Naming an Interstellar Government
- Thread starter Mysterion
- Start date
None of those really impress me. Using an adjective as a noun isn't unheard of, but it feels kind of informal for a civilization name. And I'm not sure you can have a union of an abstract concept. (Also, despite its SF usage,"sentient" doesn't really mean "intelligent," it means feeling, able to experience sensation. Lots of animals are sentient but not sapient.)
How about Union of Sophonts? "Sophont" was a term coined by SF author Poul Anderson's wife Karen to refer to intelligent species, from the Greek for "wise being." It's been the favored term of a number of other SF authors since then, including myself.
Still, they all seem a bit generic to me. It can't include all the sophonts/sapients/whatever in the universe, so maybe there should be something to narrow it down a little more? Although I suppose there are some real-world precedents that are pretty generic, like the League of Nations and the United Nations. (But those were intentionally generic because they aspired to include every nation on Earth. Does your Union have a similar goal? If it's meant to have a more distinct or narrow identity, then it would be likely that its founders would choose a name with more specificity.)
And do you really want your interstellar civilization to be "the U.S."? If you're going for a deliberate parallel, okay, but if not, maybe consider something with different initials.
How about Union of Sophonts? "Sophont" was a term coined by SF author Poul Anderson's wife Karen to refer to intelligent species, from the Greek for "wise being." It's been the favored term of a number of other SF authors since then, including myself.
Still, they all seem a bit generic to me. It can't include all the sophonts/sapients/whatever in the universe, so maybe there should be something to narrow it down a little more? Although I suppose there are some real-world precedents that are pretty generic, like the League of Nations and the United Nations. (But those were intentionally generic because they aspired to include every nation on Earth. Does your Union have a similar goal? If it's meant to have a more distinct or narrow identity, then it would be likely that its founders would choose a name with more specificity.)
And do you really want your interstellar civilization to be "the U.S."? If you're going for a deliberate parallel, okay, but if not, maybe consider something with different initials.
First off, thanks for your thoughts. Appreciate the analysis.
Second - nuthin; wrong with the initials "U.S.", intended parallel or not. In this case no direct parallel is intended. But, point noted and will consider some options.
Like "sophont", got a good ring to it (nice "woody" sound to it as they say in Monty Python). The basic concept is that the Union is picking up the pieces after that fall of an older Empire and doing it's best to be inclusive, welcoming and appear relatively non-threating while trying to bring some much-needed order and civilization to the known worlds.
Second - nuthin; wrong with the initials "U.S.", intended parallel or not. In this case no direct parallel is intended. But, point noted and will consider some options.
Like "sophont", got a good ring to it (nice "woody" sound to it as they say in Monty Python). The basic concept is that the Union is picking up the pieces after that fall of an older Empire and doing it's best to be inclusive, welcoming and appear relatively non-threating while trying to bring some much-needed order and civilization to the known worlds.
I just meant that readers might expect a parallel based on the initials, so if you don't intend a parallel, it might be misleading.
Although I'm one to talk. In one of my recent stories in Analog, I established an interstellar government called the Planetary Commonwealth. There's an in-universe reason why the name makes sense (it's in contrast to another civilization in the same region but based on space habitats rather than planets), but "PC" is an awkward acronym to use these days, for a couple of reasons. I'm thinking I should maybe establish that it's short for something longer, the Planetary Commonwealth of Something Something, or maybe shorten it as "PlanCom," say.
I take it you're an American who is not annoyed by so much of the "rah-rah-USA#1!" arrogance that permeates so much of the internet?
- Government: Bigger, Longer, Uncut
- The Roman Empire (bet they forgot to copyright it!)
- The Great Ant Hierarchy, featuring human slaves
- Akuma Nutella
- Ssldhdjkgharuntnbmrtaklfgv Jiomevoijgbaosbyyk (spell that on a form)
- France
- Illuminated and Accepted Tyranny of Fiefs
- Feudal Electorate of Domains
Gotcha. I can see the potential problems there. Thinking on other options, but still like the flow of it, to be honest. And overthrowing a perceived parallel in the reader's mind could be fun, too.
Some of the more strident rah rah "Make America Great Again" stuff does get annoying, However, I still love my country, Despite our shortcomings, and we got 'em, I believe we've always been an aspirational country/people for the most part and a lot of us are always looking for that "more perfect union" they were talking about in 1776 - okay that actually from the
preamble of the Constitution, so 1789-ish. But I also believe one can be positive about the U.S. without having to knock down other places to do so.
It's not about the value of the United States, it's just that when you're writing science fiction, I think it's better to strive for the unfamiliar and the new, so that it doesn't feel to the readers like just a variation on what they already know. SF is the literature of imagination, so the fresher and more exotic your ideas are, the better. I'd have raised the same question if the acronym were UK or EU or UN, say.
The Democratic Imperial Republic of the Empire.
The Cool Side of the Galaxy
Phred.
Actually, I was thinking of two things:Doonesbury fan?
1. A passage from Bjo Trimble's book "On the Good Ship Enterprise" (in which she talks about her involvement in Star Trek fandom); she mentioned the space shuttle being named "Enterprise" and said that it was a nice gesture, but for all she cared, they could have named it "Phred" - she thought the important thing was that the shuttle program was going ahead, period.
2. There's a scene in the Fourth Doctor story "Ribos Operation" when he first meets Romana. Her real name is Romanadvoratrelundar, and the Doctor says it's too long and he'll call her "Romana."
She says, "I don't like 'Romana.'"
He says, "It's either 'Romana' or 'Fred.'"
She tells him, "All right - call me 'Fred.'"
Of course we know how that turned out: "Come on, Romana!"
I used to read Doonesbury. It's been a really long time, though.
Excellent. Covers everything. I was trying to come up with something, but read that, and realized its perfection.
I seem to remember a Sliders episode taking place on an Earth that was ruled by a state called the Human Hemispheric Alliance. I thought that was a pretty cool name.
That said, the 'United Federation of Planets' is by far my favorite name for a government. It's simple, efficient, not linked to any particular race or planet, and (perhaps most important) not burdened with any of that ridiculous 40's/50's pulp crap that we always used to hear about, things like Space Command or Star Service or anything like that.
On the other hand, the Alliance from Firefly could have been named better. 'Union of Allied Planets'? Well, DUH...it's a union, of course they're allied!
Side note: I thought it was kind of funny - and just a bit too convenient
- that all five major governments in Babylon 5 just happened to have different names. Earth ALLIANCE, Minbari FEDERATION, Vorlon EMPIRE (yeah right, like there's anything about the Vorlons that even remotely qualifies as imperial), Narn REGIME, Centauri REPUBLIC (now why didn't JMS call them an Empire? They obviously were one... ) Wink wink, nudge nudge.
That said, the 'United Federation of Planets' is by far my favorite name for a government. It's simple, efficient, not linked to any particular race or planet, and (perhaps most important) not burdened with any of that ridiculous 40's/50's pulp crap that we always used to hear about, things like Space Command or Star Service or anything like that.
On the other hand, the Alliance from Firefly could have been named better. 'Union of Allied Planets'? Well, DUH...it's a union, of course they're allied!
Side note: I thought it was kind of funny - and just a bit too convenient
- that all five major governments in Babylon 5 just happened to have different names. Earth ALLIANCE, Minbari FEDERATION, Vorlon EMPIRE (yeah right, like there's anything about the Vorlons that even remotely qualifies as imperial), Narn REGIME, Centauri REPUBLIC (now why didn't JMS call them an Empire? They obviously were one... ) Wink wink, nudge nudge. Similar threads
