Field Name Generator

Real field names are among the oldest words on any map. In England almost every enclosed parcel carried a recorded name, and nearly all follow the same shape: a specific word plus a generic. The generics tell you what kind of land it was, so they are worth learning: a close is a hedged enclosure, a leaze or ley is pasture, a piece or furlong is arable, a holme is river meadow, a croft sits beside a house, a pightle is a tiny scrap, and the butts were once the archery ground. The specific half records size (Ten Acre Piece), soil (Clay Pits), crop (Bean Close), animals (Cow Leaze), owners (Parson's Close) or a complaint (Starveall, Labour in Vain, Hungry Hill).

Other regions use their own vocabulary. Welsh fields are cae, dol and gwern; Scottish and Irish ones are achadh, cluain and pairc; the Norse north of England has thwaites, ings and garths; American farms and Australian stations talk about the North Forty, the Back Pasture, the Creek Bottom or the Ram Paddock.

For a fantasy map or farm game the same rules apply, just with a lighter touch: Foxglove Meadow or The Singing Lea feel right because they still follow the specific-plus-generic pattern that real land names have used for a thousand years.