# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Writing, Stories, Linguistics, Toponymy and other wordy stuff ! >  Need help coming up with authentic Country/City names

## Vuren

I'm doing a future earth world based loosely on the idea of the shattering from wheel of time.  Instead of a giant magical back lash from magic being tainted it's magic came back to the world and there were people who were extremely powerful at magic with out having any training and this lead to the world changing.  For instance scandenvia breaking off entirely from europe, Germany becoming highly mountainous, england now connected to the main continent.  But the problem i have is while i'm good at coming up with fantasy names, i'm very poor at coming up with authentic sounding names and i don't want every name to be things like "the two rivers"  or "white bridge"  or "land of flat and flowing rivers".

Current names are as follows, with what the people are supposed to be

1.	Föðurland(Nordic)
2.	Jemoix(French)
     a.	     La Ciudad de Rosas(capital city)
3.	Tiberius(Roman)
     a.	     Orte(capital city)
4.	Stein Kamin(german)
5.	Terrassa(spain)
6.	The Sparkling Isles(Sea Traders)

any help would be appreciated.

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## Blindkingofbohemia

Throughout the UK there are various places with suffixes like 'Chester' and 'Shire', which I believe to be a hangover from the old latin occupation of the british isles... 'Borough', 'Berg' and 'Burg' are also quite widespread. For a more Russian feel, names ending in 'gorod' and 'polok' seem to be the way to go; 'Novgorod' and 'Svayatapolk' for example.

Also, try using google translate, and seeing what 'two rivers' looks like in french, if the place is in france for example. Maybe corrupt it a little, and you have an authentic looking french name with a real meaning  :Very Happy:

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## tilt

blindking has some good ideas there  :Smile:  ... also just check out an atlas to see what they are called today - depending on how far in the future it is things may be name similar to what they were called. The thing that stands out most to me in the above is the Nordic - the scandinavian countries (denmark, sweden and norway) don't use those letters. You'll have to include the smaller countries Island and Faeroe Islands to get them  :Smile:

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## Barndog

Geology, reputation, iconic people and religion should also come into play. Like blind king pointed out with the idea of two rivers translated into French.

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## Lukc

And definitely use some corruption of words and vowel shifts. If'n ye looke a' hawe peupel speel'd wordes e'en back'n yon 16eeth an' earlieur centuries, ye shouldst beget ane understaendin' off wha' couldst comme aboot.

Don't overdo it, of course. But it's a classic move for post-apocalyptic settings. Take current names and corrupt away, e.g. San Francisco -- > Freescoe, London -- > Lun Din, Berlin -- > Burrleyn, etc. etc. ...

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## OldDeath

Make _Steinkamin_ out of _Stein Kamin_. That's more like a German would write it.  :Wink:

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