Place Names

Of course, Jen Air and co. live in a town called Irongate, which is located… somewhere.  Maybe close to Springfield from The Simpsons.  But obviously when you invent a town, you ideally want to give it a name that sounds like it could be real.  And I’d say I have succeeded in coming up with a plausible name as indeed there is a real town in Virginia called Iron Gate (apparently with a population of 388 in 2010, so cconsiderably smaller than the fictional Irongate).

Sometimes though I try to come up with names that are just silly or a play on words… only to find that those places all exist too.  Usually in North America.  For example, I wanted characters to be in the middle of No Where, and Nowhere, Oklahoma does exist (it’s not a town mind, it’s a park).

Looneyville, Dismal, Peculiar, Intercourse, Disappointment, Boring, Hell and indeed Hellhole all are real places.  My favourites – Why, Arizona and Whynot, Mississippi.  Obviously naming places is hard, so no surprise to find there is a No Name, Colorado.