diff -Nurd -X freeciv-09.25/diff_ignore ../cvs/freeciv/server/cityhand.c freeciv-09.25/server/cityhand.c
--- ../cvs/freeciv/server/cityhand.c	Sun Sep 24 22:57:19 2000
+++ freeciv-09.25/server/cityhand.c	Mon Sep 25 02:02:48 2000
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@
 buffer etc, and should be considered read-only (and not freed)
 by caller.
 *****************************************************************/
-char *city_name_suggestion(struct player *pplayer)
+const char *city_name_suggestion(struct player *pplayer)
 {
   char **nptr;
   int i, j;
@@ -113,13 +113,13 @@
   static const int num_tiles = MAP_MAX_WIDTH * MAP_MAX_HEIGHT; 
 
   freelog(LOG_VERBOSE, "Suggesting city name for %s", pplayer->name);
-  
+
   for(nptr=get_nation_by_plr(pplayer)->default_city_names; *nptr; nptr++) {
     if(!game_find_city_by_name(*nptr))
       return *nptr;
   }
 
-  if (num_misc_city_names > 0) {
+  if (num_misc_city_names > 0 && 0) { /* decide by a server option perhaps */
     j = myrand(num_misc_city_names);
   
     for (i = 0; i < num_misc_city_names; i++) {
@@ -130,6 +130,57 @@
 	return misc_city_names[j];
       j++;
     }
+  } else {
+    /* This algorithm starts with two leading letters from an existing city
+       names, and then adds more letters in a way that every triplet of
+       characters occurs in any predefined city name, and the last two letters
+       occur at the end of a predefined city name. This leads to city names
+       that sound similar to the predefined ones.
+
+       The implementation is very inefficient, but since this function should
+       only be called very seldom, this should be acceptable. */
+    int size = 0, p = 0, c;
+    char *all_citynames;
+
+    for (nptr = get_nation_by_plr(pplayer)->default_city_names; *nptr; nptr++)
+      size += strlen(*nptr) + 1;
+    all_citynames = fc_malloc(size + 1);
+
+    for (nptr = get_nation_by_plr(pplayer)->default_city_names; *nptr; nptr++) {
+      strcpy(&all_citynames[p], *nptr);
+      p += strlen(*nptr);
+      all_citynames[p++] = '\n';
+    }
+    all_citynames[p] = '\0';
+
+    /* all_citynames now contains all predefined city names of the current
+       civilization, seperated by newlines. */
+    for (i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
+      do {
+	p = myrand(size - 1);
+	tempname[0] = all_citynames[p];
+	tempname[1] = all_citynames[p + 1];
+      } while (!isupper(tempname[0]));
+
+      /* Now we've found two letters at the beginning of a predefined city name. */
+      c = 1;
+      do {
+	p = myrand(size - 2) + 1; /* exclude last and first letter */
+	if (all_citynames[p] == tempname[c]
+	    && all_citynames[p - 1] == tempname[c - 1])
+	    /* Do the last two letters match? This is pretty unlikely, but by
+	       construction there must be at least one place where they do, so
+	       it will eventually happen. */
+	  tempname[++c] = all_citynames[p + 1];
+      } while(tempname[c] != '\n' && c < 15);
+      tempname[c] = '\0';
+
+      if (c > 3 && c < 15 && !game_find_city_by_name(tempname)) {
+	free(all_citynames);
+	return tempname;
+      }
+    }
+    free(all_citynames);
   }
 
   for (i = 1; i <= num_tiles; i++ ) {
diff -Nurd -X freeciv-09.25/diff_ignore ../cvs/freeciv/server/cityhand.h freeciv-09.25/server/cityhand.h
--- ../cvs/freeciv/server/cityhand.h	Thu Aug  3 23:33:06 2000
+++ freeciv-09.25/server/cityhand.h	Mon Sep 25 00:46:51 2000
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@
  			 struct packet_generic_values *preq);
 void handle_city_name_suggest_req(struct connection *pconn,
 				  struct packet_generic_integer *packet);
-char *city_name_suggestion(struct player *pplayer);
+const char *city_name_suggestion(struct player *pplayer);
 void reality_check_city(struct player *pplayer,int x, int y);
 void update_dumb_city(struct player *pplayer, struct city *pcity);
 void send_all_known_cities(struct conn_list *dest);