Help:Resources for names
Cranking out 10,000 street names in any flavour you like isn't as hard as you might think. Whatever feeling or atmosphere you want to create, the Internet is full of different generators and lists that can give you an endless supply of names. All you do is click through different resources and collect a long list of names you want to use. Then when you start mapping, just go down your list and use all the names!
- Want names with the flavour of a specific location? Lots of places have their street names listed online, such as London or Paris or Brooklyn for example.
- Want names that sound like famous Spaniards, or Vietnamese, or Ukrainians, or Maori? Try a people name generator with nearly 100 language settings.
- Want names with an old port town flair? Why not check out a list of fish or a list of nautical terms or lists of other relevant subjects on Wiktionary.
- Want names that sound like a certain language? You can generate male names, female names and place names in dozens of different languages.
- Or write your own phonetic rules for your own language to produce a completely new and unique flavor? Here are generators for names in Khaiwoon and Niulutan-Riu (scroll down & click the 'generate' button).
- In some cases, one name can be used again and again for multiple streets, differentiated only by their endings. For example, many housing estates in suburban Dublin will have multiple streets with the same name and end them with Place, Court, Park etc., or sometimes numbers may also be added at the end, like Pasir Ris Drive 1, 2, 3 etc. and even Street 21, 23 etc. for other types of roads in every neighbourhood in Singapore (navigate around the map for more examples!).
- Another source is significant events or people in your country's history. If there is an independence day or a famous head of state there is likely to be a street, probably a major one, named after them in most towns. Alternatively, roads that lead to other settlements may well be named after them, so most towns in the southern UK have a 'London Road' leading towards the capital.
- Some places use numbered streets, usually with a grid system. This is most common in the Americas. Most places only use them for one direction of streets, but it's pretty common to find them in both directions. Many places also use lettered streets and alphabetical streets.