Not Sure What to Name Your Animal Crossing: New Horizons Island? We Have Some Tips
We can hardly believe that Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch is finally releasing this week on March 20, and even though the game isn't out yet, we're already facing a conundrum. What in the world are we going to name our islands?
While some people are instinctively able to come up with brilliant and adorable names on the fly, and others don't care about naming their islands any old thing, others of us need a little more help getting creative. If you're in the same boat, we have a few tips to get you thinking about what to name your island, so you'll be prepared when the time comes.
Understand the Limits
Before you go too wild coming up with island name ideas, remember there are certain limits to the name of your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island. The name can be a maximum of 10 characters, which isn't too long, but beats the old Animal Crossing town names' 8-character limit by quite a bit. But as you're brainstorming, don't completely trash names that are too long. See if you can omit vowels or use creative spelling to get to that name you want.
Name It After Your Favorite Fictional Location
Sometimes, the very best names are references to the things you love. Maybe a film or a TV show you adore takes place in a location with an interesting name, or you'll want to pick the setting of a beloved book, or a place that's mentioned in passing in your favorite song of all time. Perhaps your island name won't actually be a place in your favorite piece of media, but the name of a character or an unusual word that sticks out to you and could double as the name for a tropical island getaway.
(Animal Crossing: New Horizons via Nintendo)
Name It After a Place That's Meaningful to You
Have you ever been to a place so magical that you didn't want to leave it? Use that as inspiration for the name of your island. Maybe it was a destination you traveled to on vacation, or it holds a special significance in your family's history. You might want to capture something unique from that memory in your island. And if you have a beloved travel memory, but the name of the place isn't super catchy or cute, do a little digging into the place on Wikipedia and you might find a more specific locale there that will better suit your needs.
Name It After Yourself
This might not be the most original idea, but if you're in charge of an entire island, why not name it after yourself? Just write down your name and add a -polis or -field or -bury or -town or -ia, depending on what sounds good to you and what will fit the character limit, and you'll be good to go. And best of all, it'll be clear who's in charge when you stomp around a paradise that bears your name.
(Animal Crossing: New Horizons via Nintendo)
Get Creative With Pen and Paper
Some of the very best names will strike you out of nowhere. While you can't force inspiration to hit, you can get it flowing by actively brainstorming. Start writing down the names of places you think are beautiful, or bits of words that you like. Maybe there are certain sounds that appeal to you, or others that you dislike that can be eliminated. The more names you come up with, the closer you'll be to finding the one that's perfect. Strike out the ones you don't love and workshop what you like until you get to just the right name.
Let a Generator Pick for You
If none of the ideas above are really speaking to you and you'd rather the choice be entirely out of your hands, you can always use a name generator. Created by Twitter user @gravesounds, the ACNH Island Name Generator randomly pairs two cute words to generate one of 152,27f possible names. You can settle on whatever you generate first, or click it again and again until something feels right. Will you get something like Nordnorth, or Deerdown, or Leafmile? Click HERE to check it out.
(Animal Crossing: New Horizons via Nintendo)
Can't wait for the game? Click HERE for a list of hilarious Animal Crossing quotes to use as Instagram captions.