Geographical names for fantasy series: planets! Kingdoms! Mountain ranges!

Working on a fantasy series that takes place in the future where other planets have been discovered as livable besides [name]Earth[/name]. I think I have the planet names down, but I would like some more ideas for different planet names, and then names for different governing bodies and landforms within those planets–continents and countries to kingdoms and bodies of water. I was going to start perusing lists of more obscure surnames and working off of that for ideas, but some fresh insight would be appreciated as well.

Got any good names?

[name]How[/name] much SF aspect is there to this fantasy? Is [name]Earth[/name]'s history up to now the same? That will suggest how “realistic” to expect the names to be.

[name]How[/name] far in the future are we talking, and how many settled solar systems? I’m guessing a fairly small number of planets will be involved in the story, judging by your need for many places on planets to be distinguished. In a story like [name]Star[/name] Wars, where the world is the galaxy and planets are treated like cities, they have little need for place names on a smaller scale than planets.

I can assume the first settled solar systems will have planetary names taken from mythologies other than [name]Greco[/name]-[name]Roman[/name], those having largely been used up in our solar system. In the 1990s, I wondered what was going to happen; then the discovery of Kuiper Belt objects led to use of names from other mythologies even in our solar system.

At some point, that naming convention is going to break down. After that, I assume planets, and places on them, will tend toward [name]Earth[/name] naming conventions. I don’t expect a planet named We Made It (from a [name]Larry[/name] [name]Niven[/name] story, obviously named for the first words said by the first person to land).

What are [name]Earth[/name] “naming conventions” exactly? Much of [name]Earth[/name]'s names are from the pre-scientific era, and I expect that the methods leading to them won’t necessarily be applied in the future.

I don’t know how most [name]Earth[/name] places got their names.

Place names derived from demonyms (Yugoslavia “land of the South Slavs”) aren’t usable for anywhere with no indigenous population.

There are countries and regions named for geographical location (Australia), people in their history ([name]Bolivia[/name], [name]Colombia[/name]), resources (Argentina “silver country”). The polar regions seem to have a lot of places named for monarchs: Franz Josef Land (islands north of Russia), Queen Maud Land (Antarctica), etc. These are relevant as the last land masses and regions on Earth to be named, but I doubt that style will continue.

I have trouble with this myself, because it looks like there won’t be any really new names, at least until new languages evolve. That’s why the most convincing/stylistically appropriate names I can think of are from consciously “Earth in space” retro universes. For example, a couple RPGs I’ve seen in development. A colonial-era-in-space game had a planet called New Entwistle-on-the-Wold. A Cold-War-in-space game had planets called Potomac, Cincinnati and Wellington, along with the expected mythical names. And Shangri-La, of course. Not a real myth, but… Reminds me of the Honor Harrington universe, a Napoleonic era/Cold War in space series. Its planets are a mix of reused Earth places (Zanzibar, Potsdam), mythical names (often heroes or monsters rather than gods - Beowulf, Manticore - I love this because it implies the god names were used up), historical figures (Yeltsin’s Star), not all political (Rembrandt), literary (Erewhon)

[name]Remember[/name] that interstellar settlers often won’t be European.

[name]How[/name] about just entering words into a translator using different languages? I did that with Latin. Here are some suggestions, from Google Translator:
Nivalis (apparently means “wintry”. Could be for a cold planet/mountain range?)
Cassida (“helmet”)
Desera (“abandoned, left”)
[name]Gratia[/name] (“grace”)
Ventosa (“wind, windy”)
Ruina (“ruin, shipwreck”)
Litera (“letter”)
Portacaeli (my combo of “porta” which means ‘gate’ and “caeli” which means ‘heaven/sky’. I suppose it could mean “heaven’s gate” or “sky’s gate”?)
Sidera (“the stars”)
Pruina (“frost”)

Alternatively, you could use personal names and surnames to name planets, like a planet called [name]Johnson[/name] if the scientist who discovered it ad that as their surname. Or elaborate names like [name]Octavia[/name] and [name]Aurelius[/name]. Or perhaps numbers?

Okay, for earth-people-named planets, I think those above me have it right on, and there’s not much to add. Google translate is a wonderful resource, and one of my favorite tools in lighter fantasy. Mythological conventions are also a natural course

Of course, if you want to deal with aliens/other races, each planet will need some naming conventions. Now, I’m not suggesting you pull a Tolkien, but I am at least suggesting you look into how any aliens’ anatomy would influence how they form words, and jump from there. A really wonderful source I found for this is this.

If we’re dealing with independent people-populated nations, where [name]Earth[/name] dropped off astronauts and then ceased communication (or we had a major revolutionary war problem), you can also assume they will have developed their own ‘flavor’ in how their words are formed. So where your people first landed will have more earth-esque names, and then the further a traveler gets from that city/village/town, the less earth-y the names would seem. The planet would probably have an earth-y name, unless the citizens decided to change the name of the planet. If you’re looking for different ‘flavors’ of sound for different planets, I’d recommend this any hour of the day. It’s one of the best name generators I’ve found.

I hope I helped! Anything else, and just ask: I’m sure my extreme world-building geekiness bled through this post. As my dad said, Tolkien’s fiction was philological, and mine is cartographical.

These are wonderful, wonderful tips and suggestions!!

As it stands, there are about seven or eight planets that are discovered, but some of them are not as charted/civilized as others. I’ve been perusing a lot of ancient languages and dictionaries trying to find some names that would be interesting, ironic, or just plain fun.

For planets, thus far, I have the following:

Esipigi ("[name]El[/name]-shi-pee-gee". Esperanto for “planet”, I do believe)
Pheroun (made up)
[name]Zo[/name] (made up)
An/[name]Anu[/name] (made up)
Vaisala (I believe this is some astronomer from several centuries ago)
Eltanin (gamma star of the [name]Draco[/name] constellation)
Xihuitl (“shi-hwee-till”. I can’t remember where I got this from, but it’s a real word)

It’s hard coming up with made up and not-so-made up names for fantasy places. Since these are places that are based off of existing places on [name]Earth[/name], however, I guess it makes sense to continue with some names and name formats (i.e. Chicago could be Shicago; New [name]York[/name] could be “[name]Yorke[/name] Nouveau”, and so on.) Not sure how far I want to go and to what political extent, but it’s nice to hear others’ thoughts and suggestions.

Thanks!

Random suggestons:

Futurish/advanced population
[name]Salix[/name]
Larav
Lixit
Remmix
Unax
Bastrix
Elixabete
Havad
[name]Zeb[/name]
Lox
Ticsnap

More mysticalish:
Bofortitude
Gravone
Alorium
Luxonical
Veronill
[name]Ave[/name]
Havonicall
Caffis
Torresius
Howfend
Bovius

Any of those suit?