Dwarf City Name Generator

Dwarf cities almost always announce what they are: a hold, a hall, a delve, or a mansion carved into living rock. Tolkien set the pattern with Khazad-dûm ('Dwarrowdelf', the delving of the dwarves), Belegost and Nogrod, and with the Khuzdul elements that show up again and again in later fantasy: khazad (dwarves), zigil (spike), baraz (red), bund (head), and dûm (halls or mansions). Warhammer's dwarfs follow the same instinct with Karak (hold), Karaz (great hold), Barak (fortress) and Zhuf, giving us Karak Eight Peaks, Karaz-a-Karak and Barak Varr. The Forgotten Realms prefers English compounds such as Mithral Hall, Citadel Adbar and Gauntlgrym, while Dragon Age uses Orzammar and Kal-Sharok.

A strong dwarf city name therefore has two parts: a word for the kind of place (hold, hall, deep, delve, gate, vault, crag) and a word for what defines it. That defining word is usually a metal or stone (Ironforge, Silverdelve, Adamant Reach), a founder (Durin's Delving, Bruenor's Hall), or a natural feature of the mountain (Thunderpeak, Frostgate). Names that sound heavy and hard, with lots of k, r, d and z sounds, feel most authentically dwarven when spoken aloud.

The list above blends canonical cities from Middle-earth, Warhammer, Warcraft, the Forgotten Realms and Dragon Age with original holds in Khuzdul, Warhammer and English styles, so you can pick something that fits a homebrew D&D world, a Total War campaign, or a novel's ancestral dwarven kingdom.