The Orion's Arm Universe Project Forums





Naming Conventions
#1
I want to know how to name planets, colonies, cities, spacecrafts, etc. I read someone say they immortalize names of people they admire in names of things. I also read up on the naming convention of planets, but that depends on the star's name, which, except for a few, have wild names I don't understand.So I was curious if OA had a system in place for this.
Reply
#2
there's a thousand different naming systems. most folks have a different one.
overall
-try to avoid having too many contemporary words or names (the beatles, New USA etc... even if there's clearly exceptions to this (every star system named after a scientist from the 20th century), though corruptions of some existing words can sound ok?

-many names could be translations since the EG as we read it is supposed to be translated from future-ese language anyway so the planet could be 'macrystis' or savastos or T'oh'ul'h and have linguistic rules native to the star system naming schema without any actual meaning to real world languages
or just call the planets 'rose' , 'that globe of dirt', 'bravery in the face of danger'

-maybe find alternatives to place names from 20th century western nations ? the fact that there's so many right now is probably just a bias from the existing membership but also consider -all the other cultures on earth .... or recycling names from mars or other future OA colonies.

-consider that if you're making a whole planet or system, names will change over time. Byzantium/ constantinople, istanbul are the same urban center over the course of only 2000 years so try adding multiple cultures/ names over time, if you're into that.

-
Reply
#3
Thanks! That's very helpful!
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)