Sci-Fi Planet Name Generator

How planet names are usually built

Planets are named by whoever arrives first, so the name shows the discoverer's priorities. Colonists name a world for a founder or a hope: Calloway Landing, New Meridian. Industrial concerns name a world for its resources or its hazards, which gives names like Cinder Anvil. Native peoples or ancient visitors name it in their own tongue, and a human survey often adopts that name with a few corrections.

Because a planet is spoken and written many times, short and distinct names work best. A name that clips well on a comms channel is easy to remember in a crisis.

Keeping a star map consistent

Decide which cultures named which worlds and let the names show it. Old colonies carry founders and hopes, corporate worlds carry resource names, and alien worlds keep the sound of their original language. When a world has more than one name, let the argument be part of the politics: the colonists and the natives call it different things, and who wins the naming war tells you who won the war. Keep a list of planets with their names in each language and their dates, so that a rename becomes a plot point instead of an accident.

Twenty example planet names

• Calloway Landing a colony named for the pilot who survived.
• New Meridian a hopeful name for a hard world.
• Cinder Anvil a mining world with a bad atmosphere.
• Xelarkeis an alien homeworld with a long history.
• Harrow Landing the first settlement of a failed expedition.
• Glass Reach a desert planet with a silicon sea.
• Qorthos a native name adopted by the survey.
• New Esperance a colony founded by a utopian movement.
• Pale Verge an ice world at the edge of the system.
• Vance Landing a trading post that became a capital.
• Zilvunur a homeworld the survey has not yet landed on.
• Ember Deep a volcanic moon with a smelter.
• Ferro Landing a mining camp turned into a city.
• Nyrax a short alien name that is easy to broadcast.
• New Solace a refugee world with a long waiting list.
• Slate Basin a grey planet with a vast quarry.
• Ulmeris a gentle homeworld of floating cities.
• Ishikawa Landing a farming colony that feeds a sector.
• Dust Cradle a dry planet that grows the best grain.
• Kasolon an ancient world with a silent beacon.