Coastal Town Name Generator

Coastal towns get their names from the sea and from the people who worked it. English and Celtic coasts are full of endings that describe the shoreline: -mouth (river mouth, as in Plymouth), -haven and -harbour (safe anchorage), -wick (Norse for bay or inlet, as in Lerwick), -ness (headland), -combe (coastal valley), and Cornish porth-, pol-, and pen- meaning cove, pool, and headland. Add saints, fish, seabirds, and landmarks like beacons and batteries, and you have the raw material for most of the coastal names on a real map.

The names above are grouped loosely by flavour: British and Irish fishing villages (Polwithen, Kilbride Harbour, Staithes), Mediterranean and Iberian ports (Cala Blanca, Porto Vecchio), Nordic and Baltic harbours (Strandvik, Fiskehamn), New England and Pacific Northwest towns (Kittery Point, Port Townsend), and Caribbean and tropical resorts (Marigot Bay, Ambergris Cay). Names like Wreckers' Cove, Smuggler's Reach, and Gallows Point suggest a darker history for adventure settings.

A good coastal town name should tell you something about the place before you arrive. Saltmouth is a working river port; Sunset Cove is where people go on holiday; Coldharbour is somewhere sailors are glad to leave. Match the tone of the name to the role the town plays in your story or campaign.