How to tackle real-world stuff?

I use online name generators, but some of the results of the generators are real places when I search those names on google. Should I use those name because of some of them sound cool or you advised me not to use them? Should I use real common names or I should not? I have no experience in a game writing that why such a simple question. If you want, I can show you my list.

There's a town called "Toronto" in the game Brain Lord. Toronto is the capital of Ontario and has nothing to do with Brain Lord.

Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Yes, but you can have mixed results. You may find some people will really love or hate your naming choices.

The only thing that could cause problems is if one of those names is trademarked.
Other than that you're free to use those names especially in a fantasy context. If you had a modern story you might have to include that phrase about all story being fictional and similarities to real people being accidental (you probably saw that on some books and movies already)

I personally believe it's best not to use any real-world place names unless you are actually depicting our world. You're going to send mixed signals about whether the player is in an immersive fantasy world or a facsimile of the real world.

Instead, change up a couple letters (and at least one sound). This way you might still evoke some of the qualities of the real world location it sounds like, but you won't run into the problem of mixed signals.

As far the names of people, I tend to favor made-up names (because players may know someone in the real world with a name whose personality is entirely different than your character, and it may cause bias), but real world names are not that bad.

@AdamSakuru, thank you for the advice.
@Andar, thank you for your advice. Good ideas on putting a disclaimer on a game because it prevents players from overanalyzing and get upset over every little detail.
@Wavelength, thank you for your input. Ok, good ideas on the common name because it might be the trigger of bad feelings.

What Wavelength said, or any name you pick actually has different meaning in other side of world's language / tradition / culture / history, and it might be a taboo. But getting into this point is already quite paranoid.

I don't give a mind about picking names tbh, coming up with names itself is already harder. In the end, I'd just do like Andar has said about the disclaimer.

@TheoAllen , thank you for your inputs. I know I can be quite paranoid that why I ask the community for the answers instead of play a guessing game.
@XlllthHarbinger, thank your for your feedbacks. I agree the creation of new languages in RPG, leave that to professional novelists. Good ideas on naming building names after fantasy world rulers names. :)
@slimmmeiske2, thank you for your feedbacks. Good ideas on find the names which could be pronounceable.

I would say that how you should handle will depend greatly upon the linguistics of your particular IP.

Specific place names like "Washington D.C.", "Stalingrad, Russia", & "Tokyo, Japan" should definitely be avoided. However, more common names that arise from basic descriptions that occur again & again in various societies & time periods are another matter entirely. As societies throughout history tend to have certain naming conventions occur almost universally, for example surnames derived from professions, & village names derived from major terrain features. So unless you create entirely new languages for your world, the odds that any location name you use being a real place presently or in the past, are rather high.

As for character names, I wouldn't name any of your characters after real people, but unless you create entirely new languages the odds that there are real people out their with the same name as your characters are rather high. So the thing to consider is what is the overall "language flavor" of your world, & try to stay with it, rather than work against it. For example Elder Scrolls derives Breton person & location names from Anglo-Saxon influences; Nord person & location names from I believe Norwegian, Swede, Finland influences; & Imperials from Greco-Roman influences. So when you see the person & location names listed together, they have a kind of harmony, because they are all derived from similar linguistic roots.

Personally I recommend this kind of approach, because most of us simply aren't Tolkien. & you shouldn't try for a linguistic mish-mash, unless you're dealing with a post apocalyptic or post earth scenario. For example how in Firefly everyone speaks a mixture of Mandarin & English, & switches back & forth between the two; because in that world the majority of those who immigrated into space were Chinese or American.

However, the "flavor" of your character names can also provide you with location names as well, as one of the more common naming conventions of human civilizations is to name cities after kings, queens, emperors, warlords, etcetera. So you can build up your worlds lore by creating this character, & having one of your locations derived from their name.

Using real well-known places (like New York, London, Tokyo) in your medieval-fantasy world is obviously a bad idea. You can do it, of course, but it will put gamers off.

I don’t see the problem with using lesser-known cities/towns though. I actually use several of those in my own games (fairytale world ip). Some I’ve altered slightly (De Meern -> Meern, Spitsbergen -> Spitsbarg) and some I haven’t (Bedburg, Mons).

As for personal names, whether you go with common or uncommon names, make sure they’re pronounceable. I once entered a contest with a character I’d created and I was voted off first round, because the name I’d used was hard to read. ^^;