Mecha fiction has two great traditions. Real robots are mass-produced military machines with model numbers; super robots are one-of-a-kind heroes with names you shout before the finishing move. This mecha name generator names both, with a model number, prefix or class if you want one.
Real robots and super robots
Japanese mecha fiction has two great traditions, and they name their machines differently.
- Super robots are one-of-a-kind heroes with powers no factory could make. Tetsujin 28-go (1956) and Go Nagai's Mazinger Z (1972) set the pattern: a grand coined name, often shouted as the robot launches.
- Real robots began with Mobile Suit Gundam (1979): mass-produced military machines with model numbers, ammunition limits and maintenance crews, named like real aircraft.
- Mecha is short for mechanical, and in Japan the word covers almost any machine.
Naming your mecha
- Real robot names are model codes and callsigns: KR-07 Harrier, with a class like Heavy Assault Frame.
- Super robot names are big coined words, often ending in -on or -ion: Voltaxion, Great Kronagon, with a title like the Steel Titan.
- The famous names are left out, from Gundam to Mazinger, along with the BattleTech and Titanfall names.
For the pilot, try the Futuristic Name Generator. For smaller machines, there's the Robot Name Generator.
For the rest of the future, see all the sci-fi name generators.