Appalachian Town Name Generator

Appalachian town names come from a handful of very specific traditions, and you can hear all of them in the list below. The oldest layer is Cherokee and Shawnee — Tuckasegee, Nantahala, Cullowhee, Ocoee, Hiawassee. Over that came Scots-Irish and German settlers, who named places for exactly what they found: Sinking Creek, Flat Lick, Burnt House, Sugar Hollow, Gobblers Knob. A hollow (said "holler") is a narrow valley; a gap is a pass; a lick is a salt spring; a fork, branch or run is a small stream — and most towns are named for the water they sit on.

The coal boom added another layer. Companies built camps overnight and named them after owners, daughters and investors, which is why the coalfields are dotted with Dorothy, Sarah Ann, Thelma, Josephine, Itmann (I. T. Mann) and Iaeger. Railroad clerks and postmasters supplied the odd one-word names — Neon, Krypton, Typo, Viper, Odd, Pinch, Cucumber — often because every sensible name was taken. And then there is the famous mountain plain-speaking humour: Hell for Certain, Kingdom Come, Loafers Glory, Tight Squeeze, Defeated and Big Ugly are all real post offices.

Nearly every name here is real or built from real elements, so they sound right for Southern Gothic fiction, mountain horror, a bluegrass lyric or a game map of the hills.