How the names are built
No name on this site is picked from a list of finished names. Every name is assembled from parts: a first element (a tree, a colour, an animal, a person, an invented root) and a second element that says what kind of thing is being named (a farm, a fort, an island, a realm). This is how most real place names formed, and it is why each generated name can tell you what it means.
The generators run entirely in your browser. A seed drives the random choices, so the same seed and settings always give the same names. Nothing you generate or save is sent to a server.
Real roots and invented tongues
The English, Norse, Celtic and Latin cultures use real word elements, simplified to modern spelling. The meanings given are the usual dictionary senses of those words. They are meant to help you choose and explain a name, not to be a scholarly etymology of any particular real place.
The Elven, Dwarven and fae true-name sounds are invented for this site. Their roots carry meanings we assigned, marked as invented wherever they appear, so that a root means the same thing every time you see it. They do not borrow vocabulary from any published fictional language.
We do not copy name lists from other generators. All rules and word lists here were written for MythNamer.
Sources
The real word elements and their senses can be checked in these public-domain references. Each title links to a free scan on the Internet Archive.
- Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (1898): Old English elements such as tūn, hām, lēah, burh and wīc. Scan: Clarendon Press scan of the main work, issued in parts 1882 to 1898.
- Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson, An Icelandic-English Dictionary (1874): Old Norse elements such as býr, þorp, þveit, vík, holmr and ríki.
- P. W. Joyce, The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places (1869): Irish elements such as baile, cill, cnoc, lios, doire and inis.
- James B. Johnston, Place-Names of Scotland (1892): Gaelic elements such as inbhir, dùn, gleann, srath and achadh.
- Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary (1879): Latin roots and endings. Scan: published in New York as Harpers' Latin Dictionary.
- Isaac Taylor, Words and Places (1864): how place-name elements spread with settlers, Welsh elements and the Gallo-Latin endings -ācum and -ōna.
- Jacob Larwood and John Camden Hotten, The History of Signboards (1866): English inn signs and inn names. Scan: scan of an 1869 printing with the 1866 preface.
The meanings on this site are the standard dictionary senses of each element. We have not yet checked every element against these scans entry by entry; that check is under way, and any correction it turns up will be made on the site. The full list of real elements, grouped by language with the source for each, is on the place name elements page.
If you spot an error in a meaning, write to hello@mythnamer.com and we will fix it.
Who makes MythNamer
MythNamer is built and maintained by the MythNamer team. There are no ads and no accounts. Questions, bug reports and suggestions for new cultures or generators go to hello@mythnamer.com.
Using the names
Every name you generate is yours to use in any project, including commercial ones, with no credit required. Because the parts are real, a name may already belong to a real place. Search a map before you use one where uniqueness matters.