Civilization Name Generator

Set a number from 1 to 10 and press the button. You get that many civilization names, one per card, from a list of 545. About 530 of them are invented names built for fantasy settings, things like Vrerrath, Sphalshoho, Kesthanu and Twualzul, and the remaining handful are real ancient cultures such as the Minoan civilization, Jōmon culture, Mesopotamia and Phoenicia. It's meant for worldbuilders, game masters and strategy-game players who need a culture, empire or lost people named in the next ten seconds.

What the names are like

The invented names are two to four syllables and lean on consonant clusters that don't occur much in English, so they read as foreign without belonging to any real language: Schurmeo, Thowza, Praalkunduu, Gluffis, Drednoth, Xalstoosa. Some are soft and vowel-heavy (Eloa, Saniu, Cleillana), which suits an old, refined culture; others are hard and clipped (Fukhoq, Bakdeh, Krogfin), which reads as martial or nomadic. There's no filter for style, so draw ten and sort them by feel.

The real entries are there partly as models. Jōmon, Erlitou, Dawenkou, Villanovan, Dorset, Nok, Mississippian, Dong Son, Qijia, Ghassulian, Gerzean and Inugsuk are all names archaeologists gave to cultures known from their sites; Minoan and Mycenaean are named after a legendary king and a city; Mesopotamia and Phoenicia are Greek names for a region and a people. If one of those comes up, you can use it as-is for an alternate-history setting or borrow the naming pattern.

Turning a name into a civilization

Real civilizations are almost always named in one of a few ways, and each gives you a different flavor for a made-up one:

• After a place. Mesopotamia ("between the rivers"), Phoenicia, Rome. Take a generated name as a river, valley or city, and the people become "the Vrerrath" or "Vrerrathi".
• After a founder or ruler. Minoan from Minos, Seleucid from Seleucus. Use the generated word as a dynasty founder: the Thowzan Empire under the Thowza kings.
• After a defining site or artifact. Jōmon means "cord-marked" after their pottery; Erlitou and Dawenkou are the villages where the digs happened. Good for a lost civilization known only from ruins.
• Endonym versus exonym. What a people call themselves (Deutsche) is often nothing like what neighbors call them (Germans, Allemands). Draw two names: one for the culture's own name, one for what its rivals call it.

To make a name feel established, give it a demonym and an adjective. Kesthanu becomes the Kesthani (people) and Kesthanian (adjective); Drednoth becomes Drednothi and Drednothic. Pick a suffix pattern and use it consistently across all the cultures in one world.

Where people use it

• Civilization, Humankind, Stellaris and Crusader Kings custom factions. Draw a name, pick a leader title, done.
• D&D and Pathfinder campaigns. Name the fallen empire whose ruins the party keeps finding, plus the three living cultures that claim descent from it.
• Novels and short fiction. Draw ten, keep two, and derive language names, currencies and calendar names from them.
• School worldbuilding projects. Invent a civilization, then write its geography, religion and collapse around a name that sounds like it has history.

Once the civilization is named, the Random Kingdom Name Generator covers its states, the Castle Name Generator its strongholds, the Island Name Generator its territories, and the Street Names Generator its cities at ground level.

Sample draws

See all name generators for people, places and things to fill the world you just named.