My New Leaf town was named "New Leaf"
My New Horizons island was named "New Island"
Aren't I a creative genius?
Honestly though. The only reasons why the names are lacking is because I can never agree on a good name. I might hate the name later and start over for a different name. I never wanted to go through that mess so its now a tradition to name my AC setting "New <whatever>"
I named my New Leaf and New Horizons town and island “Touhou” since it’s one of my favorite series I’ve gotten into a few years back. Besides that, I’m not that creative to think of a proper name for the locations and just went with something like that.
I don't know. I've always liked Japan and its culture, and it's been referred before as "land of the Rising Sun." Plus, Rising Sun sounds hopeful, like it's a new hope rising. Same reason why I named my town in NL "New Oak".