How do You name your cities?

[Heresson]

Usually I invent names such as Ferenpol, Olmonia, Eupatria, Martymera, and thousand others.

[debeest]

I usually name them in alphabetical order, so that when I run through the cities between turns, they come up in age order (the ones founded by me, at least). Usually I give a game a theme (trees, or flowers, or Klingons, or elves, or Castor and Pollux, something like that) and then I compile a set of names or words related to the theme and alphabetize them and use them in order. Sometimes I use names that indicate the location or something distinctive about the city, such as Western Canal.

[Heresson]

Sometimes me too, though I tried in several games to name cities like 4000 BC F(ounded), or 2000 BC C(onquered), I thought it'd be cool to make expansion map later on.

[Bloody Monk]

Once I get beyond 20 cities in the local ghetto I rename the lot based on the cities and towns in central Texas where I live. That way, I know where every city is in relation to all the rest. Saves a lot of time and avoids confusion.

If you have dozens of Aztec cities, for instance, they all blend together in an incomprehensible fog.

(Which IS different from saying, "they all look alike to me.")

Monk

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

I usually accept the names the cities list in the .txt file provides. When that and the 'extra' cities list run out and start to repeat, I usually start using local town and city names.

Depending on how complex the map is, I'll sometimes add prefixes and suffixes to city names - i.e. cities with "2-" prefix are on continent 2, etc. Or I'll add "ah" and "af" to cities with airports - 'ah' being 'air home' and 'af' being 'air frontline'. This helps when airlifting units and trying to find a city that hasn't already been used to airlift that turn.

In games where multiple maps are used (ToT), cities on different maps have a unique prefix to keep things simple.

[rjmatsleepers]

Although I usualy accept the computer names, I have modified the cities in rules.txt for the English (which is the civ I usually play). After a few specially chosen names, I have the computer names in chronological order - Roman, Saxon, medieval, industrial revolution, modern. Where the city is founded for a specific purpose - a canal, or a mountain fortress - I give it a descriptive name of modifier (ie Ipswich Canal or Winchester Fort).

RJM at Sleeper's

[Andemagne]

real historical Greek city names. I allways play as Greeks.

[Heresson]

This all place is some great Greek-Finnish conspiracy

[duke o' york]

In single-player games I name the cities either according to where they are on the map or just based on other cities I know from the same civ. This is easy for any of the major civs that still survive, and for the Zulus and Egyptians then I can use other modern African cities in the general area.
In succession games then I'll name them according to the game's theme, or what purpose the cities will serve (Van feeder 1, French canal, Cart doom - for a port city into which conquering armies will be landed).
I'd like to name SP cities after the trade resources they have/demand so that it's easy in the late game to find out which city can trade with which, but since the commodities change so often then it would involve looking at all of the cities too often and end up wasting too much Civ-playing time.

[Old n Slow]

I follow a mix of the above. In most of my games, I'll use an alphabetical hierarchy, with the first 20 or so cities on the same rock being neamed from the same US state/area (N VA for the start, Fl for the southernmost/ Texas is dry, etc.)

Often I'll continue using the names of the conquered -- more French/Danish/Swedish etc. for Europe; often a geographical feature as well.

Replants sometimes get the original name +2.

Sometimes I just use the defaults for a while, but I really hate to have three Cunaxas in a game.

The islands will usually get island names (Santo/ Domingo to split an isle; Bermuda, etc.)

I recall a game where I went for the ICS (Incredably Compact Spread) and named a lot of the cities, A1, A2, etc. -- but it seemed like the cities had no personality -- & I treated them like so many ant hills.

[Bloody Monk]

Originally posted by Old n Slow

I recall a game where I went for the ICS (Incredably Compact Spread) and named a lot of the cities, A1, A2, etc. -- but it seemed like the cities had no personality -- & I treated them like so many ANT HILLS.

Brilliant!! Great simile, OnS. I've always felt there was something missing in the descriptive for ICS cities. Ant Hill = dirthole, but dangerous.

Monk

[Hasdrubal]

This all place is some great Greek-Finnish conspiracy

At last someone dares to speak up!

[Heresson]

[Straybow]

Sometimes I alphabetize, but in general I try to use city names from whatever ethnicity I'm playing at the moment.

[Gatekeeper]

I go with what the computer offers for names, as I like to play on Earth maps and, thus, cities with historical names add an air of "authenticity" to the entire experience. That said, I've broken out my atlas and added city names to almost all the lists in the CITY.TXT files, so I don't end up with a Venice in, say, China.

Gatekeeper