City State Name Generator

A city-state is a city that answers to nobody, and its name tends to carry that independence. Historically they cluster in a few regions: the Greek poleis of the Aegean and Sicily (Syracuse, Himera, Selinous), the merchant republics of Italy and Dalmatia, the Hanseatic free cities of the Baltic, the Swahili stone towns, the Maya city-kingdoms, the Silk Road oasis cities and the Phoenician harbours. Each region has its own sound: Greek colonies end in -os, -on and -a; Italian republics carry soft vowels and saints; Hanse towns are built on -stadt, -holm, -wick and -haven; Maya kingdoms use -an, -tun and the glottal stop.

The second thing a city-state has is a formal style. Venice was the Most Serene Republic, Lübeck a Free and Hanseatic City, Genoa the Republic, Dubrovnik the Republic of Ragusa, and every Greek polis spoke of itself as "the Athenians" or "the Corinthians" rather than a country. A title such as Free City of Orsanto or Maritime Republic of Altomare instantly tells a reader that this place is sovereign, commercial and probably armed.

These names are written for worldbuilding, tabletop settings and strategy-game maps: invented cities in each of those traditions, some real ancient city-states that are obscure enough to reuse, and a set of formal titles you can attach to any of them.