My first question.

[Voron79]

Hey! I'm new on this site/forum. And (offcourse) I'm making my own world, but while looking around you site I was wondering how did you came up with all the names for the country's and cities, but above all, how did thought of the word Khoras? With my own world I can't think of any good name
I asked a couple of friendly GM's for advice, but most of them couldn't give any good explination for naming stuff. Hope you can help me

[Garrick]

Names are the easiest part to developing a storyline

Use what you know, instead of trying to invent some crazy word like Babahugtakon

[Lance]

True story.

[tanis]

I have to say I can't always think up good names either, but sometimes a good one will hit. If not one thing you can do is take words you like and suffixes or prefixes and make a new word without having to make one up. Or you can do some research, find some ancient civilization nobody knows of, and use its name. That's one of the number one techniques RPG and movie makers use. All sorts of names like Lemuria, Lycia, Lydia, etc. come from legendary civilizations, and part of the intent is to use those legends, or in the case of less fictional civilizations, myths and stories, to create a stronger emotional and mental response in the audience, gamer, whatever. Also, the same thing goes for items.

In the end, sometimes the best thing is a really simple name. Look at The Forgotten Realms; Faerun is a pretty out there name, but what about Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Candlekeep, and other really simple names that give you just the most general idea about them.

Hope that helped. 

[sid6.7]

you just brain storm until something hits you....one of my worlds i simply took a normal word
and reversed it...just to be weird....

one world i spellled it like it sounded rather than how it was spelt in english...

a few worlds i made some languages first..then picked out a name from the new langauge

for example..in the new world it might be mountainous..so i would use the new lanaguage
for mountian(zungaboo) as the worlds name..or a combination of words like big mountian...no water...
much water....lots of trees...no trees...ugly..

or just use real names.... like aberdeen...Shanghi....

or just make up gibberish names..

pasterfrian....dowlymacu....Guestria

i'd also then make sure to type in your word once you've decided
and make sure its not rally being used by anyone...

etc...etc...

the skys the limit...

[tanis]

To sum up what's already been said, try a bunch of different things, find what works for you, and use it.

And David will eventually weigh in on this, so... he may be even more help lmao.   

[avisarr]

These are all excellent suggestions that everyone has offered. Kudos to you guys. In addition to what's already been offered, I'd like to add two ideas:

1. Random name generators. They're all over the place. Do a google search for random name generators and you'll find several good ones. Many of them were written by gamers specifically for coming up with names for games. I have a couple of random name generators that I use a lot. Usually for unimportant stuff like a character name or a village name. Also, I almost never use the name as its generated. Most generators will produce a list of names and sometimes you'll find one or two that are pretty good and you can combine them or modify one of them slightly.

2. Get out a map or go online (Google Earth, Google Maps, Mapquest, whatever) and start roaming around the world. For instance, take a look at some of the tiny villages in farway lands. Villages, islands... little tiny places that no one has ever heard of. Those can be a good source of names as well.

And yes, I agree with Sid... if you're going to use a name, especially if it's a major part of your world, google it. Make sure it's not already being used. That can avoid embarrasement. Believe it or not, my first D&D character (many years ago) was named Valtrex. And today, of course, there is a herpes medication named Valtrex!  Every time I see a Valtrex commercial on TV I think of that old character. Oh well...

How did I come up with the names in Khoras? I wish I could answer that. One of my friends has frequently complimented my "naming stuff" ability. Sometimes the name just comes right to me and just fits perfectly. Other times, I'll agonize over a name for days going back and forth between several options that I like. When I came up with the name for this world, I was actually trying to decide between 3 ideas. One of them was "Mektor" which I later used for one of the moons. I can't remember what the third option was. I ended up choosing Khoras because it sounded slightly Klingon. Later on, I found out that there actually IS a Klingon world named Khoras. (at least I think there is). Although I love Star Trek, I'm not a big enough Trekker to know all the planet names. But I did stumble upon a website which made a casual reference to a Klingon world named Khoras. Anybody know Trek lore well enough to know if that's true? Anyway, just goes to show you that every name has probably been used somewhere, sometime! So don't sweat it.

I guess the bottom line is, use these ideas to generate names, pick on that YOU like and then move on. Don't stress too much about if its a good name or not. Most of the time, after using a specific name for awhile, you'll know if it's right or not. I've noticed that after you've used a name on something for awhile, it just starts to fit... like you can't imagine it being named anything else. And if the name doesn't grow on you, you can always change it.

[Lance]

A friend of mine had a baby vulture named Valtrex once.... We think a dog might have carried it off though because he went outside to do check on it one day and all that was left of it was a claw.

[Golanthius]

I take everyday words and make new words out of them. I have even been known to look at ingredients of things and come up with something (example; Look at the ingredients on a Diet Coke can, there is potassium benzoate. Take the word benzoate, mix it up, and get Nezatebo). Take an easy word, lets say, umm, Khoras. I get Ohkars or Rhokas popping right into my head.

Use your mind, its a powerful tool.

[tanis]

and the more practice you get doing it, the better you'll get at thinking up cool names.

[Voron79]

Thnx for all the help guys! Especialy about the NameGenerators onlineXD Didn't thought of that yet.

[tanis]

You're welcome!

Anything else you need?