Canyon Name Generator

There is no strict rule, but usage is fairly consistent: a canyon is a large, deep valley with steep walls, a gorge is narrower and usually cut by a river, and a gulch, draw, wash or arroyo is a small, often dry side cut. In the Southwest a slot canyon or narrows is a corridor only a few feet wide. Gully, ravine, coulee and hollow are smaller or more regional versions of the same idea.

The Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion Canyon in the United States; Fish River Canyon in Namibia and Blyde River Canyon in South Africa; Colca and Cotahuasi in Peru; Copper Canyon (Barrancas del Cobre) in Mexico; Tiger Leaping Gorge in China; Verdon Gorge in France; Vikos and Samaria in Greece; and the Yarlung Tsangpo, often called the deepest on Earth.

Give it a reason. Name it for its rock (Redwall Gorge), for what the water does (Hurricane Wash), for a creature or plant (Raven Canyon, Piñon Canyon) or for an event (Gorge of Broken Swords). Keep one big mythic name for the canyon that drives your story and let the rest be plain, the way real maps are.

Yes. The invented names are free to use, and real canyon names are place names, not trademarks. For a D&D or tabletop world, the fantasy rifts and clefts and the Old West gulches both work; for a Western or survival game, the blunt frontier names and Spanish barrancas give the most authentic feel.