At first, I was going to make this set in a generic American World™ like most games are set or localised in. When I had another thought (as I got back home), I thought it would be way more fun to base games on areas that aren’t as explored yet. Most games are set in the US and if not the US, other popular capital cities like Tokyo, Paris and sometimes London. However, when it’s set in London, it never focuses on the suburbs, or the off-shoots of the cities, mainly the Parliament, Palace, Big Ben or Tower of London. I’d love to focus a game around where I grew up, and even make an effort in future games to set it loosely around London/the UK overall.
My main environmental inspirations are Streatham, Peckham, Brixton, Croydon and parts of East London, which have a sub-urban to urban vibe, a sense of community, and lots of colourful art sprinkled all over the towns.
Name for my Town
One of my favourite things about British town names is their historic richness. They come from the beginnings of the town, or what the town used to be like and it’s so fascinating. The town I hail from Thornton Heath refers to the dense forest area it used to be, all the way back in the pre-historic period! The glacial valley it rests on was formed during the last English ice age! How cool!
I still want London to exist in this game, however the main setting will be the fictional suburb offshooting from the city.
For names, I’ve drawn inspiration from how British town names have different prefixes and suffixes. I want the name to have “Rat”, “Rodent” or “Pest” in the name. Maybe this town used to be infested with Rats back in the middle ages but after the Black Death, the Rat population significantly died down and has been slowly increasing again ever since! I think it would be fun to make this town have a connection with Rats as that’s what the game is about.
According to the English Heritage, town and city names depend on which group claimed that land! Celts, Romans, Normans, and Anglo-Saxons all contributed to naming little corners of England. I’ve made an easy table below distinguishing the naming conventions of these different groups.
| Celts | Romans | Normans | Anglo-Saxons |
| ‘Pen’ = Penge, Pendleton for Hill in Welsh | Often combined Latin and Celtic e.g Lincoln = lindo for ‘pool’ and Latin colonia for ‘colony’ | Gave their name to ‘East Anglia’ and ‘England’ itself | Place names often indicate ownership |
| ‘Coombe’ or ‘combe’ = Crowcombe, Castle Combe for Valley in Welsh | ‘Chester’, ‘Cester’ or ‘Caster’ = Leicester, Winchester | ‘Sex’ = Sussex, Middlesex and Wessex for outh, Middle and West Saxons respectively | Bishops, priors, princes, kings or queens ownership = King’s Lynn, Queenborough |
| ‘Tamar’ or ‘Thames’ = Welsh for dark | Animals – Oxford = ‘ford for Oxen’ Religious settlements = ‘minster’ for areas of clergy (Westminster, Leominster) | Ville = settlement (Pentonville, Bourneville) |
Now that I’ve cleared that up, there are some town names I’ve generated inspired by the suffixes!
- Ratley (already taken)
- Rattham
- Rattford
- Pesting
- Rattminster
- Rowich
- Ratton
What am I deciding on?
I love the ‘ham’ suffix so I think I will go with 🎉Rattham 🎉. Similar to a neighbouring city near me, Streatham (pronounced ‘Stre-tum’), I like the way it rolls off the tongue. The way it would be pronounced is ‘Ratt-um’. The different areas would be Rattham East and Rattham West, North and South are too similar to neighbouring towns to be distinguishable. This type of ‘east’ and ‘west’ naming is similar to towns I live near so I want to keep that vibe.
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