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Old 11-25-2020, 11:39 AM   #11
Anders
 
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Default Re: How do you name planets?

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Originally Posted by Agemegos View Post
I was sad to be told that there isn’t rally a place called “Torpenhowe Hill”.
We still have Bredon Hill.
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Old 11-25-2020, 12:20 PM   #12
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Default Re: How do you name planets?

"You can't call a planet Bob."
"So now you're the boss? You're the King of Bob?"
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Old 11-25-2020, 02:58 PM   #13
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Default Re: How do you name planets?

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We still have Bredon Hill.
And a village called "Torpenhow" that is on a hill.

A lot of Australian place-names employ reduplication (Wagga Wagga, Woy Woy, Willi Willi, Nulla Nulla) because reduplication was an inflection in many Aboriginal languages, producing plurals and acting as an intensifier. Spike Milligan's mother lived at Woy Woy, and when he was told that it meant "deep water" he wondered which "Woy" means "deep" and which "Woy" means "water".
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Old 11-26-2020, 06:07 AM   #14
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Default Re: How do you name planets?

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
Sometimes I'll pick a naming scheme for planets in a setting
In one recent scifi setting thread, I went with the theme of "Philosopher's Somethings," so we got Plato's Cave, Morton's Fork, Pascal's Wager and so on, in a region named Thinker's Forum.

It's just based on the idea that survey scouts out cataloguing planets will get bored and latch onto any slightly creative or imaginative scheme they come across... much as suburban town planners do when naming groups of streets.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Agemegos View Post
A lot of Australian place-names employ reduplication (Wagga Wagga, Woy Woy, Willi Willi, Nulla Nulla) because reduplication was an inflection in many Aboriginal languages, producing plurals and acting as an intensifier. Spike Milligan's mother lived at Woy Woy, and when he was told that it meant "deep water" he wondered which "Woy" means "deep" and which "Woy" means "water".
I forget if it was Spike Milligan or someone else, but this reminds me of the line from some old comedy sketch, "... Wagga Wagga, which means 'place of many crows... place of many crows.'"
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Old 11-26-2020, 04:02 PM   #15
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Default Re: How do you name planets?

I remember in the Old Man's War series, there's a planet named Huckleberry. The survey pilot who named it had a thing for Mark Twain.

Then the bureau of colonization settled war refugees from India.

So the name doesn't HAVE to be logical, nor fit with the culture that settles the planet.
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Old 11-27-2020, 06:49 AM   #16
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Default Re: How do you name planets?

My handwave for really mundane or lame planet names:

Scouts and surveyors just slap on whatever name occurs to them quickly, because you have to call it something and have something in those blanks on the forms.

They don't expect it to last, as permanent names are set by the Nomenclature Subcommittee Executive Working Group. But the NSCEWG is really a dumping ground for dull drones, chronic bickerers, losers of office power struggles, and other such people the organization has no use for but is unable or unwilling to fire or assassinate. So the official naming gets endlessly delayed.

Meanwhile the people doing actual work on the system just use the "temporary" name.

Eventually a management reform movement comes around and abolishes the NSCEWG, declaring all the temporary names the official permanent ones.
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Old 11-28-2020, 08:54 AM   #17
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Default Re: How do you name planets?

I just borrow names from books, movies, TV shows and other sources. Nothing wrong with planets named Zahadoom, Tattoine, Ceti Alpha 5, or even Bob. Binary planets might be Xena and Gabrielle or Batman and Robin.

If your work winds up getting published, you might want to do a little copyright cleansing but for ad-hoc use no one is going to care if your planet is named Iron Man.
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Old 11-28-2020, 10:00 AM   #18
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Default Re: How do you name planets?

Honestly, as we're looking at stupid planet names, that brings up another point, humans are immature idiots. Especially explorers far from home.

The Grand Tetons are famous in Wyoming. They're literally named after breasts. Here's a list of just the more difficult to climb mountains named after breasts in English in North America.

So, now we're naming balls. Cold balls in space. I'll leave you to do the math.
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Old 11-28-2020, 12:19 PM   #19
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Default Re: How do you name planets?

Frankly surprised that more of them haven't been bowdlerized over the years.
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Old 11-28-2020, 01:32 PM   #20
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Default Re: How do you name planets?

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Originally Posted by khorboth View Post
Here's a list of just the more difficult to climb mountains named after breasts in English in North America.
Mount Boobyalla is probably a faux ami. Like the river, defunct port city, and Antarctic islands of the same name it is most likely named after the plant bubiala ("native willow") or boobialla ("native juniper"), which gets their names from an Aboriginal language of Tasmania.

Also, it isn't in North America.
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