This diary entry by tule00 (@tule00: Thank you!) led to my detailed reflection of how to find good names for large cities in Kalmish (= German) language.

The most dificult thing is always to find out what names “sound” like names for large cities in a specific language. For example “Hamburg” is Germany’s second largest city, but “-burg” suffix can be found in village, town, and (large) city names. So, with “-burg” names you’re on a quite safe side when naming large cities or small towns in “Kalmish” (German) language. But what about “-dorf”? It means “village”. So, it is used for villages and small towns only. With (at least) one exception: “Düsseldorf”. Everyone in Germany has a large city in mind (capital city of North Rine-Westfalia) when hearing this name, although if you look closely, it is the name for a village. :) What about “Berlin”? In fact, the name of Germany’s largest city, but there are countless smallest villages in Germany with “-in” suffix. Same with “München” (=Munich”), Germany’s third largest city.

In Kalm I used some suffixes from the real German language when naming large cities (e.g. Vennburg, Kemburg, Forberg). Then I invented some special Kalmish suffixes like “-rott” (Tarott, Bilrott) or “-ent” (Orlent, Korlent), which in my point of view sound like large cities.

My (the Kalmish) capital’s name - Nerschach - sounds like the name of a large city to me, as I’m used to this name. However, a good friend of mine heard this name for the first time and said that for him it really does not sound like the name for a large city. This lead to my research of names with this suffix in German place names. Although “-ach” suffix is very common in the southern half of Germany and in many cases derives from names of small rivers or streams, “-schach” suffix isn’t very common. Especially the case of “sch” belonging to the suffix (which often is not the case like in “Eschach”, for example) is very uncommon. My friend had Rorschach in mind when hearing the name “Nerschach”, indeed, a small town with about 10,000 inhabitants next to Lake Constance in Switzerland. I assume that here, the full suffix is “-schach”, as the original Mediaval name was “Rorscahun” (but I’m not 100% sure). I like the name “Nerschach” and of course I will stick to it, but I have to develop the history of the name.

It is clear that in Rorschach, like in Andernach, one of the larger German places with “-ach” suffix, the name does not come from a river or a stream. So I have to decide: Do I want the name Nerschach to come from the small river crossing the city or is it nicer to have another history? What do you think?

One other thing: For me it is always a funny experiment to translate names of large cities in other countries to German and see if it still sounds like a large city - or like the name for a city at all. “Los Angeles” -> “Die Engel”, is this really a city’s name? :) “San Francisco” -> “Sankt Franziskus”, sounds more like a small village in the Bavarian Alps. “Salt Lake City” -> “Salzseestadt”, not very creative, but we have at least one town with the same level of creativity in Germany (“Eisenhüttenstadt” -> “Iron Works City”). “Rio de Janeiro” -> “Januarfluss”, also quite funny for a large city. “Buenos Aires” -> “Gute Lüfte”, funny, and certainly not true for many places in Argentina’s capital. “New York” -> “Neu-Jork”, sounds like a new extension of the small town of Jork west of Hamburg, cultural center within “Altes Land” apple and cherry orchard area. :) And so on. Of course, it is a bit mean to compare our European old names (which often are in fact quite uncreative when you look at the origin) to names in the “New World”, where the uncreative origin is still visible. On the other hand: From a certain perspective, it is very creative to name cities “Los Angeles” or “Buenos Aires” etc.

My conclusion is: In many cases, we have the feeling that a name is suitable for a large city only because we have learned at some moment that there is a large city with this name. (And I “learned” that there are large cities called “Tarott”, “Orlent” … and “Nerschach”.)

Happy mapping!

joschi81