Medieval City Name Generator

A medieval city name almost always describes the place or the power that founded it, and the names here are built on those real patterns. In England and the Low Countries the endings do the work: -burg, -bury and -borough mark a fortified town, -minster a cathedral or abbey city, -caster and -chester an old Roman fort, -wick a trading settlement, -mouth and -ford a river crossing or estuary, and -holm an island or river meadow (Wexminster, Saltcaster, Merrowmouth). French cities pair a saint with a landmark or river (Saint-Gervais-les-Tours, Châtillon-sur-Vesle), while Occitan bastides and castle towns use Castel-, Mont- and Roche-. German and Hanseatic names favour -burg, -stadt, -heim, -furt and -hafen; Italian hill cities take Monte-, Castel-, Borgo and Rocca-; Iberian towns use Villa-, Castro-, Puente and del Río.

The list mixes invented names with real medieval cities and their older spellings, because a convincing map needs both. Distinguishing tags (Old, New, Upper, Nether, Minor, -upon-, -le-) let one name spawn a family of satellite towns, and the Latin charter forms (Castrum, Civitas, Portus, Pons) give you what a scribe would have written. Trade and guild names (Cornmarket Gate, Tannersgate, Cordwainer's Cross) work as districts inside a larger city.