Character names I can do just fine, but I'm terrible at coming up with names for locations. So, help a GM out here?

I need names for:
Nightclubs
Bars
Restaurants
Random shops
Small/medium size corps
Bunraku Parlors
Casinos
apartment complexes
banks

pretty much any place you can think of.

I've actually been doing a lot of naming lately- I've been developing an entire city for an upcoming (but still several months off) SR game. It's the city of San Juan (which I think I've mentioned in a previous thread most of my early inspiration from HST's The Rum Diary).

Here's the names of the all the locations I've come up w/ for this game (I've got some stuff from an old VtM game that I set in a ficticious version of Dallas/Ft Worth if you want that too)

Al's Backyard
White Sands
MacLeod's
El Adobe
Sliders
Aztec Gold
Midnight Heat
SlapJack's
Water Dragon's
Str8-7's
Undertow's
Pariah's

I can give you the entire descriptions if you want. Let me know and I can either edit the post or PM them to you.

Oh, I've got descriptions, it's just names that need.

For the place that I'm working on at the moment, either Midnight Heat or Str8-7's sounds good.

I still need more names for other locations, but this is a damn good start.

So here's a partial list of places what we used to use our Seattle campaign when we started out.

These places are real clubs/bars around Seattle

Alibi room
Bandoleone
Beso Sel Sol
Bonzai
Brouwer's cafe
Century Ballroom and Cafe
Chapel
Del Rey
Die BierStube
Trinity Night Club
Vogue
New Orleans Restaurant
Paragon Restaurant & Bar
Pyramid Alehouse
Rock Bottom
Six Arms McMenamins
The Matador
The O Lounge
The People's Pub (for humans only )
El Gaucho Cigar Lounge
Elysian TangleTown
Fu Kun Wu Thaiku
Impromptu Wine Bar Cafe
Juan O'Riley's Nightclub
Last Supper Club
Jolly Roger
Element
Club Medusa
Mr. Lucky
The War Room
Re-Bar
Trinity Night Club
Chop Suey
Club Medusa
Contour
Noc Noc
Fenix Underground
DownUnder
See Sound Lounge
Sunset Tavern
The Fremont Dock
The Hideout
Virginia Inn
High Dive
Lava Lounge
Oliver's
Marcus' Martini Heaven
Pioneer Square
Bad Juju Lounge
Bookstore Bar
Admiral Pub
74th Street alehouse
Crocodile Cafe
Dad Watson's
The Ram Restaurant
Big Horn

Chill-Out-Zone
Reno's
Burning Night
Ghettoblaster
Kevlar Jacket
CTRL

TSS has a bunch of pre-made locations. I'm sure they won't mind if you steal some names for your own locales...

Well, at home I have most of Blackjack's lists, and I'm sure that there were at least 2 that had location names.

Email me with your email address, and I'll zip'em up and send'em to you.

As ronin mentioned, Blackjack has all kinds of lists for stuff, including Bars and the like. blackjack.dumpshock.com for the site, which, while two editions old, is pretty much all very helpful. I especially like the NPCs and the Random tables.

If you can get your hands on the first Seattle source book it will prove to be a great help with the matter.

Mmm... it's lunch time and marghos is making me hungry thinking about nachos at The Matador...

All great suggestions - one thing I've done in a campaign is have the common barrens meeting point/dive not have a name anymore - the sign was ripped down/vandalized or something so now it's just known as "the bar" or "Bar" from what's left of the signage. Gives it that run-down, yet familiar feel.

A couple other place names I've used:

DJ's (a club)

Corn-u-copia (family-style, all-organic ingredients type-place, great for meeting deep green contacts)

The Office (low- to mid-level suit watering hole)

If I wanted to open a bar to target the corporate drone crowd I'd call it: the Water Cooler

