A question though, I find it hard to come up with original names for locations and characters, anyone having similar issues? I base some locations, partially, on real historical counterparts and then uses that as inspiration for names.
It is totally cool to use a mix of real world names and apply a fantasy 'filter' to them.
I have done that for years, and most of my players have responded well to them. Take two cities from earth, and mix their names. Only advice I can give is to say the name of the place out loud, make sure it doesn't sound like anything else. Decide what people from that place are going to be called.
Example.
Berlin + London = Berdon
Would people from there be called Berdonites or Berdonians?
Another thing that can help is to come up with an older naming convention based on direction.
One that I have used:
Sal = South
Nor = North
Wes = West
Ester = East
So if we combined this with the previous example we could get:
Salberdon, Wesberdon etc.
Play around and have fun, there are no wrong answers. Don't be afraid to add Port, Harbor, Crossing, Station, Valley, etc to the name as a suffix or a prefix.
