About city nicknames names
Nicknames in this style read like reputations, trade-built ones such as "The City of Steel", eerie ones like "The City of Sleep", and affectionate ones like "The City of Cats". A good epithet layers over an official name, hinting at the export, plague, or legend that defined the place. Let travelers use the nickname and bureaucrats the formal one.
How city nicknames names are built
City nicknames are epithets rather than place names, built from two templates: "The City of" plus a word from a 172-entry noun bank, and "The ... City" around a word from a 301-entry adjective bank. The City of Steel slots a noun after City of, while The Forbidden City slots an adjective before City.
The City of Steel
Steel (noun bank)
the "The City of ..." pattern
The Forbidden City
Forbidden (adjective bank)
the "The ... City" pattern
The City of Cats
Cats (noun bank)
the "The City of ..." pattern
Naming notes
Two templates each add one bank word to a fixed frame: the noun bank fills The City of __, the adjective bank fills The __ City. The result is a descriptor for an existing city rather than a name on a map. The adjective bank is the larger at 301 entries against 172, so adjective epithets vary more.
Questions about city nicknames names
- Are these city names or nicknames?
- Nicknames. Each template builds an epithet like The City of Steel or The Forbidden City, meant to describe a city you already named.
- What are the two templates?
- The "City of" form pulls from a 172-entry noun bank, and the adjective-first form pulls from a 301-entry adjective bank.
- Which bank is larger?
- The adjective bank, at 301 entries against the noun bank's 172, so adjective epithets vary more across a list.