Hey there, I've just been pondering on this for a little while - lots of names in D&D are entirely fictitious, such as, I don't know - Amn or Athkatla, where the names literally don't have a meaning. Other ones, such as Neverwinter, have a specific reason for being named as such, like how Neverwinter has a hot river than runs through it, creating a warm climate for the city.

However, I can't understand why Sigil, the city, is called Sigil - sigil has a very specific meaning in the english language (a symbol considered to have magical power, or just an ordinary symbol, or an archaic word for a seal), so it's clearly not a 'made up name'. But I can't see the relationship between 'a symbol' and what Sigil the place represents in D&D. 'City of Doors' makes complete sense, that's obvious! but not Sigil...

Has anybody read anything about it? maybe I'm the only one who's interested, I like words and meanings xD

Then why is the place with the most doors in the multivese called the Cage ?

A seal is placed on the center of the enveloppe to close it. A seal keeps the parts together and prevent them to fall appart. Sigil is at the "center" of the worlds, one can wonder what would happen to the planes if Sigil was "broken". Probably a ton of bad things.

And of course a sigil is magic, few places have more magic than the Cage... The whole place is a portal. You can basically use magic without be a proper mage, by the power of your will - Mourn for Trees is a good example.

Oh, well, maybe it just sounded good to the ears of the writers...They had no obligation to follow the naming conventions of the Forgotten Realms. Let's not overthink it :p.

Ahh you're probably right about overthinking it, it just seemed strange that they called it such a specific name and I couldn't see a relation. It would be like them calling a city, I don't know, 'The Black City' where everything in it is vibrant and happy (really bad example I know xD)

However, what you said about the envelope and breaking the seal DOES make perfect sense! I have no idea if that was the writers intention, but it certainly satisfies me as far as an explanation goes. So really, thanks you for your input! - it's cleared my mind ^^

That...makes a lot of sense, actually. The Lady of Pain guards the place and she has downsized ambitious gods before. Imagine how things might go if the infinite hordes of the abyss had an easy gate to every other place in the multiverse.

Dictionary.com uses [sij-il] as the pronunciation of the English word "Sigil". Those who know more about Planescape, the D&D campaign setting will tell you if you pronounce the city name as [sij-il] your will probably make no friends and maybe even have a very short life there. The city is properly pronounced [sig-il] with the first syllable sounding like the beginning of "cigar". This being the case I can only assume that the city name has no reference whatsoever to the English word.

Now, as for it being called the "Cage", this is probably due to the fact that each of the "Doors" of the city is locked and you can pass through these doors without being teleported somewhere without even knowing it. Without the keys the city acts like a cage; you can't get out of it.

I hope this helps explain things.