Conversation

how to invent plausible-sounding English town names:

  • pick a one-syllable word for something a Medieval peasant would know about
  • add “fordshire” to the end
  • that’s it you’re done
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pedantry
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@kasdeya no no no
Something shire is a county, a larger area with lots of towns, eg. Shitfordshire
The capital of the county has the same name without shire, eg Shitford

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@kasdeya ‘shire’ means county. More like add ‘ham’ or ‘ing’. ‘Ham’ is basically village and ‘ing’ is people/followers. ‘Reading’ means it was the town of the followers of some famous redhead. That sort of thing.

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@kasdeya Actually ‘ham’ means home or settlement. My mistake.

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