# Quaint/cute British place names



## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 21, 2005)

I'm trying to name some of the hamlets in the Barony of Midwood and name the forest itself, and too many of the names sound too much alike the other setting names (Midwood, Green Mountain, etc.). While some of that is good, this is getting stupid.

Since Ptolus won't be out for quite a while (the barony is in Prust, south of Grail Keep and north of Kem), I was hoping to find a list of quaint British place names, since whenever I try to make up names like that, I end up with West Bumble and other things that are on the other side of the amusing/outright parody line.

Help!


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## DungeonmasterCal (Sep 21, 2005)

Maybe this will help.

http://www.british-towns.net/england.asp


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## AIM-54 (Sep 21, 2005)

I've always been partial to Finchingfield.  And Blagdon, though I'm not totally sure that's an actual place name.  I just know my parents ended up with a wooden sign that says "Blagdon House" on it.    

Yorkshire's a classic, too, though probably too well known.

X on the (river name) is always classic, too, and easily moldable to place names you may already have.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 21, 2005)

Thanks.

I'm currently working with Middleborough, Foxshire on ______ and Maidensbridge.

I still need a name for the forest (the British Isles have apparently been relatively deforested, so not a lot of inspirational names there) and the river. (And heck, a nearby pond now the home to Grendelesque scrags.)


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## MonsterMash (Sep 21, 2005)

Some real place names from the UK

Pett's wood

Ugley (pronounced as Ugly - usually the source of jokes about the Ugley Womens Institute)

Cat's Bottom (yes its real)

On the Essex/Hertfordshire borders you have the Matchings - Matching Green, Matching Tye - always felt it would have been better to have twin villages of Matching Shirt and Matching Tye!

Magdalen Laver

Beauchamp Roding


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## Woas (Sep 21, 2005)

I always liked Upper and Lower Slaughter.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 21, 2005)

> Midwood
> 
> The Barony of Midwood, in the middle of Tulgey Wood, is home to the settlements of Middleborough (where the baronal manor house of Midwood Hall is located), Foxshire on Moss (home of the Sleepy Dragon Inn) and Maidensbridge (home of the Way Inn, popular with merchant caravans). Middleborough Church, which is dedicated to Lothian, boasts a regionally famous clockwork glockenspiel depicting an idealized version of life in the barony.
> 
> ...




That seems pretty good. Thanks, guys.


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## AIM-54 (Sep 22, 2005)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> That seems pretty good. Thanks, guys.




Awesome.  Sounds like you have a great location set up there.  Looks like it'll be a blast to play.


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## Rabelais (Sep 22, 2005)

the best place name I've ever encountered was from Stephenson's Cryptonomicon... Inner and Outer Qwghlm.  I'd have to use them in a campaign.


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## Hairfoot (Sep 22, 2005)

Great Snoring, in Suffolk, could be a gnome town.


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## Hypersmurf (Sep 22, 2005)

MonsterMash said:
			
		

> Some real place names from the UK




There was a list recently...

-Hyp.


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## mhacdebhandia (Sep 22, 2005)

"Foxshire on Moss" is weird, because a shire is a largeish area. It's usually only towns which are named after their proximity to a river - "Foxton on Moss", frex.


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## Jonny Nexus (Sep 22, 2005)

mhacdebhandia said:
			
		

> "Foxshire on Moss" is weird, because a shire is a largeish area. It's usually only towns which are named after their proximity to a river - "Foxton on Moss", frex.




Yeah, basically a shire is a type of county (i.e. all shires are counties, but not all counties are shires). So as mhacdebhandia says, you wouldn't have "xxxshire on xxx".

And in terms of what english counties are, they are mostly like US counties, but I believe a bit bigger (we think of them more in the way that Americans think of states). It's much more a regional identity, rather than the local town and its surroundings.

I found this link giving details of UK counties.

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~jimella/counties.htm


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 22, 2005)

How about Foxwold on Moss?


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## mhensley (Sep 22, 2005)

Click on the town name button in my name generator for very England-like town names-

http://www.bargainstrike.com/mw/tools/namegen.php


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## mhacdebhandia (Sep 22, 2005)

Foxwold, Foxbridge, Foxhill, Foxburne, Foxlea, Foxgrove, Foxham, Foxby, Foxford, Foxheath, Foxville, Foxthorpe, Foxvale, Foxdale, Foxwell, Foxmont, Foxwood, Foxport, Foxmouth, Foxglen, Foxside, Foxmore, Foxcombe, Foxdon, Foxridge, Foxminster, Foxborough . . . 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_in_England


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## nerfherder (Sep 22, 2005)

A couple of miles from me are the following places:

*) Pity Me (originally from the Norman French Petit Mer for the small lake)

*) No Place (I've no idea how this name came about!)

Cheers,
Liam


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## NewJeffCTHome (Sep 23, 2005)

Woas said:
			
		

> I always liked Upper and Lower Slaughter.




My town in Connecticut has streets named either Upper & Lower Butcher or Middle & Lower Butcher.  Of course, a lot of New England names are from England - I grew up in a town name Cromwell.


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## tetsujin28 (Sep 23, 2005)

My own personal fave is from an episode of The Avengers: Little Storping on the Swuff


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## nerfherder (Sep 25, 2005)

Today's Sunday Times has an article on British Place Names.

Some of their favourites were:

Three Cocks
 Ho
Twatt
Scratchy Bottom
Happy Bottom
North Piddle
Lickey End
Willey
Nether Wallop
Sandy Balls

These are all genuine names (and I've provided links to multimap.com where I could find them).

Cheers,
Liam


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## Dr. Harry (Sep 25, 2005)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> Help!





First, this is a great thread.

Second, My advice is to look through Shakespeare, and steal names from there.  Since he was English, he was able to make people say these things with a straight face.  Actually, I get most of my stuff from Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare (pretty common in the discount racks of B&N and like places).

   Harry


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## Fraggleonacid (Sep 25, 2005)

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned "The Meaning of Liff" and "The Deeper Meaning of Liff" by Douglas Adams & John Lloyd.

The idea behind these books is to take some very silly place names (mostly British) and suggest dictionary style definitions as though they were words; very funny stuff.  Of course the humour might break a serious RPG setting, but the place names are genuine.


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