Avalon (Island) Arthurian CycleThe name of the island paradise to which King
Arthur was brought after his death. The name of this island is perhaps related to Welsh
afal meaning
"apple", a fruit that was often linked with paradise.
Avonlea (Settlement) LiteratureCreated by Lucy Maud Montgomery as the setting for her novel
Anne of Green Gables (1908). She may have based the name on the Arthurian island of
Avalon, though it also resembles the river name
Avon and
leah "woodland, clearing".
California (Political Subdivision & Island) English, Spanish, Italian, LiteratureFrom the name of a fictional utopian island populated only by women in the 16th-century novel
The Adventures of Esplandián by the Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The name comes from the island's queen, Calafia, itself probably derived from Arabic
خليفة (khalīfa), an Islamic title meaning "successor". This is the name of an American state as well as two states of
Mexico (Baja California and Baja California Sur).
Lilliput (Island) LiteratureCreated by the Irish author Jonathan Swift for one of the islands in his novel
Gulliver's Travels (1726). The novel's hero Gulliver is shipwrecked here, a place inhabited by a society of tiny people. Lilliput, a satirical version of Great
Britain, is in conflict with the neighbouring island of Blefuscu, a satirical version of
France. Though Swift did not explain the source of the name, he may have based it on English
little and the archaic word
put meaning "fool, silly man".
Mordor (Region) LiteratureMeans
"black land" in Sindarin, from
mor "black" and
dor "land". In
The Lord of the Rings (1954) by J. R. R. Tolkien, Mordor is the desolate realm ruled by the evil lord Sauron.
Narnia (Country) LiteratureThe name of a fictional country in C. S. Lewis's
Chronicles of Narnia series of fantasy novels (first released 1950). It was inspired by the Latin name of Narni, an Italian town in the region of Umbria.
Oz 1 (Region) LiteratureInvented by the American author L. Frank Baum for the setting of his fantasy novel
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). There are several unsubstantiated theories about how Baum created the name, though it seems probable he simply made it up.