Colony Name Generator

Pioneer towns, company towns, garrisons, communes, dusty frontier camps and the children of the long voyage.

Style

Name Format

Press Generate Names for 8 colony names.

Tap a name to copy it, or the bookmark to keep it.

black shadow = tap it

By Rich · Updated 29 October 2026

Example Colony Names

A few names this generator came up with. Tap one to copy it, or press "Generate Names" above for more.

Any style · Name only

Firstrain
Opportunity Park
Busted Valve Butte
Lisle Barracks

Hopeful pioneers · Name only

New Gdańsk
Morrowacre
Primrosestead
Morrowgarth

Corporate · Name only

Claim Block 62A
Sterling Vance Staff Village
Plot 34
Parcel 11

Military · With a description

Camp Blakiston, whose walls were built for a siege that never came
Tregarth's Muster, whose regimental band plays every Sunday in the square
Camp Stanhope, a veterans' colony where everyone wakes at dawn out of habit
Ainsworth's Muster, whose mayor holds the rank of colonel

Utopian · With a description

Clear Water Collective, a planned city designed so nobody is more than five minutes from a park
Busy Bee Mutual, a commune that shares its tools, its meals and its washing-up rota
Open Hand Cooperative, whose great debate about the town flag has lasted thirty years
Kinsway, a cooperative of glassblowers, beekeepers and coders

Frontier · With a description

Skint Gap, a ramshackle settlement built from the wreck of its own landing ship
Tibbs's Corner, whose townsfolk have chased off three corporate surveyors this year
Spit and Wire Pass, where the supply drop is late more often than it's on time
Long Odds Junction, whose mayor won the job in a poker game

How the Colony Name Generator Works

It works from 892 names and name parts, which combine into over 270,000 possible results.

The choices:

Style: Any style, Hopeful pioneers, Corporate, Military, Utopian, Frontier, Generation ship.
Name Format:
- Name only, e.g. Espero Assembly
- With a description, e.g. Ingleby Barracks, where the old command post is now a museum

Each press gives you 8 names. "Show 8 more" adds 8 you haven't seen yet. Once you've seen them all, "Start again" shuffles the whole list again.

A good colony name tells you who founded it and what they hoped for: New Seville remembers home, Claim Block 37B belongs to a company, Hard Luck Basin was settled the hard way. This colony name generator names sci-fi colonies and frontier settlements for RimWorld and other colony sims, stories and tabletop games: hopeful pioneer towns, corporate company towns, military garrisons, idealistic communes, rough frontier camps and settlements founded by the descendants of a generation ship. Add a short description to give your colony a history.

Eight good colony names

All eight came from the generator, across its six styles:

New Seville, whose founders planted a tree for every child born on the voyage: a pioneer colony named after home, the oldest habit there is.
Goodmorrow Hollow: a hopeful name for a settlement's first morning.
Claim Block 11, whose residents voted to unionise, and the head office has gone very quiet: a company town with its politics in the name.
Camp Redfern, where every family has a medal in a drawer: a military colony that remembers its war.
Paco Assembly, a free town with no money, no locks and no police: a utopian commune with an Esperanto name: paco means peace.
Bent Nail Coulee: a frontier camp named after something somebody found there.
Spit and Wire Junction, where the doctor is a vet and nobody minds: the frontier at its scrappiest.
Mess Hall Meadow, whose elders still feel dizzy under an open sky: a generation-ship colony named after the part of the ship people remember.

How colonies get their names

Real colonies were named in a few predictable ways, and science fiction has borrowed all of them:

After home, with New in front: New York, New Zealand, Nova Scotia ("New Scotland").
After a patron: Virginia was named after Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, and Georgia after George II.
After a hope or a virtue: settlers named towns Providence, Concord and Harmony.
After the company: company towns took the name of whoever owned the mine or the mill.

The generator follows the same habits, style by style:

Hopeful pioneers get New-names and sunny compounds: Larksong Vale, Morrowacre.
Corporate colonies are lots, sectors and slogans: Lot 18, Efficiency Village.
Military colonies are camps and musters, named after officers or kit: Garrison Shako, Pargeter's Muster.
Utopian communes are named after an ideal: Long Table Commune, Open Sky Mutual. A few use Esperanto, the language L. L. Zamenhof published in 1887 to be shared by everyone: Espero (hope), Amikeco (friendship), Libereco (freedom).
Frontier camps are named like gold-rush towns, after luck, junk and landmarks: Dead Battery Butte, Purdy's Dugout.
Generation ship colonies are named after the ship that carried them for generations, or the part of it people remember: Cryo Meadow, Airlock Wood.

Naming your colony

Decide who founded it. A company, an army and a commune would never choose the same name.
Let the name age. "Claim Block 37B" might be called "Thirty-Seven" by its third generation.
For RimWorld and other colony sims, pick a style that matches your starting scenario, then let the description suggest your colonists' first story.

Need the world it's on? Try the Planet Name Generator. For the station overhead, there's the Space Station Name Generator; for a colony that grew into a city, the Sci-Fi City Name Generator; and for one that didn't make it, the Post-Apocalyptic Town Name Generator.

For more, see all the sci-fi name generators.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are good names for a colony?

Names that tell you who founded it: New Seville for hopeful pioneers, Claim Block 37B for a company, Camp Redfern for the military, Open Sky Mutual for a commune, Hard Luck Basin for the frontier, or Cryo Meadow for a generation ship.

What's a good RimWorld colony name?

Match it to your start. A tribal or scrappy start suits a frontier name like Bent Nail Coulee; a well-funded start suits a hopeful one like Goodmorrow Hollow; a crashed ship suits a generation-ship name like Airlock Wood.

What do the Esperanto names mean?

Espero means hope, Amikeco friendship, Libereco freedom, Frateco brotherhood, Lumo light, Suno sun, Paco peace and Komunumo community.