European Country Name Generator

Fiction is full of invented European states, from Anthony Hope's Ruritania and Kravonia to the Genovias of film, and the convincing ones all borrow the grammar of a real language family. Germanic and Nordic names stack concrete nouns: -mark, -land, -holm, -burg, -stein and -vik (Aldermark, Varnskjold, Svendholm). Slavic names take -ova, -ovina, -grad or -ica (Brezovina, Mirograd, Goranica). Romance names lean on monte, val, ponte, san and the soft endings -ia, -ella and -enza (Montefiore, Ponteluna, Aurenza). Finnic names end in -maa, meaning land (Talvimaa, Järvimaa); Magyar names in -vár, meaning castle, or -föld, land (Tiszavár, Aranyföld); Celtic ones begin with Caer, Glen, Dun, Loch or Kil (Caer Wyddan, Glenmorran, Kilbraith).

The list is grouped loosely by these styles, so you can place a country by its sound alone: a Baltic-flavored Dzintara belongs on a cold coast, a Balkan Illyronia on a mountainous peninsula, a Dutch Zuidermeer on flat reclaimed land. A block of formal state names (Grand Duchy of Vellmark, Free City of Aldenbrück, Most Serene Republic of Ponteluna) covers treaties, maps and passports, since Europe's microstates, duchies and free cities are as much a part of its flavor as its kingdoms.

None of these is a current sovereign state; a few echo historical regions, which is exactly how real European borders tend to revive old names.