forum Superhero City Names?

Started March 31, 2021 by @SingSongKV group

tune

Hi! I'm writing a superhero story, and i want to use a fictional city. But i don't have any idea on what to name it or how to make it sound like a real city. Help?

How old is this city, and where is it?

Because if it's on somewhere like Europe, then usually the settlement will be named by the conventions of the time. People might name it after the obvious, like, "riverside" if there's a river beside the settlement, or "belle mont" if it's on a beautiful mountain.

Or people might name it after a wealthy family who built a castle nearby, but centuries after that family line has died off and the wattle-and-daub cottages have been replaced by skyscrapers, that settlement is still named after one family from hundreds of years ago.

Or it might have been settled Stateside by pilgrims, who would name the town after a virtue or religious concept like Providence—or keep the indigenous name for the place, like Takoma or Potomac.

If you add -polis (like Superman's Metropolis) then that's a Greek root word meaning city, or -ham (like Batman's Gotham) I think is Brythonic meaning the same thing. You could suffix -burg (borough) or -ton (town).

A lot of cities featured in superhero comics feature the word 'City' at the end of them (ig like Gotham City or Star City). Others may have 'opolis' at the end, like Metropolis.
Also, superhero cities don't necessarily have to be fictional. For example, the base of the Avengers is in New York City.