To Name A Kingdom

Well, technically a principality.

What we have so far

No Names yet, just shapes
and some rough locations

So far we have a region that will be the starting area for my players.  They're going to be starting slightly higher level.  Initial attempts to get them to pick a list of classes to define the region failed miserably, so this is a region where you can be literally any class. Two of them are half-angels, one of them is a lizardman gladiator.  Only one player chose to be a plain old human fighter.  The main capitol of this city is going to be extremely cosmopolitan, a place where anyone could meet anyone.  That city was a punt with Sapphire Bay, but the region it resides in needs some work.

Background Research

I was immediately compelled to search google for why countries are named the way they are and found a very handy wikipedia article. From here I tried to pick out some primary themes.  I am especially interested in south american name origins because I am trying to borrow somewhat from south america for a number of in game reasons.  Here's what I noted down:

• Named for some distinct feature (brazil = brasa/red ember wood)
• Name for the people that live there (Algeria = land of the algiers, Afghanistan = land of the afghans)
• Named for the conqueror/discover (columbia = columbus, bolivia = bolivar)
• Named for geographical feature (Honduras = depths, Haiti = mountainous lands. India = land of the indus river)
• Named for qualities (Costa Rica = rich coast)

Applying it to my region

Once I saw what things were likely to prompt the source of a name, I tried to list out some of the things that might define it:

• Half-elves that conquered/settled the area from the "old world"
• Major geographic features:
• The main river (as yet unnamed)
• jungles
• floodplains
• a lake
• Types of people
• any kind of people, even lizardmen and half-devils and half-angels
• regardless, a singular people under a single, half-elf monarch
• maybe a free people? not sure if that's an angle I want to pursue.

So I'm not sure I have enough to go with on the geographical features, so I'm going to really try and hammer on the half-elves ruling over anyone and everyone. Ideally, whichever name I pick, I should be able to tell someone "Ah, it's just a derivation/deterioration of The Land of Concordant Friends of Half Elves"

Word Salad

Ok, without further ado, here's all the names I've spat out so far:

• Halfelfland, Halland? Halfefenia? Halvenia? Hellania? The riverlands? Riverlandia? Ravenna? Rivenna?
• Unia? Totalia? Holan? Summeria? Concordia? Harmonia? Consonancia? Congrunia?
• Halvenia, Harmonia, Concordia… The Halvenia Concord? The Halmenia Concord? Halvencord? Halvencordia? Halvenhamonia? Halmonia? Halvenia vs. Halvencord vs. Halvencordia… Vencordia? Vencoria? Velcordia? Vermonia? Velmonia? Velmond? Velmondia? Vellondia? Vellond? Velland? Vecland? Vemland? Havenland? Havaland? Halvaland? Vahland? Vahlia? Vahlond? Varlond? Harlond? Harmond? Halvond? Halvondia? Vahlondia? Halvoria? Valoria? Lavoria?

Balance and fulfilling many needs

This is a tough one. The name I ultimately decide on needs to:

• Feel distinct. Boring names like Concordia sound like they belong in Final Fantasy 1
• Be actually pronounceable/spellable by my players. Halvenharmonia sounds kind of cool, but I feel like my players will never get that one.
• Be something I can say over and over again. will I be excited to say Vahlia for the 500th time? Will my players start calling it Valhalla?
• some names from other games that I liked: in ACKs there are believable sounding names like The Auran Empire, Khemesh, and Turos Tem. 4th edition had names like Nerath and Bael Turath.

Wrapping up and not getting stuck

That's all I have for now. Ultimately I may have to pick something and go with it for a bit until it starts to feel good. It may come to be that filling in other details will strike me with some inspiration. I just need a name that I can find+replace later if the mood strikes me.