History Main / NamingYourColonyWorld

** The ''lacus'' and ''lacunae'' of Titan -- hydrocarbon lakes and dry lake beds, respectively--are named after Earth lakes (e.g. Ontario Lacus, Jingpo Lacus, Eyre Lacuna[[note]]For bonus points, Lake Eyre on Earth is a dry lakebed mos of the time.[[/note]]). Bays (''sinus'' in Latin) in both these and in the ''maria'' (hydrocarbon seas, named after mythical sea monsters) are also named after similar features on Earth (e.g. Moray Sinus, Puget Sinus).

* In [[http://abyssandapex.com/201004-black.html "The Black Sheep of Vaerlosi"]] by Desmond Warzel, the name of the titular planet is, according to WordOfGod, a corruption of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaerlose Værløse]] (a small Danish town), used for no particular reason except that the author liked the sound.

* The Terran Trade Authority universe features a colony world which is initially known as Erehwon. After a series of unexplained bloody murders results in the deaths of the entire forward reconnaissance team, and the rescue ship (arriving too late) narrowly avoids destruction at the hands of something that is either a shared mass-psychosis or a literal three-headed Hound of Hell, the planet is placed off limits, ringed by a warning cordon of guard satellites, and renamed Bedlam.

* In ''Literature/{{Spaceforce}}'''s United Worlds of Earth, the older colony worlds were given 'cheesy' names like Hope, Inspiration and Horizon.

* ''Literature/{{Spaceforce}}'': Earth is at the centre of a galactic union of about 1200 planets, which demonstrate the full range of colony world naming conventions. New Scotland and New Florida are mentioned.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' has Bastion, Despayre (a prison planet), Foundry and Necropolis.

* ''Literature/{{Xenogenesis}}'': While not the name of one planet, but of towns in recolonized Earth, it's remarked that quite a large number of new settlements are named "Phoenix" because everyone thought it would be symbolic and original.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': Audubon, Tierra del Fuego, Penglai and Danzig.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': Twilight, the oceanic world of Pacifica, Arcadia, Fons Luminis, Silence, Halcyon, Atlantis, Ecotopia, Felicidade, Trees, Newlife, Newhope, Root, Metropolis.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': Dionysus, Nessus, Daedelus, Deucalion, Vulcan, Gaia, Zarathustra, Diwali, Ain Soph Aur.

%%* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': Caph.%%What about it?

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': Darwin, Turing, Bill and Bull, Robinson, Daffy, Kiyoshi.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': The planets of the Beta Virginis system were named New Africa, New Asia, New Europe, New America, New Australia, New Antartica, New Luna, New Mars, New Jupiter and New Saturn by its first colonists. New Africa and New Asia were renamed Aiball Oh-one and Aiball Oh-oh after being settled by sapient machines, while New Europe was renamed Isoai after being conquered by the machines following a very badly-thought out war. (what the machines call them is not known); the other planets were all named other things over the centuries as well. Other examples include New Root, New Gaia, New Mars, Nova Terra (not to be confused with Terranova), New Montana, New Robinson, New Sol, New Daffy, New Vulcan and a lot of planets called New Earth.

** "Literature/SearchByTheMule": Rossem, one of the planets under the control of Tazenda, is [[SingleBiomePlanet an exceptionally cold world]], and populated only in the equatorial regions. The name itself is similar to both Russia (or "Rossiya") and to Rossum (or ''Theatre/RossumsUniversalRobots''). Dr Asimov was an emigrant from Russia and wrote about robots.

* "Literature/SearchByTheMule": Rossem, one of the planets under the control of Tazenda, is [[SingleBiomePlanet an exceptionally cold world]], and populated only in the equatorial regions. The name itself is similar to both Russia (or "Rossiya") and to Rossum (or ''Theatre/RossumsUniversalRobots''). Dr Asimov was an emigrant from Russia and wrote about robots.

* '''[[NewNeoCity New Something]]''': Take a place on Earth, any place at all. Now add "New" to the beginning. Great, you've named your world! Welcome to New Detroit! Or New Paris! (Or [[GratuitousLatin Nova Lutetia]]!) New North Wales! New New York! New New New York! Why bother to be creative when you can steal somewhere else's name, and have TruthInTelevision on your side into the bargain -- a lot of cities and landmasses use this very same convention in reality. A variation is to change "New" to "Nu", symbolizing gradual language drift phoneticizing the planet's name, or the use of other languages' words for new (i.e. Nova Tierra, Neau Terre, Neue Erde, etc.). Making the second term fancier adds cool points. For example, instead of "New Britain" or "New Scotland" you substitute Latin or other languages (e.g., "Albion" and "Caledonia").
* '''Named the Same''': If you're too lazy to even slap "New" on the front, just fully copy a name from Earth. Like the above, you will have [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._places_named_after_non-U.S._places truth in television]] on your side. And seriously, is anyone actually going to confuse Henan the province with Henan the planet light-years away?
* '''Symbolica''': Don't like naming it after places on Earth? No problem. Give it a symbolic name! Name it Eden, or Serenity, or Peace, or something nice sounding. Or you could name it something strong so as to show the universe you're tough. Call it Spartacus or Thor. Just don't name it Hell, 'cause nobody will want to settle there. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Norway Except maybe Norwegians]]. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Michigan And Michiganders]].
** If you do choose a symbolic name, be prepared for it to quickly become either heavily ironic, or eerily appropriate. Definitely don't name anything Icarus, because that myth involves him becoming too proud of his technology, getting into a dangerous situation, having his technology break, and falling to death. If your floating city or space colony is named this, the fate it meets is likely to be...[[ColonyDrop unpleasant]].
** Similarly, fiction is littered with planets called Hell, Hades, and similar names. They're usually called this for good reason. In many cases the original colonists were not there voluntarily, or didn't know what it was like when they left and couldn't turn back when they arrived (e.g. a GenerationShip or other one-way STL vessel).

* '''NumberedHomeworld''': This combines the familiarity of a name with the simplicity of a number. Does the star your planets orbits have a name? If so, just count how many planets are closer to the star than yours. For example, your planet is the second closes to the star Polaris -- name it Polaris-2. Its neighbours are Polaris-1 closer to the star, Polaris-3 on the other side, and so on. Or you can use Roman numerals: Polaris I, Polaris II, etc.

-->-- Cale, ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE''

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* ''VideoGame/Borderlands'': The Eden system, notably Eden-6 and Eden-5. Also a case of Symbolica/Mnemosyne, depending on how you look at it.

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