Good sci-fi city names tell you what kind of future you're in: a bright utopia, a dome on a cold planet, an alien city or the ruins of somewhere that used to be grand. This sci-fi city name generator names the cities of the future, on Earth and far beyond it: gleaming utopias, alien cities, domed colonies on distant worlds, ruined cities of a fallen age and green solarpunk towns. Add a short description for an instant story hook for your novel, game or campaign.
Eight good sci-fi city names
All eight came from the generator, across its five styles:
- Accord Point, built so that no home is more than five minutes from a park: a utopia named after an agreement, with its ideals in the description.
- Ophena Spires: soft sounds and tall towers for a bright future.
- the City of Two Silences: an alien name that only makes sense to the people who built it.
- Kruuv, whose towers grow slowly like coral: a short, strange name for a city that isn't built at all.
- Frostline Dome: a colony named after the line it shouldn't cross.
- Nakamura's Hope, whose greenhouses grow the only trees on the planet: a colony named after its founder and what they wanted.
- the Remains of Optimism: a ruined city named after a hope that failed.
- Bracken Greenway: solarpunk, where the plants are the point.
How future cities get their names
Science fiction has a few famous cities that are the size of planets: Isaac Asimov's Trantor, the capital of his Foundation galaxy, and Coruscant in Star Wars. Most fictional cities are smaller, and many are named the way real colonies were: after somewhere left behind, or after a hope. New Amsterdam became New York when the English took it in 1664, and colony names in fiction often begin with New for the same reason.
- Utopian cities are named after ideals: Accord, Concord, Harmony, Bright.
- Alien cities use sounds and shapes that don't belong to any human language: Qhyl'eth Aessal, Ythoom.
- Domed colonies are named by tired engineers and hopeful founders: Lifeline Habitat, Valdés's Hope.
- Ruined cities keep a grand old word with something sad in front of it: Sunken Prosperity, Broken Victory.
- Solarpunk cities are green and gentle: Juniper Rise, Lichen Commons.
Naming cities for your setting
- Decide who named it. A colony named by a corporation sounds different from one named by its settlers.
- Let names age. A city called New something for three hundred years is a nice detail; so is a nickname that replaced the official name.
- Match the planet. A city on a frozen world should sound cold, and the planet it's on deserves a name too.
Name the world with the Planet Name Generator, its sky with the Moon and Star name generators, and the ships that reach it with the Spaceship Name Generator. For darker futures, try the Cyberpunk City and Post-Apocalyptic Settlement name generators.
For more, see all the sci-fi name generators.