Exoplanet Name Generator

How exoplanet names tend to work in fiction and worldbuilding

Most published exoplanet catalogs mix two traditions. The working catalog uses dry alphanumeric shorthand, like HD 85512 b or Trappist-1 h, because that is what a survey team would actually write on a chart. The fiction tradition uses something more memorable, a single image or a regional nickname, because readers need to keep a dozen worlds straight across three hundred pages. The Exoplanet Name Generator bridges those two styles. Each name leans one way or the other depending on the lens, so a story can move from the science team to the colonist bazaar without breaking the setting.

Twenty lenses, one pool of single-string names

The generator organizes names into twenty topical slices. Telescope-survey and registry-form read like real mission outputs. Orbital-mechanic borrows the vocabulary of resonances, inclinations, and Hill spheres. Stellar-neighborhood and constellation-echo anchor a world in its wider sky. Colonist-nickname and expedition-sponsor give a world the human fingerprint of a settler or a backer. Mineral-atmosphere and geological-time read the planet's skin and its age. Hazard-anomaly and radio-call carry a warning label. Alien-ruin and lost-probe hint at what was already there. Habitable-zone, frozen-outer, and volcanic-inner describe climate. Terraform-prospect names a future. Poetic-explorer and space-opera reach for the lyrical or grand.

Picking and using a result

Re-roll until something sticks. A name like Goldilocks Bench is a useful seed for a temperate colony world, while Brimstone Reach suggests something closer and harsher. If a result is close but not quite right, treat the first word as the keeper and the rest as scaffolding. Forge, Drift, Crown, Halo, and Reach appear often because they slot cleanly into either style, which lets a writer move between tones inside the same setting without retraining the reader.

Working with survey-style names

Names like Kepler-186f Marker 7 or EPIC 2015 Anomaly 12 read like real survey output. They are best used as the in-fiction working label, the one the mission control voice would say out loud. Pair them with a colonist nickname when the same world appears later in a more intimate scene. The contrast between a sterile catalog entry and a warm local name is one of the oldest tricks in science fiction, and the generator is designed to make that contrast easy.

Working with space-opera and poetic lenses

For bigger stories, the space-opera and poetic-explorer lenses produce names that read as titles. Crown of the Long Sun and Throne of Quiet Halos want to be chapter headings, not field labels. Use them sparingly, one per arc, so the weight of the name still lands. The alien-ruin lens sits between the two styles, with a single image that suggests both mystery and scale.

Identity, scale, and the feel of a setting

Which lenses a writer leans on tells the reader what kind of story to expect. A novel heavy in colonist-nickname and terraform-prospect names is a settlement story, intimate and human. A novel heavy in orbital-mechanic and mineral-atmosphere names is hard-SF, where the planet is a puzzle to be solved. A novel heavy in space-opera and poetic-explorer names is an epic, where the planet is a stage for dynasties. Mixing lenses is often what gives a setting its texture.

Tips for getting the most out of the generator

• Re-roll in batches of ten and pick the ones that immediately spark a sentence.
• If a name is almost right, drop the last word and see whether a fresh tail from another result fits better.
• Resist the urge to combine more than two names into one. The single-string format is part of the strength.
• Pair one survey-style name with one colonist-style name per world, so you have a working label and a local name ready.
• Use the radio-call lens when you need a name the mission control voice can say clearly under stress.

Inspiration prompts

• Pick a colonist-nickname and a geological-time name and decide which one the settlers would use.
• Take a burn-notice name and write the first paragraph of a survival log from the world it describes.
• Combine a space-opera realm name with a mineral-atmosphere world name to outline a single scene.
• Take an alien-ruin name and invent the three sentences the survey team would write on first contact.
• Use a radio-call name as the chapter title for a tense transmission scene.

What are good Exoplanet Names?

There's thousands of random Exoplanet Names in this generator. Here are some samples to start:

• Kepler-186f Marker 7
• Roche-Lobe Transit
• Hyades Drift Annex
• Hollister's Rest
• EPIC 2015 Anomaly 12
• Lyra Echo Probe
• First Light Claim
• Iron-Rust Halo
• Cambrian Strata Plain
• Burn Notice Locale