Fantasy Lake Name Generator

Real lake names give fantasy maps their texture, and English happens to have a rich vocabulary for standing water. Mere is Old English for a lake (Windermere, Grasmere), tarn is Norse for a small mountain lake, water is used for the larger English lakes (Wastwater, Coniston Water), and the Celtic languages give loch, lough, and llyn. Tolkien built directly on this: Mirrormere sits below Moria, the Long Lake beside Esgaroth, and the Mere of Dead Faces in the marshes. Using the same suffixes makes an invented lake sound like it has always been there.

Legend supplies the second layer. Lake Avernus was the entrance to the underworld, Lake Stymphalia hid Heracles' man-eating birds, Llyn y Fan Fach is home to the Lady of the Lake, and the Lady of Arthurian romance rises from an unnamed lake to hand over Excalibur. Descriptive titles (the Lake of Fallen Stars, the Lake That Remembers) work in that register, especially for a lake that has a story attached to it.

For your own map, decide whether the lake is ordinary or magical before you name it. Ordinary lakes get a compound of color, size, or animal plus mere or water. Magical or sacred lakes earn a longer title, a legend, or a name in an invented tongue like Aelinuial or Elunara.