I'm mainly looking for inspiration for a Kitsune kingdom in a European setting. The setting is Crusades technology, so basically high middle ages (circa 1100 A.D./C.E.). I've been looking up other names for Fox in different languages and so far no inspiration.
So, be creative.
There's a Russian tale of a rather clever wolf that you could expand into a race expy if you want to. It's the story of Ivan Tsarevich and the Grey Wolf (they sometimes throw "the Firebird" in the title as well). That might be a good starting point.
For what it's worth, I think the Russian word for wolf is "Volk"
Maybe "The Grand Duchy of Volkovy" if you're willing to indulge in some "pig Russian"
Oh -- In case you haven't come across the tales of Reynard the Fox in your search, I'd like to suggest that since it's a collection of tales from the Medieval Europe.
Alternate spellings of the names seem to be along the lines of: Reynard/Reginhard/Reinhardt
Taking those with general naming practices, though, would probably get you something like Hartreich, Hardia, Reynland, or Hardtland or the like, so that might not be too on the surface.
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This is a good resource for naming places, but not necessarily countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_forms_in_place_names_in_Irela nd_and_the_United_Kingdom
There's a Russian tale of a rather clever wolf that you could expand into a race expy if you want to. It's the story of Ivan Tsarevich and the Grey Wolf (they sometimes throw "the Firebird" in the title as well). That might be a good starting point.
For what it's worth, I think the Russian word for wolf is "Volk"
Maybe "The Grand Duchy of Volkovy" if you're willing to indulge in some "pig Russian"
Volkovy, hmmm.
Oh -- In case you haven't come across the tales of Reynard the Fox in your search, I'd like to suggest that since it's a collection of tales from the Medieval Europe.
Alternate spellings of the names seem to be along the lines of: Reynard/Reginhard/Reinhardt
Taking those with general naming practices, though, would probably get you something like Hartreich, Hardia, Reynland, or Hardtland or the like, so that might not be too on the surface.
* * * * *
This is a good resource for naming places, but not necessarily countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_forms_in_place_names_in_Irela nd_and_the_United_Kingdom
These are all good ideas, thank you.
Seanan McGuire's October Daye series has a bunch of hidden fey kingdoms with names like Kingdom of Silences, Kingdom of the Mists, Kingdom of Painted Skies etc. You could use one of them or something similar. Kingdom of Briars springs to mind...
Welsh is a “fun” language:
cadno
cadnoid
chadno
chadnoid
fadyn
gadno
gadnoid
llwynog
llwynogod
lwynog
lwynogod
madyn
nghadno
nghadnoid
Well, okay. Thank you for those Welsh words and Foxley. But I think avr's suggestions are more poetic.
If you're going for puns, you could always use:
Huhnerstall
Pollaio
Poulailler
Galinheiro
Kurnik
Kuryatnik
Tyukol
Gallinarium
Kippenhok
Kanala
Vishtide
Megan
This page gives the word for "fox" in a few dozen foreign languages. Latin, Italian, and related languages use variants on vulpes/vulpo; Slavic languages tend to be liska/lisica; Scandinavian languages rav/rev; etc. Then you have a few interesting outliers like alepou (Greek), tulki/tulku (the Central Asian "stans"), and azeria (Basque). Doesn't that last one sound like the name of an exotic kingdom as-is?
If you want to get very basic, combine some of the words for foxes (males are dogs, tods, or reynards, females are vixen, young are cubs, pups, or kits) with the words for groups of foxes (skulk, leash, earth, lead) and the words for their homes (den, burrow). For example: Todden, Skulkden, Kitsburrow (perhaps "rounded off" to Kizburra over time?).
This page gives the word for "fox" in a few dozen foreign languages. Latin, Italian, and related languages use variants on vulpes/vulpo; Slavic languages tend to be liska/lisica; Scandinavian languages rav/rev; etc. Then you have a few interesting outliers like alepou (Greek), tulki/tulku (the Central Asian "stans"), and azeria (Basque). Doesn't that last one sound like the name of an exotic kingdom as-is?
Yes. Yes it does. I checked out the page. It's missing the Frisian word for Fox -- Fokse. I laughed when I found out the Frisian word, since Frisian is a brother language to English.
If you want to get very basic, combine some of the words for foxes (males are dogs, tods, or reynards, females are vixen, young are cubs, pups, or kits) with the words for groups of foxes (skulk, leash, earth, lead) and the words for their homes (den, burrow). For example: Todden, Skulkden, Kitsburrow (perhaps "rounded off" to Kizburra over time?).
Thanks for these suggestions. I appreciate it.
The first explorer saw a fox sitting on a rock and named the place Fox Rock.
Fox Rock, hah!
Seriously, I went with the Basque name for a fox for the name of the country of Kitsune. Azeria was a very attractive, sexy name.