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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 2nd Dec 2018 at 10:33 AM
Default Where did you get your neighborhood name?
I was looking for something in my old posts when I realized that I can't remember where I got the name "Oakbrook" from. So, out of curiosity (and a faint hope that perhaps something may jog my memory), where did the rest of you get your neighborhood names?

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Mad Poster
#2 Old 2nd Dec 2018 at 12:39 PM Last edited by FranH : 4th Dec 2018 at 9:49 PM.
I usually go with the established NH names if they're downloaded. Like Rodeburg, Emerald Heights, etc.

For my own, I'm not very creative-Tinsel Town is a nickname for Hollywood; Alice Springs is a real town in Australia-I loved that name; Mosquito Creek was drawn from a house download named the same; Thalia I grabbed out of my imagination. Bellefleur is the title of a Joyce Carol Oates novel that I'd read-and one I almost forgot: Duma Key, the name of a Stephen King novel that I love.

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
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Forum Resident
#3 Old 2nd Dec 2018 at 2:29 PM
I've got Springvale, which is the name of the terrain I used, I guess. Was originally meant to be a placeholder name. Debating whether or not to change it, but I have gotten used to the name now.

You can call me Diddy (or Eve, if you want to go by my real name) :)
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Lab Assistant
#4 Old 2nd Dec 2018 at 2:36 PM
I let my Dad pick the names, simply because he has a talent for names and such. It all began when he stumbled across my hood - wait for it - New City. Now I don't have to worry about names xD
Forum Resident
#5 Old 2nd Dec 2018 at 5:13 PM
Over half of my 'hoods seem to be named for a tree + a geographic feature: Oak Ridge, Maple Shores, Pine Creek.... The remaining 'hoods and subhoods mostly have placeholders, like Military Base, Castle, or Business2.
Scholar
#6 Old 2nd Dec 2018 at 7:49 PM
Have been playing Strangetown forever and ever... kept the name the same. It just seemed to fit so well.
Named the subhoods for Strangetown after some old games and movies.
So there's "Fallout", "Ruins", "Apocalypse", and "Event Horizon".

" Inama Nushif "
Mad Poster
#7 Old 2nd Dec 2018 at 8:30 PM
Black Rock Mountain - simply because over my town is a hanging rock on a mountain that looks black from far.

Kipling - my military hood is named after Rudyard Kipling and the background story for it is that the soldiers are there to build and maintain a new radar station. The Real Radar station here is named Rudyard - yes, after Rudyard Kipling, who wrote parts of several of his books in the Soutpansberge (Salt pan Mountains).

Gardenia - a tree for my farming hood.

An interesting one is my one subhood - Jo's Village, which came about after I took part in Jo's Community Spirit competition and decided to give the sims she made and their contest houses a place in my hood.
Scholar
#8 Old 3rd Dec 2018 at 3:39 AM
One of my hoods is named after the website that inspired it: Garden of Shadows. I made it as a place for all the sims from the Good Genes challenges that were hosted there - a few of which I entered. I thought it'd be nice to have them all in one place, rather than scattered across about three different hoods! Some of the families I lost in the Big Crash of the Asus Laptop, but others are still around. I'm still working on getting them all sorted though, as it's a big job and I don't want to mess things up corruption-wise! Cloning all those born-in-game sims takes a while...

My BACC hood got its name from the founding family, the Applebys. Even though there's barely a tree in sight, that hood is called Appleby Orchards. I thought it rolled off the tongue nicely.

As for premade hoods, they kept their names.
Subhoods tend to be the oddest on the naming front. I actually got stuck once, and ended up calling that subhood Umbledumbledum. It was meant to be a placeholder name only, but it never got changed.

No need to use my full name, "Selly" will do just fine.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#9 Old 3rd Dec 2018 at 3:41 AM
I looked up a name generator for beach names and liked Coral Bay.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Top Secret Researcher
#10 Old 3rd Dec 2018 at 3:50 AM
Years ago I had Stonebridge, named because one day while decorating the 'hood, I shoved a stone bridge into the side of a mountain on a whim.
Now I have Agnar Sound, which is a play on the founding couple's surname, Agnarsson.

I've got one or two things on MTS, but most of my stuff is on my main site here:
http://simcessories.blogspot.com/
(Now recruiting budding creators.)
Scholar
#11 Old 3rd Dec 2018 at 4:08 AM
Currently I've just got Riverblossom Hills, but in the past I've had:

- Sheffield, named for an English city with high unemployment in the 1980s
- Acadie, a farming community named for the French settlers in New Brunswick, Canada
- Botany, my first hood with Seasons, which was meant to be a penal colony
- Eastport, a port city where all the playables were new immigrants; east was just the first direction I thought of.
Forum Resident
#12 Old 3rd Dec 2018 at 5:11 PM
I try to think of quirky names that sound a bit like the place that inspires the hood... Loste was a brainwave - 'Strangetown' just didn't sound like a real place to me, but I loved the theme around it being in the middle of nowhere. After playing some of the characters I just thought 'this is where you'd end up if you got lost in the middle of the desert...' and Loste was born lol. Then I realised that it's one of playable's name (Kristen Loste) and I thought, 'perfect'.

