Like how things are Simple in the world but we forget origins. Name things based on their ideas, use, and culture for who settled the lands. Helps a lot!!
When you're talking about Mount Fuji being "Fire Mountain" or Sahara Desert literally meaning "desert desert", it reminds me of a location in Wales; Torpenhow Hill. A small amount of research suggests that the name isn't official and even locals don't use it but the important thing here is what the recognised name means: "Tor" is an Old English word meaning "hill". "Penn" is a Celtic (likely p-Celtic, which Welsh is part of) word meaning "hill". "Hoh" is apparently an Old Norse suffix in location names to denote an area that is "hilly". I'll let you guess what the "hill" part of the name means. Supposedly the name came about when people asked what the area was called and the locals would respond with their word for "hill" because, well the place was hilly. The Britons called it "hill". The Welsh came, asked the name and were told "Tor" so they called it "Tor Hill". The Norse invaded and asked the locals what they called it and they respond "Torpenn" so the Norse call it "Torpenn Hill" in their tongue. Then modern people see "Torpenhow" as the settlement name, realise its on a hill... and call that hill "Torpenhow Hill".
Interesting case study how different cultures influence the naming of a location. Yet another reason why simple names are better, they can have a very interesting backstory. Nice way to hide some interesting lore as well.
@@lordtea7688 Precisely. Like the names can be extremely simple, just hidden behind a more complex language. You mentioned the map on Morrowind and I am kind of curious to just how many of those names in their own language may simply be like "mountain-foot castle" or something like that.
Real world names in Montana are very unimaginative: there are 20 Mount Baldy/Baldy Peak variations, 10 Red Mountains, at least 3 Rock Creeks, many Dry Creeks, Cottonwood Creeks, Muddy Creeks, Pine Creeks, Mill Creeks…
I typically try to come up with multiple names for some single locations, especially ones that would have world-famous implications. Continents would likely have a more general naming scheme than more local features, and the world itself would have multiple names within different cultures, but I tend to use a single "universal" name that I represent as the most common name among scholars, although I try to create and use more local versions of the world name as well in a story. You really only have to sprinkle in a few alternate names for things to make it seem more real.
Something that always drives me a bit mad is location names that only make sense if you're looking at a map. Your example of Spine of the world illustrates this well. George R. R. Martin does this too with several such as the fingers and a lake called The Eye (or something like that). They only look like those things on a map.
Cartogaphes are often those who name things though. sure there is likely a name used by locals but often the cartographers don't really care much what locals call things. Lake Victoria wasn't called Lake Victoria by the locals.
@@DaDunge But now you are mixing modern cartography with how it used to be. Carthography in general is kinda a new concept. Maps did exist back in the day but in different form. Also they used to be made of areas that already named. US is a bit of a different story as it was discovered and explored with carthographers being "first" to names sites etc. I am pretty sure that something like Lake Victoria was called completly differently by the natives
What I really appreciate about Tolkien is that in Eriador a lot of the landforms that had fantastical and weird Sindarin names became corrupted and turned into their quotidian, modern day form. The Baranduin for example, became the Brandywine. I really appreciate this because there's so much interesting Numenorean history that gets ignored by generations of Bree folk living their lives in Eriador, yet it is the slightly unruly backyard of the Shire where the mysteries of Middle-Earth start becoming more pronounced and start peeking out from behind the hills and dells.
I loved the random tekking clip. I also usually take the cultural/regional approach to naming things. Just give each region a particular "sound" to it and name everything according to that sound. Name things as if they're written in languages that would exist but don't. I took most of my inspiration in how I approach worldbuilding from TES because that's what I grew up with. And honestly, I was always disappointed with how generic the setting felt despite having this wild, insane worldbuilding and lore behind it. Morrowind is the closest it's ever gotten to a proper original fantasy to me, it was very inspired.
Mount Doom's actual name is "Orodruin", Elvish for "Fiery Mountain" or "Mountain of Fire." Mt. Doom is a colloquialism used by the characters, not its official name.
An example on how (and why) place names change over the centuries: There was once a slavic settlement called "Kosericz". In the process of the Ostdiedelung of the teutonic order it got germanized into "Köseritz". Later holy roman settlers (mostly german) founded a sister settlement called "Eichenhauhe". As the germanic settlement outgrew its sibling it was given the right to hold a market, thus changing its name to "Markt-Eichenhauhe". Later, after right of holding market days was no longer needed, the Markt part was dropped from "Eichenhau", as it was called back then. During the german empire (and its writing refom) Köseritz and "Eichenau" (yet another name change) grew together. Thanks to the allied bombings, the city was destroyed but later, under the soviet occupation, rebuild as the city of "Eichau" (a name change thanks to the soviets) as we know it nowerdays. Today, the district "Neu-Kösitsch", is a district of the city of "Eichau" and a reminder of the humble beginins as a slavic settlement.
I agree for the most part but I've actually been surprised how many streets and such in my larger area sound fantasy-ish. Here's my list I have so far: Misty Meadows North Gale Pinehallow Gardenia Woodcrest Brier Crest Crystal Forest
Much of the local geographic features were named after members or patrons of exploration parties, usually without regard for if the locals already had a name for the place.
Here are some geographical names from my country, Costa Rica (The Rich Coast): Three Rivers, Two Rivers, Get Out If You Can, Green Mountain, Half a Cheese, Go Hungry, The Forsaken, Hag's Lair Volcano, Alligator River, Whale Bay, Drake's Bay, Black Stones, White Stones, etc.
@@lordtea7688 all. But when I wrote the comment I was referring to the valley of mines music from Gothic 2. I am actually working on a Gothic 1 review at the moment (from a game developer perspective).
2:00 there is no mount doom in the books, in the books its Orodruin and Amon Amarth, the mountain of fire. In the mountain of fire is the Cracks of Doom. The movies simplified it to mount doom. 2:30 The city I am in is called Lund which means Grove. 11:15 I've played with this with my DnD setting. The two main human realms are called Cydel and Kudel. The etymology is that Cydel is Cy d'el while Kudel is Qou d'el. d'el means "of the lords" which referes to the demigods woshipped in both realms. Cy d'el means realm of the lords (cause it's the empire they actually founded) while qou d'el means footsteps of the gods (named for the city of qou de'l sial which means place where the lords first set foot). Edit: Oh I also have it for dwarven cities Dwarven cities are named Myn, Dur, or Maur. Maur (its after the proper name, Maur holm) designate a dwarven hold built entirly underground. Myn (placed in front of the proper name , Myn Rhogan) means that the hold in inside a mountain valley. Dur (placed after the proper name, Dhail Dur) means that the hold instead sits in a mountain pass. Myn holds are usally argicultural, Dur holds are mercantile, Maur holds are usually military outposts. The names are all derived friomg ermanic languiages since dwarves are usually fairly germanic. Myn comes from swedish Mynning, opening (related to the word munn, mouth), Dur to the english word door, Maur to the german mauer, wall, but it also plays with the sound from mausoleum and mourning since many of these are ruins.
