This building name generator gives a made-up city building the name over its door: a family or a trade, a building word such as Exchange or Arcade, explained in the list below, and when it was built, told in words.
Read the full guide
Name a building
Press New building name. Tap the name, the building word or the last part, press its padlock, then press again to change the rest. It works as a random building name generator for a whole street: lock nothing and keep pressing.
What the words mean
An exchange is an organized market. An arcade is a row of arches or a covered passage with shops. A rotunda is a round building, often domed. A guildhall is where a guild assembles, and a counting house was the office where a business kept its financial books.
Tips
Lock a trade such as Chandlers and press through the building words.
Questions and answers
What is a good name for a building?
The family or the trade that built it, then a word for the kind of building: Hall, Exchange, Works, Arcade. Old city buildings often carry such a name over the door, and every result here has that shape.
What does Exchange mean in a building name?
An exchange is an organized market where people buy and sell. A corn exchange, for example, is a building where merchants trade grains.
What is the difference between an arcade and a colonnade?
An arcade is a row of arches, or a covered passage with shops on both sides. A colonnade is a series of columns at regular intervals.
Are these real buildings?
No. The family names are invented and were searched in name lists, place lists and across Wikipedia. Each trade or plain word was searched with every building word as a Wikipedia title. A real building somewhere may still share a name.
How this list was compiled: 96 names for a made-up building in a city, written for this page: invented family names, and trades and plain words of the kind carved over a door. Each made-up name was checked by script on 2026-10-03 against a dictionary, lists of first names and surnames, GeoNames places (towns of the world, and every name in the tables for the United Kingdom and the United States, also with the spaces taken out; https://download.geonames.org/export/dump/, CC BY 4.0), names from published fiction, every list on this site, the page titles of English Wikipedia and a full-text search of English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/, CC BY-SA 4.0). 79 of 139 candidates were cut (45 set aside on a second reading; 10 a real place; 8 found on English Wikipedia; 7 a real first name or surname; 6 already on another list of this site; 2 a name from published fiction, or one letter from one; 1 a rude word inside the letters). The names come from one list kept for all the made-up place pages of this site, so none is on two pages. No list of names is complete, so search a name before you publish it. Each trade and plain word was also searched with every building word on this page as a page title of English Wikipedia. 38 candidates were cut (37 a Wikipedia page title; 1 the name of a band), among them Coopers, Saddlers, Mercers, Drapers, Cutlers, Tanners. Licence: own work
Building word: all 36 building words
Plain words 8
AnnexAn addition or extension to a building.
BlockA cuboid building; the word first meant a log or a tree trunk.
ChambersAn archaic word for a set of rooms in a building, used as an office or as a home.
CourtAn enclosed space or courtyard; from the Latin cohors.
HallFrom the Old English heall: a hall, a dwelling or a house.
Show all 36 building words (31 more)
Plain words, continued
HouseA structure that serves as an abode of human beings.
PlazaA town's public square; the word goes back to the Greek for a broad way.
TowerA tall, narrow structure; from the Latin turris.
Buying and selling 11
ArcadeA row of arches, or a covered passage with shops on both sides; from the Italian for the arch of a bridge.
BourseA stock exchange; from the Latin bursa.
Corn ExchangeA building where merchants trade grains.
Counting HouseTraditionally an office where the financial books of a business were kept.
Custom HouseTraditionally a building for the officials who oversaw imports and exports.
EmporiumA marketplace, or a shop with a wide variety of goods; from the Greek for a trading station.
ExchangeAn organized market where people buy and sell.
ForumFrom the Latin forum, a public marketplace.
GalleriaAn indoor area or covered courtyard containing shops; the word is Italian.
GuildhallA hall where a guild usually assembles; in obsolete use, a town hall.
Market HallA covered space or building where food and other goods are sold from stalls.
Work and storage 8
Carriage HouseAn outbuilding first built to house horse-drawn carriages.
DepotA storage facility or warehouse; in the United States also a bus or railway station.
FoundryA factory that produces metal castings.
GranaryA storage building for grain.
MillA building that houses grinding machinery; the Latin root means to grind.
TerminalA rail station where service begins and ends: the end of the line.
WarehouseA building for storing goods.
WorksA factory, or a collection of industrial facilities.
Grand words 9
Assembly RoomsIn Britain and Ireland of the 18th and 19th centuries, gathering places for both sexes of the higher social classes.
AtriumThe central room of an ancient Roman home, open to the sky; from the Latin for an entry hall.
BelvedereA structure sited for a fine view; the word is Italian for beautiful view.
Clock TowerA structure that houses a turret clock, with clock faces on its upper walls.
ColonnadeA series of columns at regular intervals.
ConcourseA large open space where people gather and paths join; from the Latin for running together.
ConservatoryA building or room with glass roofing and walls, used as a greenhouse or a sunroom.
ObservatoryA place where stars and planets are observed, usually through a telescope.
RotundaA round building, often with a dome; from the Latin rotundus, round.
How this list was compiled: 36 words that buildings carry in their names, with what each word means or first meant. Each line follows the English Wiktionary entry for the word, or the English Wikipedia article on that kind of building (Exchange, Corn exchange, Counting house, Custom house, Market hall, Foundry, Warehouse, Carriage house, Conservatory, Belvedere, Clock tower, Assembly rooms; CC BY-SA 4.0), read on 2026-10-03; some lines keep the source's own words. Licence: own selection; meanings from English Wiktionary and English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
When it was built: all 41 lines
B 23
begun under one mayor and finished under the next
built before the street had a name
built by the grandchildren of the first settlers
built for a fair that lasted one season
built from the stone of the old town wall
built in the dry summer everyone still talks about
built in the last years of the old century
built in the mayor's seventh term
Show all 41 lines (33 more)
B, continued
built in the reign of the old queen
built in the year of the long harvest
built in the year of the two comets
built the year the circus wintered in town
built the year the last stagecoach ran
built the year the market moved indoors
built the year the orchard was planted
built the year the railway arrived
built the year the streetlamps went electric
built the year the town got its first newspaper
built the year the tramline opened
built when the canal was new
built when the river still ran past its door
built when the square was still a field
built with the first bricks from the town kiln
C 1
cornerstone laid on a leap day
F 5
finished a year late and proud of it
finished just before the big snow
finished the autumn the lighthouse was first lit
finished the summer the bridge opened
finished the week the telegraph reached town
I 2
its date carved a century off, by mistake
its date over the door worn smooth
O 6
older than the town charter
opened a hundred years to the day after the town was founded
opened on the morning the century turned
opened the day the first ferry crossed
opened the spring the town clock first struck
opened the winter the harbor froze
R 2
raised the year the school got its bell
rebuilt once and repainted often
T 1
the third building to stand on its corner
W 1
with two different dates over its two doors
How this list was compiled: Our own list of 41 lines that say when a made-up building went up, in words and with no date, written on 2026-10-03 and checked by script against every list on this site. They are invented and describe no real building. Licence: own work