Name your tavern
- The Coach and BootSign: a coach and horses beside a worn riding boot. Suits a roadside coaching inn.
- The Kettle and PloughSign: a copper kettle beside a wooden plough. Suits a cosy village inn.
- The Milestone and PilgrimSign: a carved milestone beside a cloaked pilgrim. Suits a roadside coaching inn.
- The Crown and BishopSign: a gilded crown beside a mitre and crook. Suits a grand city inn.
- The Rat and DiceSign: a grinning rat beside a pair of loaded dice. Suits a den of thieves.
- The Silver BishopSign: a mitre and crook. Suits a grand city inn.
- The Mossy BeeSign: a fat golden bee. Suits a cosy village inn.
- The Proud SwanSign: a swan with a golden collar. Suits a grand city inn.
Name your town
- Lower HarthurstHart-hurst: “wooded hill of the stags”; “Lower” marks the lower of two villages
- Lower HollinthorpeHollin-thorpe: “outlying hamlet by the holly”, with a Norse ending; “Lower” marks the lower of two villages
- HollinthorpeHollin-thorpe: “outlying hamlet by the holly”, with a Norse ending
- HartcombeHart-combe: “deep valley of the stags”
- WolfmereWolf-mere: “lake where wolves were seen”
- ElderhurstElder-hurst: “wooded hill by the elder trees”
- ThornedgeThorn-edge: “ridge by the thorn bushes”
- MarshsteadMarsh-stead: “place in the marshes”
Why tavern names sound the way they do
Traditional inn names are often pictures in words. Before most people could read, a painted sign showed travellers where to stop, so names grew out of images that were easy to paint and easy to describe: a crown, a lion, a swan, a coach and horses. That is why each tavern this generator suggests comes with a sign. If you can picture the board swinging above the door, the name will feel at home in a fantasy town.
The generator mixes a few traditional patterns: an adjective and a noun (“The Sleepy Owl”), two images joined together (“The Anchor and Eel”), one thing belonging to another (“The Griffin’s Chalice”) and the name of the keeper (“Widow Hask’s Taproom”). Choose the kind of place first. A dockside tavern and a grand city inn should not sound alike.
How the town names are built
Many English place names are compounds. The first part describes the place or who held it, and the second says what kind of place it is. Ashford was a river crossing by the ash trees; a name ending in -by or -thorpe often marks Norse settlement in the north and east of England. The town generator works the same way, so Ravenholt means “wood of the ravens” and Saltwick means “trading place where salt is worked”.
Choose a landscape and the endings change to suit it. Coastal towns get harbours and headlands; hill towns get ridges, valleys and old hill forts. Turn on prefixes to add a word such as Upper, Little or Market, which in real places usually tells you there was once a second village nearby or a right to hold a market.
Place-name endings by landscape
| Landscape | Endings | Meanings |
|---|---|---|
| Riverside | ford, bridge, mouth, well, mere, ey | river crossing, bridge, river mouth, spring, lake, island in a river |
| Coast | haven, wick, sea, ness, port, holm | harbour, trading place, shore, headland, market harbour, islet |
| Forest | holt, ley, hurst, den, shaw, field | wood, clearing, wooded hill, woodland pasture, thicket, open land |
| Hills | don, combe, low, tor, bury, edge | hill, deep valley, burial mound, rocky peak, hill fort, ridge |
| Norse north | by, thorpe, thwaite, beck, fell, garth | farmstead, outlying hamlet, clearing, stream, mountain, enclosure |
| Farmland | ton, ham, stead, worth, cote, wick | farm, homestead, place, enclosed farm, cottages, dairy farm |
Tips for naming places in fiction
Let geography come first. A town name records what its first settlers noticed: a ford, a spring, a clearing. Decide what is there before deciding what it is called, and the name will fit the map.
Use one naming language per region. Towns in the same valley should share endings. A sudden change of pattern hints at a border, an old conquest or a different people, which is a piece of history readers can feel without a paragraph of explanation.
Give the tavern a regular. The quickest way to make an inn feel real is a customer who is always there. Our cozy fantasy reading list is full of books in which a shop, an inn or a café becomes the heart of the story. For the people who walk through the door, try the wizard name generator.