Mountain Name Generator
Mountain and peak names built from real regional summit vocabulary: fell, pike, tor, ben, sgurr, moel and horn, with every element glossed.
3,654 combinations in this form
- Sheersgurr
Sheer + sgurr rocky peak
sheer rocky peak
- Ernefells
Erne sea eagle + fells high moors
sea eagle high moors
- Coppersummit
Copper + summit
copper summit
- Ravenpen
Raven ravens + pen hilltop
ravens hilltop
- Thunderstock
Thunder + stock rock massif
thunder rock massif
- Bluntnevado
Blunt + nevado glaciated peak
blunt glaciated peak
- Beagjoch
Beag little + joch high pass
little high pass
- Chamoistor
Chamois + tor rocky peak
chamois rocky peak
- Chamoisscar
Chamois + scar cliff scar
chamois cliff scar
- Dubhberg
Dubh black + berg mountain
black mountain
- Snowmesa
Snow + mesa tableland
snow tableland
- Roundjoch
Round smooth + joch high pass
smooth high pass
- Lynxband
Lynx + band rock band
lynx rock band
- Ernealp
Erne sea eagle + alp high pasture
sea eagle high pasture
- Garbhnab
Garbh rough + nab jutting hill
rough jutting hill
- Thunderbeinn
Thunder + beinn mountain
thunder mountain
- Frostbeinn
Frost + beinn mountain
frost mountain
- Orepic
Ore + pic peak
ore peak
- Marblepunta
Marble + punta point
marble point
- Sunmeall
Sun + meall rounded hill
sun rounded hill
- Ravenpic
Raven ravens + pic peak
ravens peak
- Fionnaiguille
Fionn fair + aiguille rock needle
fair rock needle
- Gritcarnedd
Grit gritstone + carnedd cairn summit
gritstone cairn summit
- Cloudgap
Cloud + gap
cloud gap
How mountain names are built
¶Mountain vocabulary is fiercely regional, and the word for summit tells you which language named it. In the Lake District, Norse settlers left fjall, now fell, along with pike for a sharp top, knott for a rocky knoll and dodd for a rounded one. In the Highlands the words are Gaelic: beinn, anglicised as ben, for a mountain, sgurr for a rock peak, meall for a rounded lump, stob for a point and carn for a cairned summit.
Wales runs on its own set. Moel is a bald or bare hill, crib a serrated ridge, carnedd a cairn-crowned summit, and cwm the hollow scooped out beneath. The Alps supply the international climbing vocabulary: German horn, spitze, joch and grat, French aiguille, dent and col, Italian cima, corno and punta. Spanish adds cerro and nevado, and American surveyors added mesa and butte for flat-topped and isolated hills.
The first element is almost always plain description. Colour comes first, and Gaelic gives dubh black, ban white, ruadh red and glas grey-green, which is why Scottish maps are full of them. After colour come shape, weather, minerals, animals and ownership. Snow, cloud, sheer, granite, eagle, goat and devil are all standard. Real summits are named from below, by people looking up, so they record what could actually be seen.
Questions
What is the difference between a fell, a ben and a tor?
A fell is Norse fjall, high open moorland, and it belongs to the Lake District, Pennines and Scandinavia. A ben is Gaelic beinn, a mountain, and belongs to the Highlands. A tor is a weathered outcrop of exposed rock, usually granite, and belongs to Dartmoor and Cornwall. Each ending places your mountain in a different country.
What does -pike mean in a mountain name?
A pike is a sharply pointed summit, from the same root as the pointed weapon. Scafell Pike, Langdale Pikes and Kinder Low are all named this way. It contrasts with knott, a rocky knoll, and dodd, a smooth rounded top, so the three words let you distinguish sharp, rough and gentle summits in the same range.
Why do Scottish mountains start with Ben?
Because ben is the anglicised spelling of Gaelic beinn, mountain, and in Gaelic the generic word comes first: Beinn Nibheis is mountain of Nevis. English keeps the Gaelic word order for these names rather than moving the descriptive word to the front as it does with English hills.
How do I name a fantasy mountain range?
Pick one regional word set and stay inside it, so the range reads as one language area. Then vary the descriptive first element: colour, shape, weather, mineral, animal. Give the highest peak the plainest name, since locals rarely decorate the obvious one, and save the elaborate names for the awkward subsidiary tops.
What does horn mean at the end of an Alpine peak name?
It is German for horn, and it describes a sharp pyramidal summit carved by glaciers on several sides, the Matterhorn being the type example. Spitze means point, grat means ridge, joch means a saddle or pass, and wand means a rock wall. Together they form a precise mountaineering vocabulary.