Holling is inspired by the cities I lived in/around in my childhood. I wanted a name that was at once American and English, and something that was suggestive of brick and smoke and funny smells in the summer and lots and lots of people.

For me, it's easiest to find a name when I can envision the kind of neighbourhood I want to create. I like names that sound a little like real places too, so I wrack my brains until I come up with something that feels right.
Alchemist
#13 Old 3rd Dec 2018 at 8:14 PM
when I name a custom neighborhood, generally the name relates to neighborhood's content and/or to my plans for the neighborhood.
temporary neighborhoods I generally name "Neighborhood Name".

custom SC4 files; generally the name relates to template's content.
Link Ninja
#14 Old 3rd Dec 2018 at 8:35 PM
I had an old hood, the first hood I ever made called Kashmire and my sister accidentally destroyed it after two years. So when I made my new one I called it Isla Del Kashmire because I used one of the island terrains and I thought it would be the equivalent of some town on the west coast.

Uh oh! My social bar is low - that's why I posted today.

Scholar
#15 Old 4th Dec 2018 at 2:43 PM
You guys are so creative! I usually go with either the terrain name or with a real place name.

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Theorist
#16 Old 4th Dec 2018 at 6:19 PM
Since I hardly ever build neighbourhoods from the ground up, most of my neighbourhoods and subhoods come with their names.

In my last neighbourhood I had a subhood named Hartford though, because I like the name.

And in my current one I have a desert subhood called Xanadu, again because I've always liked that name (because of that song from the 60s, the Legend of Xanadu, heard it as a small child and for a long time I was under the impression that Xanadu was some sort of Mexican Atlantis) and I also like the poem, even though it's an incoherent piece of random imagery written by an opium addict.

And a military base subhood called "Seahorse Bay Military Base" because I like sea horses.

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Taking an extended break from Sims stuff. Might be around, might not.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#17 Old 4th Dec 2018 at 6:25 PM
I also can't remember where I got either Hazelton or Springwater. However, my first custom neighbourhood, Black Mesa, directly got its name from the Black Mesa Research Facility in Half-Life. (Mark Laidlaw, the writer for the Half-Life games, said that he was glad that he didn't go with "Black Butte." I couldn't resist using it myself. :giggler

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Alchemist
#18 Old 4th Dec 2018 at 9:51 PM
saw pictures of your Oakbrook neighborhood in the neighborhood picture thread. the trees in the "back" probably could be oaks; and the water in the "front" might be a brook.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#19 Old 4th Dec 2018 at 10:01 PM
The oak part makes sense, but the water is actually a bay. "Oakbay" sounds a bit weird, though Oak Bay might work.

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Instructor
#20 Old 5th Dec 2018 at 2:51 AM
Haha! Although I'm sure it's not the only one, there is an actual Oak Bay neighbourhood in the city of Victoria, B.C., posh area! I often use town name generators, there are a lot of them out there. I also got this great little book in a used bookstore which is extremely useful and interesting called Guide to British Place Names by Adrian Room, excellent resource.

Some of my neighbourhoods, past and present: Simchester, a medieval kingdom incorporating the the castle environs and market town of Queenswhistle, the farms and villages of Whingemore (inspired by Maxon's "Little Carping", which had me laughing for two days!) and high up on a cliff, Broody Head, where the King's illegitimate son lives and plots to take over the kingdom. Mwwaahahaha!
Other great names for hoods that I've had: one of my favourites was Wit's End, (which is kind of along the lines of Little Carping and Whingemore!), Maplewood, Plumbridge (after the plumbob), Holly Hill, Beacon Cove, Pebble Beach, and Merridale are some names I have used. My current hood is named Rexeter, a regency hood. The name is a riff on Exeter, and the "rex" part is to show the connection with the royal family.
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Lab Assistant
#21 Old 5th Dec 2018 at 4:33 AM
Several of my 'hoods were created combining my and my now-ex's names in various forms (Oaville was the first letters of each of our names with "ville" added to the end, for example). I debated renaming these neighborhoods post-break-up, but I'm too used to their names by now. Oh well!

The Kingdom of Stormstrike was one I (painstakingly) made up. I like storms and it sounded neat! Perfect.
Lab Assistant
#22 Old 5th Dec 2018 at 5:46 AM
My main hood is called Eureka and is a retro version that I named after the show...although it really doesn't have much in common with the television version aside from having a lot of high tech stuff that has no business being in a retro hood. But hey, it's Eureka.

