The Place
This is one of the simplest ways of naming a work of fiction. Like Character Title, where the story is named after the main character in the story, The Place is where the main location is used as the title. The Place need not be where most of the action is set, it is sufficient for it to be important to the plot. If we don't know that the title is a place until near the end, then this place is The Namesake.
Examples of The Place include:
Anime and Manga
- Cromartie High School
- Macross
- Metropolis
- Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Only the last third is set there, but the initial two thirds are all about getting to the titular location.
Comic Books
Films -- Animation
Films -- Live-Action
- Arlington Road
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
- Cape Fear
- Casablanca
- Cherry Falls
- Chinatown
- Cold Creek Manor
- Cold Mountain
- Darkness Falls
- Dinotopia
- Fargo
- Green Zone
- Gorky Park
- Gosford Park
- House of Wax
- House on Haunted Hill
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- Jurassic Park
- L.A. Confidential
- Lakeview Terrace
- Manhattan
- Metropolis
- Moulin Rouge
- Mulholland Drive
- Pearl Harbor
- Phantom of the Paradise
- The Ruins
- Sahara
- The Sandlot
- Shutter Island
- Space Is The Place
- Titan A.E.
- Titanic
- Tortilla Flat
- Wall Street
- Wicker Park
- Xanadu
Literature
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea[please verify]
- Abarat
- Barchester Towers
- Barrayar, Komarr, and Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold.
- Brighton Rock
- Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (the second time the Saloon moved locations, they did in fact decide just to call the new building The Place)
- Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds.
- Cold Comfort Farm
- The Discworld series in general and at least one book, The Last Continent, in particular.
- The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.
- Elantris
- Gormenghast
- Hawaii (James Michener used a lot of these titles)
- The House of the Seven Gables
- Howards End
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
- Mansfield Park
- Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
- Mistress Mashams Repose
- My Side of the Mountain
- The Mysterious Island
- "New Archangel", a 2009 short story by Desmond Warzel, takes place in Sitka, Alaska, which at the time the story is set was called Novoarkhangelsk, or New Archangel.
- Northanger Abbey
- Poland (Michener again)
- Pompeii
- Redwall and its sequel Mossflower. Also the later books Salamandastron and Loamhedge.
- Ringworld
- 'Salem's Lot
- The Secret Garden
- Solaris
- Sophie's World
- The Tombs of Atuan
- Texas (Michener yet again)
- Treason
- Treasure Island
- Waverley
- Twilight book 1 was originally named Forks, but Stephenie Meyer changed the name since.
- Wuthering Heights
- Berlin Alexanderplatz
- The Dark Tower
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- The Two Towers (Notable in that we don't know for certain which two towers it refers to. It could have been any pair out of Orthanc, Barad-Dur, Minas Tirith, Minas Morgul, or the Tower of Cirith Ungol. The Movie definitively identifies it as the first two, but Tolkien himself named different pairs at different times.)
- Perdido Street Station and The Scar by China Mieville
Live-Action TV
- 21 Jump Street
- 30 Rock
- Babylon 5. It even includes the phrase "the place" right in the Opening Narration: "The year is 2260. The Place: Babylon FIVE."
- Beverly Hills, 90210
- Boston Legal
- Boston Public
- Century City
- Cheers
- Coronation Street
- CSI: Miami
- CSI: NY
- Deadwood
- Degrassi Junior High
- Dollhouse
- Eastenders
- Eerie, Indiana
- ER
- Eureka
- Fantasy Island
- Fawlty Towers (also an Epunymous Title)
- Firefly (Serenity)
- Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
- General Hospital
- Gilligan's Island
- Godiva's (also a Character Title, since the owner of the restaurant named it after herself)
- Green Acres
- Harper's Island
- Haven
- Hill Street Blues
- Jericho
- Jersey Shore
- Killinaskully
- Las Vegas
- Lidsville
- Little House On The Prarie
- Melrose Place
- Mercy (which takes place in Mercy Hospital)
- Miami Vice
- Midsomer Murders
- NCIS: Los Angeles
- The Office
- Oz
- Petticoat Junction
- Red Dwarf
- Rome
- Roswell
- Smallville
- Stargate Atlantis
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise also count, albeit loosely since The Place in question isn't always in the same... uh... place.
- St. Elsewhere
- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
- Summer Heights High
- The OC
- 3rd Rock from the Sun
- Treme
- Twin Peaks
- Waterloo Road
- The West Wing
- The Wild Wild West (A play on words: The main character is named Major James West.)
- WKRP in Cincinnati
- Zoobilee Zoo
Puppet Shows
Video Games
- The Elder Scrolls. Three of the games are named after places in Tamriel.
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and San Andreas
- Halo
- Lego Island
- The Oregon Trail
- The Yukon Trail
- Silent Hill
- Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier
- Devil May Cry
- Gorky 17, the European title of Odium. It refers to a secret Russian city which features in the backstory, but isn't actually visited in the game.
Web Comics
Web Original