Medieval German colony names?

I'm trying to come up with some colony names in a scenario where the Teutonic Order/Prussia go east in the 14/1500s and set up German outposts in Russia. Could be cities, towns, rural or port names. Any ideas?
 
I'm trying to come up with some colony names in a scenario where the Teutonic Order/Prussia go east in the 14/1500s and set up German outposts in Russia. Could be cities, towns, rural or port names. Any ideas?
A) germanise local names
B) name after home towns
C) name after Order commanders
 
Marienburg, -stadt, -thal, -wald, you get the idea.
That said, it would probablydepend on whether there is a town that they're taking over - i.e. something like Novgorod would just be Naugard or Nowgard - vs. if its on virgin soil (like St. Petersburg)
 
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortsname#Entstehung_von_Ortsnamen_im_deutschen_Sprachraum - It's in German, but not hard to get the gist of what it's saying.

Also check lists of German settlements in Eastern Europe, such as those of the Transylvanian Saxons, Danube Swabians, and Germans in Russia (Volga Germans, Bessarabian Germans).

A) germanise local names
B) name after home towns
C) name after Order commanders

Basically this too.

Neu something

And Alt-something too, which was also common in German settlements in the east.
 
Something based on dynastic names from the HRE, due to the support that they will probably require some help (plus it might happen in the same way than with LAtin States around Jerusalem, like some guy from an obscure branch of Brunswick would become Count of Welfenburg (from Welf) after fighting for the order, and obey to the Order (well, as much as any vassal would obey).

You might have many Sankt-something too
 
I'm trying to come up with some colony names in a scenario where the Teutonic Order/Prussia go east in the 14/1500s and set up German outposts in Russia. Could be cities, towns, rural or port names. Any ideas?

Names of native towns or cultures but germanised. Half of American provinces practically came from native names, you know. So instead of say, Ootsitgamoo, you can germanise it.
 
Something based on dynastic names from the HRE, due to the support that they will probably require some help (plus it might happen in the same way than with LAtin States around Jerusalem, like some guy from an obscure branch of Brunswick would become Count of Welfenburg (from Welf) after fighting for the order, and obey to the Order (well, as much as any vassal would obey).

You might have many Sankt-something too
I don't think we have that many Sankt in Germanic speaking countries in general, I might be weong.
 
I'm trying to come up with some colony names in a scenario where the Teutonic Order/Prussia go east in the 14/1500s and set up German outposts in Russia. Could be cities, towns, rural or port names. Any ideas?
Depends on how the settlement came to be.

If there's already a significant Russian settlement in the immediate area (very likely given OTL Russian settlement patterns), it would be "Deutsch-[Germanized form of Slavic name]" while the older settlement would get the prefix "Windisch" or "Russisch" or "Ruthenisch". Or "Alt" vs. "Neu" Or they just calque the name (like what they did for cities like Berlin, or Stettin, or Leipzig).

If your settlement is in an area without too much Russian settlement pre-existing, more likely it follows German toponyms.

Also, OTL a lot of Russian cities already have German names, e.g. Pskov as Pleskau.
 
I'm trying to come up with some colony names in a scenario where the Teutonic Order/Prussia go east in the 14/1500s and set up German outposts in Russia. Could be cities, towns, rural or port names. Any ideas?

The capital of the Teutonic Order was Marienburg, named after Mary, the order’s patron saint. Likewise, the Baltic region was known as the Terra Mariana - the land of Mary, mother of Christ - because it would increase the prestige of crusading there. You could see regional and city names in this enlargened Order-territory being derived along similar lines, such as Elisabethburg (Saint Elisabeth of Hungary) or Georgsburg (Saint George).
 
Several things. Keep in mind the German tendency to repeat names and distinguish them geographically: Frankfurt an der Oder being a fine, but by no means the only example. Also, I think naming new places after people originates so deeply in human vanity it's almost unavoidable. Just like we have Virginia, Louisiana, and for the love of God, Prince Rupert's Land, we would have names corresponding to discoverers and emperors and particularly relevant saints. Even say, a city founded on a saint's day might take that name.
 
Marienburg, -stadt, -thal, -wald, you get the idea.
That said, it would probablydepend on whether there is a town that they're taking over - i.e. something like Novgorod would just be Naugard or Nowgard - vs. if its on virgin soil (like St. Petersburg)

Novgorod could be perhaps Naugard in Russland to separate it from Naugard in Pomerania. Or Groß-Naugard, referencing "Novgorod the Great". As long as the name isn't literally translated to Neustadt, that would be fine, since there's far too many Neustadts, although not as many as there are Neuhofs or Neudorfs.
 
I don't think we have that many Sankt in Germanic speaking countries in general, I might be weong.
We use the word "sankt" in Norway. It is also possible to use the word "Helgen" can also be used, allthough "helgen" can also mean "weekend". I think the other North Germanic countries have similar grammar as Norway.
 
Nice, food for thought! Any creative ideas for wholly new names?

In South Africa we've got some towns/suburbs that sort of took names from farms (or the farmers) they grew up on IIRC - Vergelegen (Far-Enough/Distantly Located) for instance was originally a farm that one of the Dutch governors had near Stellenbosch. The farm's still there, but the name got used in a couple places.

Bloemfontein was named after the farmer/owner of the ground who was surnamed "Bloem" and a nearby spring AFAIK - although it usually gets translated as "Flower Fountain" hence the nicknames for the city "Die Rosestad (City of Roses)" or "City of Flowers". Otherwise, generals or leaders or important people (Orange Free State was named after the Dutch Royal Family - house of Oranje; Pretoria for Andries Pretorius etc.) But then there's random names like Port Elizabeth that was named for some guy's dead wife.
 
In my Chaos TL, the Teutonic Order goes further east, but I thought up two new names only: Polozk -> Plotzeck, Turov -> Thurau.
 
Several things. Keep in mind the German tendency to repeat names and distinguish them geographically: Frankfurt an der Oder being a fine, but by no means the only example. Also, I think naming new places after people originates so deeply in human vanity it's almost unavoidable. Just like we have Virginia, Louisiana, and for the love of God, Prince Rupert's Land, we would have names corresponding to discoverers and emperors and particularly relevant saints. Even say, a city founded on a saint's day might take that name.
A large part of that is some names are geographic or cadastral designations, i.e. Stuttgart.

As for Saint's names, another thing you might consider are nearby existing religious establishments. Take a hypothetical Russian town called Zlatoust after a monastery named after St. John Chrysostom. One way the name could be Germanize would be to call it Goldmund or Goldmundskloster, or Goldmoenchen.
 
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