Vehicle Naming Conventions

[Wanderlog]

Exactly, as long as it sounds good to you.

It's correct, but it makes senseless the discussion the topic starter initiated. Any real naming system makes sense to only a small group of people. All others have no idea about it whatsoever, so the only thing needed from such a system in an SF book is consistency. It doesn't need to imitate a real one (unless the author explicitly wants to make reference to something real).

 

[Nick B]

I was quoting a single statement there. I agree, if you use a naming convention, then sticking to it is key. Unless making a statement of some kind.

 

[J D Foster]

so the only thing needed from such a system in an SF book is consistency.

Totally agree it has to be consistently applied.

When I started writing I decided that I didn’t want to spend time trying to think up original ideas for alien names and spaceships. Partly to free up time to write, and partly because I was worried I would accidentally mimic an existing idea.

So I came up with a set of naming conventions that help me to name military bases, alien names, planet names, ship engines, space ships etc. I call these naming conventions, but they are solely for me. They are designed to keep me consistent and to make my life easier.

Now if one day I am lucky enough to have lots of people read my stories and the readers are interested in the naming conventions, then they will be able to look them up on my website, where I list them.

I don’t use them as a specific way of linking a convention in my reader’s minds, but as a way of making my life easier. In the case of my example the “Norwood” engine, I think that sounds really cool and plausible as an engine name. I’m not at all worried if the reader doesn’t get the convention, I’d simply hope that they think, “yeah that sounds like a plausible engine name.”