In reference to an impassioned plea ...
> ... and I have just one question: Where
> does one get 5800 different names for the stars/main worlds (9 sectors at
> 50% density)?
Well, as you pointed out, randomly-generated names are a bit of
a bind sometimes (though there's quite a good one available from
the [email removed]), so I always think of
some underlying reason for names of systems.
Which isn't as hard as it seems ... Niven's worlds hold some
marvellous evocative names - Jinx, WeMadeIt, Mount Lookitthat
(did I spell that right? Hmm..), but perhaps you're looking
for something a bit more ... serious.
If you're really designing an empire, and not just a series
of systems, then you'll know (or will make up now!) the sorts
of people who discovered the systems in the first place. Was
it corageous explorers? Then they'll name them after places
back home (like the Mayflower people ...) or trite descriptive
names. Perhaps after their favourite authors and musicians, if
they were more likely to be 'gentlemen explorers'. If they
were governmental agents, then they would be designated a code
name (like LV-426) and named much later by the settelers (Acheron).
So, get your thinking cap on! Naming systems I have used with
some success in the past (ie no-one knew where I got them from)
have included 2000AD artists (Bolland, Dillon, Ezquerra, etc),
Tolkien dwarf names (for the mining settlements, you see!),
names of fish (for the water-worlds...) and so on. Or perhaps
something un-related ... after all, the craters and mountains
of our fair moon are all named after scientists and mathematicians,
so perhaps there's a lesson to be learnt from there!
(Mind you, it's not always easy to think up things like that ...
perhaps a few nice topics can be suggested that provide good
system/planet names? And bear in mind that if a section of the
empire was won from another species, they'd already have names
them in their own language ... so crank out the random name
generators with a clear concience!)
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