Places & Realms data
City name data
This is the whole grammar behind the City Name Generator: 36 building blocks in 4 sets, assembled by one pattern, with a selection space of 5,307,120 combinations. Nothing is withheld and nothing is summarised: the lists below are the arrays the generator runs on.
Summary
| Building blocks | 36 |
|---|---|
| Patterns | [syllables]+[place suffix] |
| Selection space | 5,307,120 |
| Counted as | the model: 13 onsets x 7 nuclei x 8 coda options (coda is optional), summed over 1 to 2 syllables, then multiplied by 10 suffix options (suffix is optional) |
Where these blocks came from
The suffix set is real English toponymy: -ton, -ford, -wick, -burgh, -vale, -haven, -gate, -moor and -shire are all live English place-name endings. The onsets and nuclei are own design.
The building blocks
Onsets 13
Opens each syllable. An empty onset is allowed where the model lists one, which is what lets a name start on a vowel.
(empty)brstwbhmrdglthnk
Nuclei 7
The vowel core of each syllable. Digraphs like ae and ia carry most of the genre flavour.
aeioaieaoo
Codas 7
Closes a syllable, but only about half the time, so consonants do not pile up.
(empty)nrmldryck
Suffixes 9
Appended to roughly two names in five, after the syllables are built.
tonfordwickburghvalehavengatemoorshire
Worked examples
Six names this generator produced, with the measurements the site shows next to every name. Syllables follow one published rule: count each run of vowel letters as one syllable, then subtract one for a silent trailing e when the word has more than one vowel group. The rule is approximate at the edges and deliberately simple, so anyone can apply it to any name here and get the same answer.
| Name | Characters | Syllables | Words | Pattern |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ick | 3 | 1 | 1 | VCC |
| Nea | 3 | 1 | 1 | CVV |
| Nenaim | 6 | 2 | 1 | CVCVVC |
| Ronoo | 5 | 2 | 1 | CVCVV |
| Staiford | 8 | 2 | 1 | CCVVCVCC |
| Brearymeam | 10 | 3 | 1 | CCVVCVCVVC |
How to cite this
NameForge. City name data, NameForge Naming Corpus v1. 2026. CC BY 4.0. https://nameforge.name/data/city
BibTeX
@misc{nameforge-corpus-v1,
author = {NameForge},
title = {City name data, NameForge Naming Corpus v1},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://nameforge.name/data/city}},
note = {CC BY 4.0}
}
Reuse is welcome under CC BY 4.0. Attribution line: Data: NameForge Naming Corpus v1, https://nameforge.name/data. A name assembled from these blocks can coincide with a real name, business or trademark; nothing here is checked against any register.
Related corpus entries
The generators this one shares naming conventions with, and how their block counts compare. A larger corpus is not a better one: city names are assembled from 36 blocks in 4 sets, and a generator with fewer blocks in more sets can still reach a wider selection space.
| Corpus | Blocks | Block sets | Combinations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tavern name data | 40 | 2 | 400 |
| Kingdom name data | 28 | 3 | 593,409,600 |
| Human name data | 39 | 4 | 16,111,972,800 |
| Fantasy name data | 39 | 4 | 16,111,972,800 |
Back to the City Name Generator, or to the full corpus index.
Last reviewed 6 August 2026. Corpus v1. Method: how NameForge builds a name. Built and maintained by FusionStudios.