• Aurora
  A pretentious cafe where the food is over priced even for the fact that the food is real. Even the meat.
• Bamboo Garden
  Interesting fact: the inane sounding recorded water sounds are randomized and act as a white noise generator. That and the bamboo makes a meeting here virtually impervious to electronic snooping.
• Cafe Flamingo
  Decorated with tacky plastic pink things left over from the war, Cafe Flamingo boasts a wide selection of Florida cuisine.
• Dobbs' Diner
  The owner is in fact far below genius level. He seems proud ofthis fact for some reason.
• El Diablo's
  A chile and curry joint. The food is ordered on a heat scale. 3 is pretty serious and it goes up to 10.
• the Flaming Pit
  Located deep in the barrens, the room is illuminated by a perpetual tire fire in the middle of this hollowed out warehouse. The place is crap, the food is crap, but the ambiance is awesome. In the ancient Greek sense of "causing awe and terror".
• General Tso's Chicken
  A greasy food chain
• Happy Fun Times
  Technically a party supply place, they also serve demonstration meals of the food they cater. Selection varies wildly by the season. But where else are you allowed to try on a clown nose while dining?
• Izza Pizza
  An unimposing pizza joint. Due to a bizarre legal loophole you can get Peruvian dream fruit as a pizza topping (where it is classified as food) even though buying it on the street (where it is classified as a drug) is illegal. Burnouts and trippers frequent this place continuously, and it stays open until 4 AM.
• the Jury Room
  Jus across the street from the Corporate Court branch office, this sleazy pick-up bar is where suits go to have poorly conceived affairs with each other that they'll regret later. You can practically taste the crushed spirits even before you order them.
• Kang's
  A grungy dive bar frequented by trolls. You can order food, but most out it is also "on tap" as it were.
• Lucky China
  A restaraunt which serves San Francisco-style Chinese food.
• Mr. Wong's Crabs
  Possibly a triad front, Mr. Wong does deliver some mighty tasty crabs. The whole thing is just part of the warehouse that ships seafood out all over. This fact rubs off on the employees, as your "waitress" will usually show up in the red jumpsuits that Mr. Wong's people wear.
• the Nice Place
  An aptly named fern bar. The drinks are mid-priced and the clientelle won't be likely to fight you.
• Only Cheesecake
  Standardly you only order a number of personal size cheesecakes and they hand them over. They also have a drive through. You can order other things (soda, biscuits, soy-rings). But seriously, why would you do that?
• Pirate King
  It is it is a glorious thing to eat at Pirate King.
  The burgers and fishwiches are mostly made of mycoprotein or krill.
• the Queen's Chamber
  They aspire to an elven clientele, which means that mostly you get humans who wear lace. But honestly, that's not so bad.
• Rudolpho's
  Who is this Rudolpho, and why does he offer such a paltry selection of drink colors?
• Secret Menu
  The menu is in fact actually secret. You just order stuff and they'll either give it to you or they won't. Pretty shifty place all told.
• Taco Temple
  "Welcome to Taco Temple.
  Are you ready to sacrifice your tastebuds on the altar of flavor?
  I am your high priest (fill in name).
  Very good, would you like churros with your meal?"
• Uncle Vito's Deli
  The food is generally speaking bad. They get real meat imported from somewhere, and that's good enough to keep people coming back.
• Van Gogh's Restaurant and Bar
  It may seem weird to theme a restaraunt on the works of a Dutch impressionist, but the mix of colors and flavors they put on the plate really captures the feeling.
• the Wandering Eye
  A dive bar where the opperator is actually encouraging infedelity. What happens at the wandering eye, stays at the wandering eye.
• X Marks the Spot
  A Pirate-themed restaurant that will put cheese product on anything if you ask.
• Yellow Jacket Hot Dogs
  Mmmm... hot dogs. After the Defense of Intellectual Property Decision of 2043, the corporate court has determined that noone is entitled to know what goes into hot dogs.
• Zero G Burger
  When the United States gave up its strategic helium reserve, it eventually ended up in the hands of Zero G Burger. The fries gradually bleed the gas and only float for a short period after you order. But it's pretty freaky to watch anyway. And eating there makes you talk funny.

-Frank

...Excellent list Frank, I'll have to incorporate a few of these.

A couple of favourite locations from some of my runs, a number of which have roots in RL. Locations in ( ) are the specific campaign locations

Die Untersatz [Name taken from the German term for a large low pitched organ pipe. Loose translation: Sub Bass]: (Vienna Austria.) Cheeky small bar located in the cellar of a triangular shaped building. You enter through a set of vault doors set into the pavement (this is based on a RL establishment in Portland OR). Has a very Film Noir atmosphere.

Big Bubba's Bar-B-Que: (Kansas City UCAS) "Where the ribs flow like water" Traditional Midwest meat & beans BBQ spread. One of the few places in the metroplex to serve real meat exclusively. Cost scale - since none of it's offerings are soy substitutes. And don't even think of entering if you have a hankering for what they call "jackrabbit food".

