Elven Town Name Generator

Elven towns are the quiet places between the great elven cities: a cluster of platforms in the boughs, a fishing village on a silver river, a waystation where rangers rest. Their names are humbler than a capital's, and in most fantasy settings they follow the same logic as real English and Welsh village names, a local feature plus a settlement word. Elven towns simply pick prettier features (moon, star, willow, fern, dew) and gentler settlement words (mere, glade, hollow, dell, brook, haven, ford). Willowmist, Fernbrook Hollow and Moonstone Crossing all work this way. Tolkien-flavored settings instead use short Sindarin compounds such as Nimbrethil ("white birches") or Nan Tathren ("vale of willows").

Good elven town names tell you something about the place. Ford, bridge and crossing names mark a river route; bough, canopy and treetop names mark a settlement in the trees; haven and rest names mark a hidden refuge; and dawn, dusk and gloaming names hint at the elves' relationship with time and light. Tree species do a lot of work too, since an elven town named for yew, rowan or holly carries folklore associations of protection, death or winter magic.

Below you will find English compound names, Sindarin-style names built from real Tolkien roots, and a few canonical smaller elven settlements from Middle-earth, Forgotten Realms and Warcraft, so you can populate a whole forest with places that sound like they belong together.