Creating Fictional Slavic Place Names
I have a very simple question regarding a small problem I cannot find a single satisfying answer to. I am trying to create a country with a prominent Slavic culture. In my story, an alien world has been colonized by the nations of Earth. Respectively, each name their lands and territories how they see fit and in their own language. As for this country, it was colonized by the Slavic nations and is rightly given a Slavic sounding name. In fact, the entire continent the country exists on shares the same name.
Now, my problem rests in the fact that I'm American and the only "Slavic" language I am familiar with is Russian, and even then it is very limited. I want to create a genuine sounding Slavic name for the land but do not know where to start. Honestly, I do not understand the Slavic tongues' structures and vocabularies. I'm not entirely sure how to phrase this question so I'll be blunt. Simply, I want to know how to create a genuine sounding Slavic place name. Particularly, I want a name that describes the land itself (just as Belarus means "White Russia") or named after an important figure (just like how the U.S. state Pennsylvania is named after William Penn).
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/147880. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1 answer
You will likely have an easier time if you pick a Slavic language that uses a Roman alphabet. Like Czech or Slovak (which are very similar to each other). Then you don't have to deal with the unknown alphabet and words that are more removed from Latin/etc.
Take Slovakia. It's got some pretty straight-forward place name conventions. I do a lot of genealogy work in Slovakia (don't speak the language though). My favorite resource is a list of every single village and town and city in the entire country. It gives current and historical names. I rely on it extensively when I do records transcriptions.
Do keep in mind that, over the years, places in Slovakia have had not only Slovak names but also names from the languages of other countries that either controlled (all or part of) the country or supplied a lot of migrants to it or had influence due to the Church, etc. Hungarian is the biggest. But also Russian and German (and Latin and Polish and...).
There are many rivers in Slovakia and it is common to have towns named after a nearby river. So some of your towns will likely be named after waterways on your planet.
Many towns are also named as by the river. For example:
Are both on the Váh River (Slovakia's largest river, a tributary to the Danube).
Are on the Ipeľ River.
A great resource for Common Place-Name Terminology lists place names in Hungarian, Slovak, Polish, German, and English.
For example, big town by the Little River would be:
Velke Mestro nad Kisom
Start with some basic translations for words that create town names in English: Valley, Vista, Hills, Lake, Flats, Ville, Oaks, Port, Plains, Junction, City, Town, Land, Harbor, etc.
Throw in color names.
Instead of Oaks, use the plant and animal life you will find there. Violet Flats or Pine Hills.
Use the first and/or last names of the people who first arrived in that region. Or their professions. Friersland or Captainsport.
Use the names of the prominent industry in the town. As in Bakersville or Tanners Lake.
Now divide similar areas by adding words for big, little, and so on. Lower Redwood vs Upper Redwood.
And use the various naming conventions to add some flair. Speckled Rooster by the Smith River.
And translate it into your favorite Slavic language (if for some reason it's not Slovak).
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