This district name generator names the parts of a made-up city for a map, a story or a game. Each name ends in a real word for a part of a town, such as ward, quarter or wynd.
Read the full guide
Name the districts of a city
Press New district name. Tap the first word, the district word or the last part to lock it, then press again to change the rest. Lock one district word and keep pressing to name every ward of the same city.
What the district words mean
A ward is a division of a town, typically used for elections. A liberty was an area where the king's rights had passed into private hands. A wynd is a narrow lane between houses, a hythe is a river landing place, and a shambles is a street of butchers. For fantasy district names, reach for the old words: soke, staithe, purlieu.
Tips
For a harbor city, lock Wharf, Quay, Hythe or Staithe; for a walled city, lock Bailey, Barbican or Close.
Questions and answers
What are the districts of a city called?
Ward, quarter, borough and precinct are the common words. Older and local ones include liberty, soke, close, wynd, vennel, faubourg and sestiere, the word for a subdivision of certain Italian towns.
What is the difference between a ward and a quarter?
A ward is a local authority area, typically used for elections. A quarter is a section of an urban settlement; its borders may be official or not.
What is a rookery in a city?
In the English of the 1700s and 1800s, a rookery was an overcrowded city slum with poor housing.
Are these real districts?
No. The first words are ordinary words, so every pair was searched in place lists, as a Wikipedia page title and on fan wikis of published games and books, and pairs that exist were cut. A real street may still share a name.
How this list was compiled: 69 plain words for the first half of a district name, chosen for this page: trades, goods, colors, animals and things on a sign. They are ordinary words, so every pair of a first word and a district word was checked by script on 2026-10-02: as a place name in GeoNames (towns of the world, and every name in the tables for the United Kingdom and the United States; https://download.geonames.org/export/dump/, CC BY 4.0), as a page title of English Wikipedia with and without The, as a page title on 6 fantasy fan wikis (forgottenrealms.fandom.com, elderscrolls.fandom.com, wowpedia.fandom.com, pathfinder.fandom.com, lotr.fandom.com, witcher.fandom.com) and against every list on this site. 12 candidates were cut (6 a Wikipedia page title; 4 a real place; 1 a rude word inside or across the join; 1 on another list of this site), among them Stag, Collier, Slate, Heron, Crane, Fox. One more word was taken out after a second check, because a dictionary gives it an offensive sense. No saint, real or invented, is used. No list of districts is complete, and a real street may share a name. Licence: own work
District word: all 25 district words
Divisions of a town 9
BoroughIn principle a self-governing walled town; today an administrative division in English-speaking countries.
FaubourgAn outlying part of a city or town, beyond the walls.
LibertyIn medieval England, an area where rights reserved to the king had passed into private hands.
PrecinctAn enclosed space with defined limits, normally marked by walls; in the US, a subdivision of a city.
Show all 25 district words (21 more)
Divisions of a town, continued
PurlieuThe outskirts of any place; first, the ground on the edges of a forest.
QuarterA section of an urban settlement, with or without official borders.
SestiereA subdivision of certain Italian towns; the word comes from the Italian for sixth.
SokeIn old England, a district under a particular jurisdiction.
WardA local authority area, typically used for elections and often named after a landmark or a street.
Streets, yards and walls 11
BaileyThe space immediately within the outer wall of a castle or fortress.
BarbicanA tower at the entrance to a castle or fortified town.
CloseThe area right around a cathedral, in the Middle Ages usually the cathedral's own property.
CrossA place where roads meet and lead off in four directions.
RookeryIn the English of the 1700s and 1800s, an overcrowded city slum.
RopewalkA long, straight, narrow lane where strands are laid out to be twisted into rope.
ShamblesA street of butchers: the Shambles in York is named for that trade.
VennelIn Scotland and on Tyneside, an alley or narrow street.
WarrenA mazelike place of passages in which it is easy to lose oneself.
WyndIn Scotland and northern England, a narrow lane, alley or path between houses.
YardAn enclosed outdoor area set aside for one purpose.
By the water 5
HytheAn obsolete word for a landing place on a river: a harbor or small port.
QuayA stone or concrete structure on navigable water, used for loading and unloading vessels.
StaitheAn old or dialect British word for a fixed structure where ships land to load and unload.
StrandThe shore or beach of the sea, a lake or a river; the word can also mean a street.
WharfAn artificial landing place for ships on a riverbank or shore.
How this list was compiled: 25 real words for a part of a town, with what each meant. Each line follows the English Wiktionary entry or the English Wikipedia article on the word (CC BY-SA 4.0), read on 2026-10-02; some lines keep the source's own words. One candidate was cut (taken out on a second reading): Green. Licence: own selection; meanings from English Wiktionary and English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Known for: all 47 lines
Where 14
where cats outnumber chimneys
where cellars fill at every high tide
where every stair has a name
where maps are sold on every corner
where no cart is allowed before noon
where seven footbridges cross one stream
where strangers get their directions in rhyme
where the bakers start at midnight
Show all 47 lines (39 more)
Where, continued
where the fountain runs warm in winter
where the lamps are lit by hand each dusk
where the night market sets up
where the old wall still has its gate
where the roofs are walked like roads
where the streets are named for fish
Known for 13
known for a fog that arrives on schedule
known for bread baked in borrowed ovens
known for its festival of paper boats
known for its flower auction at dawn
known for its hundred staircases
known for its puppet theater on a barge
known for its rooftop pigeon races
known for its street of kite makers
known for its weekly book fair on the bridge
known for the best view of the harbor
known for the echo under its long arcade
known for the shops along its bridge
known for the smell of roasting chestnuts
Home of 10
home of a ferry still tied to its first mooring
home of a market that sells only by lamplight
home of the city's bell ringers
home of the city's only hill
home of the guild of mapmakers
home of the lamplighters' school
home of the midsummer lantern parade
home of the oldest pie shop in the city
home of the winter ice fair
home of three rival bakeries on one corner
How it stands 10
built along a canal that was once a street
built around a well nobody has seen the bottom of
built in a single summer
built on stilts above the tide
built on the roofs of an older city
cut in two by a brook that has two names
half of it under one long glass roof
last to see the sun and first to light its lamps
older than the city walls around it
silent at noon and full of fiddles after dark
How this list was compiled: Our own list of 47 things a made-up district is known for, written on 2026-10-02 and checked by script against every list on this site. They are invented and describe no real place. Licence: own work