Orc City Name Generator

Orcs rarely build cities in the elven sense; their settlements are war-camps, fortified caves and captured strongholds, and their names reflect that. The classic orc city name is one or two harsh syllables built from g, k, r, z, th and u sounds, sometimes split by an apostrophe: Orgrimmar (named for Orgrim Doomhammer), Grom'gol, Garadar and Thrallmar in Warcraft; Largashbur, Dushnikh Yal and Mor Khazgur among the Orc strongholds of Skyrim; Gundabad and Cirith Ungol in Tolkien's Black Speech-flavoured geography. Warhammer's greenskins name their holds in blunt slang (Black Crag, Iron Rock, Da Big Rok) or after the mountain they took from the dwarfs.

Orc places also take their names from war leaders and violence. Naming a hold after its founding chieftain (Gorak's Fist, Blackhand's Forge, Azog's Seat) is common across settings, and descriptive names of the Bloodmaw Hold, Skullgate and Splitskull Ridge type read as boasts carved over the gate. Words like Hold, Camp, Kraal, Warren, Pit, Spire and Forge tell you what kind of settlement it is: a permanent fortress, a temporary war-camp, an underground warren or a smithing centre.

For your own map, combine an orcish root (Grok, Kurg, Vrak, Zar, Thul) with a suffix such as -mar, -gash, -hold, -thar or -kar, or use a violent English compound for the name humans use. Giving the same place both an orcish name and a human translation (Uzgash, which the border folk call Skullgate) adds instant depth.