Roman Town Name Generator

Roman town names are a record of how the Empire grew. In Italy and the old Greek world, Rome mostly kept the names it found: Neapolis, Syracusae, Ephesus. In the provinces it Latinised native names (Londinium from a Celtic root, Lutetia from the Parisii's settlement) or coined new ones from what the place offered — Aquae Sulis "the waters of Sulis" at Bath, Aquae Sextiae "the waters of Sextius" at Aix-en-Provence, Salinae for a salt works. Many towns also carried the name of the local tribe as a second element: Corinium Dobunnorum, Venta Belgarum, Isca Dumnoniorum.

The most Roman-sounding names of all are the imperial foundations. Colonies for veterans were named after the emperor who founded them — Augusta Treverorum (Trier), Emerita Augusta (Mérida), Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (Cologne), Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa — while military bases used blunt descriptive labels like Castra Regina "the fort on the Regen" or Pons Aelius "Aelius' bridge", the original Newcastle. Words like Castra, Colonia, Portus, Aquae, Forum and Pons still survive in modern place names such as Chester, Cologne, Porto, Aix, Fréjus and Pontefract.

Every name in this list is an attested ancient toponym, spanning Britain, Gaul, the Rhine and Danube frontiers, Iberia, Italy, North Africa and the Greek East, so you can pick a name that fits the exact corner of the Empire your story or campaign is set in.