Handy Toolshelf

Town Name Generator

Town names are built from what's actually there: the brook, the ford, the mill, the thorn hedge. Small names for places where everyone knows everyone.

Press Generate

    Sample town names

    Every sample is a landscape word plus a settlement ending — the two banks this generator rolls.

    Applebrook · Thornwick · Ashford · Briarcombe · Millfield · Oakhollow · Fernley · Hazelthorpe · Plumbottom · Cedarwick · Stoneley · Birchmill

    What the endings mean

    -brook on a stream · -ford where the road crosses the river · -hollow in a sheltered dip · -field cleared farmland · -mill grew up around the mill · -thorpe a small outlying farm-village · -wick a farm or small settlement · -bottom the low end of the valley · -combe a narrow valley · -ley a woodland clearing

    Real town names describe the ground — these do too

    Most real place names began as directions: the farm by the ash trees, the crossing at the ford, the mill in the hollow. This generator follows the same recipe — a landscape word first (Apple, Ash, Birch, Briar, Cedar, Fern, Hazel, Mill, Oak, Plum, Stone, Thorn, Willow), then the settlement ending that fits it. The discipline pays off in play: when your party reaches Ashford, they already expect a river and a crossing, and you can spend your description budget on the people instead of the geography. Generate with your map open and assign names to the terrain you've drawn — a -bottom in the valley floor, a -combe where the hills pinch in, a -ley in the clearing in the woods.

    The banks also encode size honestly. Nothing here ends in -spire or -gard; towns don't have those. If a generated name feels too grand for the hamlet you drew, it isn't the name that's wrong — it's a hint. Either the place has a history (a Stonewick that was once walled, and whose oldest residents still mention it) or the name belongs to the bigger settlement two valleys over, and the hamlet needs another roll.

    For the village the party passes through once

    Most generated towns will host exactly one scene: a night at the inn, a warning from the miller, a bridge that's out. The name still matters, because a named village is a place players can ask about later — "wasn't there a werewolf near Plumbottom?" — and a campaign is largely the art of making the world feel continuous. Generate three candidate names for every dot on the road, pick the one whose landscape matches, and note the other two: they're the next villages down roads the party didn't take, already named when they finally wander that way. The inn generator can then name the one roof in town that takes guests.

    Frequently asked questions

    How does the town name generator work?

    It joins a landscape word (Apple, Ash, Briar, Hazel, Thorn…) to a settlement ending with a literal meaning (-brook, -ford, -hollow, -thorpe…). Both banks were written for this site, modelled on how real place names formed: description first, poetry later.

    What's the difference between the town and city generators?

    Scale and claim. Town endings describe terrain and farming — brooks, fords, mills, clearings. City endings claim power — spires, garrisons, harbours, watches. Using the town generator for villages and the city generator for cities makes a map legible at a glance.

    Can these names work for villages and hamlets too?

    Yes — the endings include genuinely small forms like -thorpe (an outlying farm-village) and -bottom (the low end of a valley). The smaller the place, the more literally you should read the name: a one-street hamlet called Millfield really does need a mill.

    All name lists on this page were written for this site. Dungeons & Dragons is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast; this is an unofficial fan tool.