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How do you name your hack's towns/cities?

Avara

Avara

  • Poké Ball Great Ball Ultra Ball Premier Ball
    • 1,309
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    • She/Her
    • Seen Apr 16, 2025
    Do you like to go with a theme as Kanto did with colours, do you name them in accordance with their surroundings/scenery, or do you just name them completely at random?
     
    Yes, I name it following a pattern. In my new fangame, "Pokemon Liquid Adventures" I've named the cities as fishes names or things related with the sea
     
    Currently, mine are given names based on some aspect of the city/town, whether that's aesthetics, the surrounding area, or even the gym leader. For example, a town next to a mining facility, where the gym leader specializes in ground-types, has "terra" somewhere in the name.
     
    Mine are all based on flowers/ their meanings and how that works into the town's theme. For example, the starting town is named after the Plumeria flower, which represents new beginnings. I've written up a list of 72 flowers (many of which have multiple meanings) so I doubt I'll be struggling for names any time soon~
     
    I usually name them based on a theme. The locations in Discovery are named after nautical terms (Pontoon Village, Port Galleon, etc).
     
    I used to just jumble up a bunch of consonants and throw a few vowels in there. Had some weird sounding places I can tell you that much.

    Now I prefer to name them in accordance with their surroundings/scenery:

    Waterway City
    Greendale Village
    Union City
    Highwind Village
    Hotel Trivago (jk)
     
    In my hack you play in the Anatol region(which is Anatolia which is where Turkey is located) so I use the name of the cities with translation and changing the letter's places. Like Diyarbakır=Diyar+bakır=land+copper=land+cu=Culand
     
    In the hack I'm developing, Pokémon Shadow, the Chhaya (Hindi goddess of shadows) Region has town names that are pretty on-the-nose based on the gym. Beetle Town is Bug-type, Mecha Metro is Electric-type, Flutterburg is Flying-type, Crystal Peak is Ice-type, Bloom Village is Grass-type, Loam Town is Ground-type, Spot City is Poison-type, and Slab Quarry is Rock-type. The player starts out in Shine City. Crystal mountain at the north end of the region (much like in Sinnoh) is a completely iced-over mountain.
    Not everything will be right on the nose, but most stuff will be. I like it that way.
     
    It definitely depends on the atmosphere of the hack. If I'm going for a game with a more serious story, then I'll do my research and name the towns/cities after something related to the story - possibly having words that have roots in other languages.

    My current game has an effortless story, so I effortlessly named the towns/cities after their "qualities". For example, I have a town called Ordinary Town which isn't very special, and another city called Gigabeach City which is just a big beach.
     
    I haven't gotten to actually starting my full hack, I'm still learning and testing things.
    I'd assume I'd just kind of name them cool sounding names.

    Although reading some other people's replies here maybe once I get to making my full hack I should actually make town names with a deeper meaning.
    I guess it should be a balance between cool, memorable and meaningful ideally.
     
    First. City/Town names have a GENERAL THEME: Colors for Kanto; Plants & Wood for Johto; and sometimes they related to the "versions" of the game like CLOUD NAMES for Unove (because of black and white clouds) or the GENERAL THEME OF THE REGION like Hoenn (connections between elements) and SINNOH (mystical; religiona-related terms). Alola has "Hawaiian adjectives/words" and Kalos has "ingredients for fragrance".

    Second, it has to be original: Using musical terms is a bit overrated; I played Pokemon Sage and Pheonix Rising, both use Music-related terms for the names of the locations in their respective regions.

    Third, it has to be smooth and memorable: You don't name a town that's hard to pronounce and easy to forget. (Unless that's what you're going for.)

    Lastly, remember theres a character limit. You don't name a city, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. As far as I've observed the limit to town names is 12 characters (not including the "city" or "town".

    Theme Suggestions:
    1. Wine, Drinks, Beverages and Spirits (Ale, Cider etc.0
    2. Textile related terms (Cashmere, Silk, etc)
    3. Vegetables

    Special Mention:
    Pokemon Spectrum's region, they use DESERT Naming Theme
    Pokemon Ethereal Gates, they used a BIRD Naming Theme
     
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