Spanish Country Name Generator

Fiction has a long tradition of invented Spanish-speaking countries: Joseph Conrad's Costaguana, Tintin's San Theodoros and Nuevo Rico, Val Verde from a dozen action films. The convincing ones borrow the real grammar of Hispanic place names. Spanish countries and regions tend to fall into a few shapes: a single Latin-flavored word ending in -ia, -ana or -ora (Colombia, Bolivia, Cantabria, Andalucía); a descriptive phrase built from costa, tierra, valle, sierra, río or puerto (Costa Rica, Tierra del Fuego, Puerto Rico); a saint's name (San Marino, Santa Lucía, El Salvador); or a formal title such as República, Reino, Principado or Estados Unidos de.

Latin America adds another layer. Many real names are indigenous words wearing Spanish spelling: Guatemala and Nicaragua come from Nahuatl, Cuba and Jamaica from Taíno, Perú and Chile from Quechua and Aymara, Paraguay and Uruguay from Guaraní. A fictional Andean or Mesoamerican nation sounds right when it uses those sound systems, so this list includes names with -marca, -tlán, -tepec, -pampa and -tún endings alongside the Iberian ones.

Accents are part of the effect. Tepoztlán, Río Bravo and Península de Almar look authentic with their tildes and acute accents; strip them and the names read as anglicized. Use the accented forms in maps and dialogue unless your setting explicitly writes in English.