for bizarre yet meaningful names. The place where I live is called Moon Palace Street, which of course, makes little sense...
I appreciate how well though out your logic is, cruciFICTION, but at the same time I think it's going against the feel the author's going for, and I think he knows what's right for his story. C10 is far from a quirky name. Plus, I don't quite understand how a denomination sounds any lass small than a name. Again, for the most part I understand your logic, but I've always felt that people needed a personal name for a home. Monosmith
A name should not necessarily be quirky, and he did say that the government tries to hide history from people. To someone like you and I, C10 doesn't sound smaller than Dagonheim because we know it's the same thing, but to someone living in C10, they don't think about the names of locations as much. To me, Brisbane is in Queensland which is in Australia which is a country on Earth. Whereas C10 is a part of the government, and that's it. It defines the boundaries of their world a lot easier.
I guess I should have explained better, haha. The people DO know about the past, they know what happened down there with the experiments and the mutants, they just dont know whats going on now in the PRESENT. The government told everyone that everything has been destroyed on earth and the environment is longer able to support life because of all the damage after getting rid of all the monsters and stuff down there..in reality they havent been able to kill anything down there yet and everything is still hell down there and the people on the islands are oblivious.
If you are after something quirky and English, then to me Dagonheim sounds too much like Dagenham, which is an area just east of London in the UK. The only interesting thing I can know about Dagenham is that there was a Ford Motor factory there!.
