Peninsula Name Generator

Real peninsulas are rarely called 'peninsula' by the people who live on them. Sailors and locals use the smaller form-words: cape, head, headland, point, ness (Norse for nose), neck, spit, hook, horn, foreland and promontory. Cape Cod, the Lizard, Sandy Hook and Dungeness are all peninsulas; the word 'peninsula' tends to appear on maps and in names given from a distance, such as the Olympic Peninsula, the Kenai Peninsula or the Upper Peninsula. So the first decision is scale: a large landmass gets a proper name plus Peninsula, a mile-long finger of land gets a head, point or neck.

The descriptors follow the same patterns. Shape: the Boot, the Hook, Goose Neck, Kintyre ('head of the land'). Hazard or relief: Cape Wrath, Cape Fear, Cape Farewell, Punta Tormenta. Saints and patrons: Península de San Telmo, Presqu'île de Sainte-Anne. Birds and sea life: Gannet Head, Ardnamurchan ('point of the great seas'), Tanjung Bangau ('heron cape'). Owners and settlers: Delmarva, Parson's Neck.

Other languages carry their own form-words: Spanish península and punta, Portuguese ponta, French presqu'île, German Halbinsel, Norwegian nes and halvøya, Swedish udde, Welsh penrhyn, Gaelic ros and ard, Greek akra and chersonesos, Turkish burun, Arabic ras, Japanese misaki and hantō, Malay tanjung and semenanjung. Matching the form-word to the culture that named the place makes a map feel lived in.