The Safehouse: (Milwaukee UCAS) One of the longest running establishments in the former "Beer Capital" the Safehouse was first conceived of in the days of the old Secret Agent flatvids of the last century. Over the years it has adapted with the changing times and currently it has a very "in the shadows" atmosphere (although part of the second floor still harkens back to the nostalgic spy days). Like the Penumbra in Seattle, a trendy place to go which is usually avoided by serious members of the local shadow community.

Takee Outee: (Various locations and stands in Milwaukee UCAS) Asian Fast food on a stick to go. Cheap and quick bento with the emphasis on cheap. All soy based soy cooked and soy seasoned. About the only real "exotic" food in the plex, if you can call textured soy bento "exotic".

The Mazurka: (London East End) Ethnic Jazz club. Polish Vodka (made from potatoes) is the drink of choice here along with various ethnic foods. Fairly low key but caters mainly to the Polish ethic population in the Smoke. Rumoured to be a haunt for members of the Warsaw Syndikat who relocated to London after the New Soviet occupation of Poland. Reservations required except for certain choice "regulars".

Admittedly these last two are campaign specific but I will include them anyway...

Tiddles Pub: (London UK) Located across from Paddington Station, Tiddles is named for the legendary large cat that took up residence in the women's loo at the rail station (this is a RL story BTW). A large painting of the overweight feline graces the wall above the bar. Very traditional with ales pulled by hand on beer engines, several Dart Boards and two Snooker tables. Smoking permitted including pipes and cigars. A nice quiet place for a meet.

Kafe ZvezdakrljuÅ¡t [Cafe Starflake]: (Zagreb - occupied Croatia) A small cafe located on JelaÄ?ić square serving wine, coffee, and pastries. The cafe is allowed to operate independently (as are many other small businesses) by the occupation command as a gesture of "good will". On the wall behind the small bar inside hangs a framed photo image of a young red hared girl sitting at an upright piano. A black silk scarf is draped along the top of the frame. On the plaza outside is one table with four chairs that is cordoned off by a black ribbon. There is a simple placard with the words "Rezervisan, Groznek" on it. If asked about the displays he will simply say they are memorials to a family who were very good friends and good customers.

Red Iguana - great Mexican restaurant in Salt Lake City.

Some lore stores here...
Montgomery's Wards
Seer's

an armor store
Target

What about "Cheers", you know, where everyone knows your name. I could so see Norm as a big troll.

If everyone knows your name in SR, you're not gonna last long.

Although,if I was running a game in Boston, I probably would use cheers.

I'd honestly just go down to a local grocery story or convience story, I'm sure there is probably some free publication in your town full of advertisments for clubs and resturants punctuated with movie reviews and articles about someone who breeds flying squirls (maybe this is just a Texas Thing but I have to belive it's more) or just grab a phone book or go online and type in the kind of location you're looking for. If you want Seattle then just do a search for resturants or nightclubs in Seattle. You don't even have to use those, just mix and match names.

doing a quick search for bars I hit:
Sharkey's Pub
Rollies Tavern
Fremont Dock Sports Bar & Cafe
Shorty's
Smash Wine Bar & Bistro
Terry's Office Tavern
Windmill Saloon
Loft, The

that I could turn these into:
Sharkey's Tavern
Rollie's Sports Bar and Cafe
The Loft (I just like the sound of that one)
and Terry's Pub

Interesting trivia about Sharkey's (which is actually in Kirkland I believe) is that in the 1990's it was favorite hangout of a lot of the Seattle Supersonics players and their entourages.

..the Safehouse is also a RL establishment. I have been there many a time and actually have a membership though it was more fun to take guests through the front entrance. The entrance is a storefront (International Imports LTD ) and you need a password to enter. If you said the magic word, (which changed every few weeks) you were asked to punch in on the clock. A bookcase would slide open and you entered into a small hallway maze which had additional sliding panels after which you finally emerged in to the main bar.

The place is a riot with several themed sections. One has booths with seats from one of the original Pan Am China Clippers, another has a tiny bombed out chapel that was dismantled brick by brick, transported from Europe, and reconstructed inside. all the phone booths had a panel that had selections for playing background noise like that of a train station, airport, busy street etc (called the "CIA Cover Phones"). The main bar has booths made from wicker elevator cars from India.

A number of high profile celebs have paid a visit as well from political figures, to Film Stars, to Musicians, to even the Queen of England.

...and getting out can be just as interesting as getting in (no spoiler).