04-28-2022, 10:38 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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[Space/Sci-Fi] I Need Some Names
I'm working on my space opera setting, gearing up for a game set there. (My Marvel Shadowguard game is on hiatus again due to burnout.)
I'm looking for names I can use for cities, planets, space stations, and systems for a sector of space situated roughly 40 to 60 lightyears from Earth. So, ideas? Functional, fanciful, pop/geek culture references and homages, "New $place_on_Earth", and mythological names are all welcome! You don't need to go into detail; I just suck at names (this is known). And for the record, planet Bob is already accounted for! :)
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting |
04-28-2022, 11:21 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Space/Sci-Fi] I Need Some Names
Terabyte Station
Trilobyte station Cenobyte station Overbyte Station As you can tell we had a theme going in our last space game.
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Fred Brackin |
04-29-2022, 04:13 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [Space/Sci-Fi] I Need Some Names
Part of this, like naming locations in any setting, will be to decide on the naming culture(s) and how they work.
How were these locations settled and by whom? A sector settled by free enterprise may look more like the American West with places and colonies named after the pioneers (Drake's World, Hogan's Landing, Kowinski Station), whilst a more statist or corporate approach might lead to blander, more PR based and scientific names (Enterprise Station, Agricultural Facility #5, Eridani III). Monarchies and other aristocratic traditions might look like the free settler model with more formal names dedicated to kings and princes. Ideologically driven settlements (religious or political) will have names that suit the cause. Also look to non-English speaking cultures - then either use the names in the native language or translate or Anglicise them (for example Hong Kong apparently translates as Perfume Bay - either would be a decent name). Also, misuse foreign words - we have at least four rivers in England called The Avon. Afon is the Welsh word for "river". |
04-29-2022, 05:30 AM | #4 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [Space/Sci-Fi] I Need Some Names
I like to incorporate a bit of history in there:
Keatonblunde (Keaton's Blunder. Yes, the namers were english, blunde just sounds more like a place name) A reference place and an adjective work well: New Anchorage New Phoenix New Yukon New Everest Far Luna Grand Vegas Little Cali Naming places after people has a long history, as long as the name is both short and distinctive. If you don't want politicians and historical figures (and they are moderately unlikely at this point), consider Actors. Will Smith probably doesn't make for a good place namesake, but consider: Denzel Jackson* Morgan* Reynolds Radclift Cumberbatch Garfeild* Holland** Gyllanhall *ok, I already know of real places named after people who are 100% not the actor ** that is... sort of already a place, but when has that stopped people?
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
04-29-2022, 05:50 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
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Re: [Space/Sci-Fi] I Need Some Names
Luban
Lemoine Shaanxi Al-Sayeda Zeinab Teclu Ryougoku Caobao Chit Lom Camden Changping Lesoparkovaya Paco Sichuan Saint-Martin Aquino Tawaramachi Zinkensdamm Tai Wai Huaning Jawa Mokotow Heiwadai Mladost Phloen Chit Boulets Exarcheia Sodra Angby New Pest Billancourt These are from a list I made to give some international flavor to my settings. There is a theme, but (as you say) it doesn't matter. I suggest, however, that you don't use anything that you can't readily pronounce (or alter the spelling/pronunciation to something more comfortable). I discovered that my players took the too-exotic names and gave them easier nicknames anyway. |
04-29-2022, 11:59 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Apr 2012
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Re: [Space/Sci-Fi] I Need Some Names
travellermap.com
Thousands of names to pick from. |
04-29-2022, 07:53 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Earth, mostly
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Re: [Space/Sci-Fi] I Need Some Names
One of the things I liked about Niven's Known Space was that most of the colony worlds were named after something memorable about them. We Made It, for instance, where the colony slowship landed during the spring windstorms and was almost destroyed (the site of the landing is commemorated as Crashlanding City); or Plateau, a world with an unbreathably thick atmosphere except on a series of plateaus atop the world's tallest mountain, Mt. Lookitthat (named for the first words spoken when it was sighted, as the slowboat looked for a landing place - "Lookit that!").
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If you break the laws of Man, you go to prison. If you break the laws of God, you go to Hell. If you break the laws of Physics, you go to Sweden and receive a Nobel Prize. |
04-30-2022, 11:47 AM | #8 |
☣
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: [Space/Sci-Fi] I Need Some Names
You can cut down some of the effort by just assuming that naming rights are still a thing, then you only have to come up with names for corporations and brands, and everything else falls into place.
Citibank Colony Playstation Station iPlanet
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RyanW - Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats. |
04-30-2022, 03:06 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Earth, mostly
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Re: [Space/Sci-Fi] I Need Some Names
Or just the Sony Playstation, which serves as a transit hub to the worlds of Nabisco-Reynolds Sector, including Citibank Colony, Pepsi's World, and iPlanet, the sole habitable world orbiting the star Apple. (The two largest settlements on iPlanet are the twin cities of Jobs and Wozniak, sometimes referred to by colonists as "the Steves".)
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If you break the laws of Man, you go to prison. If you break the laws of God, you go to Hell. If you break the laws of Physics, you go to Sweden and receive a Nobel Prize. |
05-01-2022, 04:03 AM | #10 | |
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
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Re: [Space/Sci-Fi] I Need Some Names
Quote:
etc.
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