Vaguely English settlement name generator

When putting RPG material together dice-based generators are brilliant tools for prompting creativity. Recently I've used a number of sci-fi jargon generators as ways to bulk out scenes in my Traveller campaign to great success, once you do some adapting of the results. That adaptation is really the key to making these things work for you, and realising there are no strict rules as to how to use these things is what will make them super-powerful. I say this because I'm about to share a random generator of my own here, and don't expect you to follow it strictly.

Recently I've found myself looking at local(ish) place names in a different light. Here in the north of England there are plenty of places that have very literal names, and even more once you understand what a few old-fashioned words mean. Jumping on Google Maps and picking a random Lancashire town, I see the neighbourhood of Brownhill - it's not difficult to picture where that name came from; Whitefield is similarly apparent, but I won't comment on Penistone. Looking at these names, especially in Cumbria, there's a tendency to combine two words, and I figured it wouldn't be difficult to put a two-part generator together for settlement names. Settlement names that, by being naturally very descriptive, give you a great starting point as to what makes that settlement stand out.

Roll a D66 twice, once for each table. Smush the two words together and bam, you have a place. I've included definitions of some of the less common terms below. The two words will help you picture what the settlement will be like and what makes it significant.

For example - I rolled once on each table and got Stone and Dale, creating Stonedale. Stone means, well, stone, and dale means valley, so we can imagine Stonedale set in a rocky valley.

Generators set the starting point, but you can divert away from it and do interesting things. Two ways you can do that with this generator is to add a third section, which makes the name even more descriptive, or to bastardise the word you create. Stonedale could become Stonedale Pike, or it could have bastardised through the generations to end up being known as Stondle. The trick to bastardising, I’ve found, is to try and say the word faster and faster and see what sounds drop off, then spell the word phonetically with those dropped-off parts removed.

These are always start-off points, adapt them however you see fit. Have fun making some settlement names, and if you’ve found it useful there’s a ko-fi if you’d like to say thanks.

Some explanations of the more obscure terms

Most of these are from the north of England, but there are a few that are Welsh and Scottish also. Placenames don’t follow strict national boundaries and it’s common to find Welsh words in English towns.

• Aber - Meeting of waters (rivers/streams)

• Ast - East

• Bramble - a collective name for prickly bushes like raspberry and blackberry plants

• Ban - Mountain

• Barrow - burial mound

• Blen - upland

• Croft - enclosed field

• Dale - valley

• Esk - River

• Fold - animal pen

• Firth - woodland

• Heath - land not used for agriculture

• Inver - mouth of a river

• Kirk - church

• More - large

• Mere - lake

• Nor - north

• Pike - hilltop

• Shaw - woodland

• Tor - hill

• Tarn - mountain lake

• Vale - valley

• Wick - settlement

• Wold - high woodland