I'm sloooowly working on a Western / Prairie hood called Molly-be-damn. I got the name from an old movie that I don't remember much about other than it starred John Astin (I think he played a dual role). The town name was actually Molybdenum...but no one could pronounce it, so they all called it Molly-be-damn--except for the kids, who called it Molly-be-durn.
Scholar
#23 Old 5th Dec 2018 at 6:35 AM
made them all up as far as I know.
Rematra Village
I don't know how I came up with this name.
Falaun Valley
Falaun Valley is so named after the Falaun family who were the first family to be created and settle there
Dryis Harbour:
(Dry is) this desert hood I made which boarders a cool ocean harbour
Mad Poster
#24 Old 5th Dec 2018 at 11:49 AM
If I'd known I was going to be asked where I got my names from, I might have thought a bit harder about some of them!

Veronaville, Pleasantview and Strangetown are obvious, as are the sub-hoods Bluewater, Downtown and Land Grant University. Though I do find it interesting that Maxis added the French ending "-ville" to the Italian city of Verona, probably because Veronaville has very little to do with the modern Verona. I also often call Downtown "downtown Veronaville" because that's how I think of it -- the modern city centre attached to the ancient historic town.

Teston Woods is a test 'hood based on the Arbordale terrain. Arbor means "tree" (Latin), hence the name.

New Desconia is a small island colony for young Romance Sims, founded by Desmond and Cony.

Aedicia is my Sim-free building 'hood. Arguably it's the silliest of my names. As I wanted a name for a building 'hood, I looked up "build" and "building" in my Latin dictionary. I gave me aedificare - to build and aedificatio - a building. From that I could derive Aedificia, a plausible-sounding name. But it was too obvious -- it sounded too much like "edifice". I wanted something more abstruse. So I dropped the "fi" and got Aedicia. But I know enough about Latin to know that I have made nonsense of the name. The "fic" bit is the root that means to make or build. (cf facere - to make or do -- the French faire is cognate). To a Latin speaker Aedicia would sound more like a talking shop than a place where building gets done (dicere - to talk). But what of it? Though meaningless, "Aedicia" has a nice classical sound to it. And anyway, no Sim will ever live there.

The name Baldrair Bluffs I discussed in a thread when I bought University. I wanted a name for a main 'hood to which to attach Land Grant University. Peni is quite specific about where Land Grant University is situated: it stands at the confluence of the Simmissippi and the Simourris Rivers. My main 'hood would be on the Simourris, a few days sailing upriver from LGU. It needed a Simerican name. I decided that the settlement had been founded by Scottish emigrants, and so I used my dog-Gaelic to come up with the Anglicised Gaelic form "Baldrair", which means something like "underpants town". Those familiar with how my Sims like to dress will recognise the appropriateness of the name. I then combined this with the typical Simerican term "Bluffs" to designate high ground near the river. I am indebted to Peni for help with the American elements of this, since my knowledge of these parts of the real world is derived almost entirely from reading Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Elswyn is the name of the 'hood I created for Jo's Community Spirit contest. I had to come up with a name quickly, as I had to start building and play-testing, and the name is essentially meaningless. "El" and "wyn" are elements found in many English place names (as in Elswick, a suburb of Newcastle, and Bedwyn, a station on the Great Western main railway line from London to the west). For the benefit of any Novocastrians who might wander here, I should point out tat the "w" in Elswyn is pronounced, although the one in Elswick isn't.

I should also mention Monopolis, a suburb of Veronaville. This is simply d_dgjdhh's Monopoly Game Town turned into a slightly more believable place name (polis is Greek for a city). It too was added for a contest.

Those are all the neighbourhoods in my main game, but there is also my AGS base game which I use for development. Here I have Numenor's "Mini Game", which I renamed Minniestoun (by analogy to Finniestoun, a district in Glasgow) as I didn't think that anyone would want to say that they lived in Mini Game. Then, when I decided that I needed a base game Sim-free building 'hood, I continued the analogy and added Finlaystoun.

Those are all the neighbourhoods I've ever made or played. I seldom make new neighbourhoods (although I like doing so) as I feel it's diluting my commitment to my existing Sims. In a previous life I was a model railway enthusiast, and I had to think up names for stations. So, all-told, I feel I've been dreaming up new town names for most of my life.

I must say I like Justpetro's Jo's Village. If I ever create a 'hood or a sub-hood for another of Jo's contests, I think I might acknowledge Justpetro's home country, and call it Joburg!

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
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Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#25 Old 5th Dec 2018 at 12:27 PM
Quote: Originally posted by AndrewGloria
Teston Woods is a test 'hood based on the Arbordale terrain. Arbor means "tree" (Latin), hence the name.


Far classier than my testing hood, named "Testicles."

I'm secretly a Bulbasaur. | Formerly known as ihatemandatoryregister

Looking for SimWardrobe's mods? | Or Dizzy's? | Faiuwle/rufio's too! | smorbie1's Chris Hatch archives
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