Need some names?

[Sean Doherty]

1) Looking for a name to represent a United Earth Government. At present, I'm using the Earth Alliance; but I think that is use in Babylon 5.

2) Looging for a name to represent the "space" Millitary Arm of the Earth Alliance. Everything I can think of is used:

Star Command
Earth Force
The Sopranoes

Thanks

[Drake]

1) The Pangaean Union

2) Ouranostratia (The O.S.)

Too weird? Most people are familiar with Pangaea ("all earth" in Greek). That led me to google for other Greek words, and I pulled out Ouranos (the ancient sky father god, literally sky or heaven), and stratia (= army). So, Ouranostratia is "sky-army" or "heaven-army."

I was thinking that, if a western-style democracy took hold of the entire world, they might look back to the roots of Western civilization to find names for things.

The OS would of course have advanced fighters, like the OS-19 and OS-21. Maybe even an OS-X Wing!

[Davaris]

"The Hegemony" is pretty cool. But you would probably only use it if the government was oppressive. It was used in a game 15 years ago, but it never made it big and no sequels were made, so you would probably get away with it.

[Ryan Clark]

You could go somewhat jargony and call it:

1. E-Gov
and
2. The Arm

Or, more conventional:

1. The Terran Council
and
2. StarForce

[PoV]

1) Law
2) Order

Err... I think that's actually a bad Chuck Norris joke...

1) Federation
2) Starfleet

Errr... this isn't working out too well.

1) Earth Order
2) Order Earth

... no, sorry.

Though it sounds like a silly Internet/Apple joke, I like Ryan's E-Gov.

[Sean Doherty]

1) Law
2) Order

Err... I think that's actually a bad Chuck Norris joke...

1) Federation
2) Starfleet

Errr... this isn't working out too well.

1) Earth Order
2) Order Earth

... no, sorry.

Though it sounds like a silly Internet/Apple joke, I like Ryan's E-Gov.

Starfleet is pretty Star Trek. What would you call the command Starfleet Command? What about EarthFleet? No sure I like it.

[PoV]

Yeah, I'm sorry about the trek. I always like to joke like that with threads like this. Sometimes I can maintain restraint. Others however...

But seriously, when it comes to names, don't be afraid of the Thesaurus. A foreign dictionary can sometimes be helpful too. However, when naming any generic faction, in a generic setting, it's tought to come up with anything that in itself isn't generic. If there isn't something significantly different, hidden motive, your search results for new words to mash in the combination is limited. Or the other option is humor.

1) Foreign Policy
2) Foreign Affairs

Or the lame libertarian approach

1) United States of Earth
2) USOE Space Fleet

Though science fiction is great, taking a look at the world today, short of us blowing ourselves up, it looks unlikely that we'd all just give up our governing status and leave another body in control. However, there is something like a "United Earth Government" today, that could be nicely branded scifi like.

1) United Nations of Earth

And then it's a matter of coming up with clever title for the military.

2) Earth Fleet
2) UN Army
2) Space Force / Star Force

Alas, cheesy comes with the territory.

2) Debate Force
2) Rock Paper
2) Yeah, yer screwed

[electronicStar]

1) Looking for a name to represent a United Earth Government. At present, I'm using the Earth Alliance; but I think that is use in Babylon 5.

If it's copyright problems that scare you, I think you sould be safe with earth alliance because those are pretty generic terms , and if such a thing existed I don't know how else it could be called. Earth alliance is practically a functional name, you can try even more generic with "Earth government" or sthg like that. It's probably not necessary to go and look for exotic names because in reality they would chose the blandest of names.
I would avoid references to "united nations" unless you want to convey the idea of something futile and easily manipulated.

[KNau]

Times like this I break out the ol' thesaurus...

Alliance:

• Coalition
• Union
• Association
• Treaty / Pact

Earth:

• Terrain
• World
• Globe

You can also throw in some basic descriptive words about your organization. For good measure I threw in government and got "command, regime and control". Try to think along the lines of what your organization does and how it would have been formed to come up with descriptors. Then mix and match.

I hope this gives you some ideas: Terra Coalition? Earth Treaty Command? Union of World Governments? Coalition of the Willing?

[mairsil]

1) Looking for a name to represent a United Earth Government. At present, I'm using the Earth Alliance; but I think that is use in Babylon 5.

2) Looging for a name to represent the "space" Millitary Arm of the Earth Alliance. Everything I can think of is used:

Star Command
Earth Force
The Sopranoes

Thanks

To come up with an appropriate name, I think that you need to examine the details of what you are trying to name. For instance, if your government is an oppresive regime, then the name should be dark and reflective of its power and willingness to use it. Likewise, if it is a truly democratic government, then the name should imply unity. The name for the military arm would follow from the naming conventions of the government.

For example, an evil dictatorship could have a name like "Terran Empire" with the "Black Nebula" military. Conversely, it could just as easily be named "Terran Union" and "White Nebula".

[Pyabo]

for #2:

The Navy
or
The Fleet

Too obvious?

In MegaTraveller, the space military branch was the Navy. I thought it made a lot of sense... they are spaceSHIPS afterall.

[Edtharan]

if your government is an oppresive regime, then the name should be dark and reflective of its power and willingness to use it.

As a Clich'e this would be expected, but if you are trying to avoide steriotyped names then this might not be the best method. Howmany countries have the word "Democratic" in thier name that are realy a dictatorship?

A name is all about public relations and propaganda.

For instance when the United States of America was forst called that they were not uniteded, but were a group of settlements that broke away from english control. They chose the name as that is what they wnated the people to see as their goal - to unite the different settlements into a country. But at the time of nameing there were not actually an independant country nad neither did they have "States" that could be united. It was all about propaganda and public relations.

So, if Earth unites in an environemnt of conflict, then they will have a name that uses its self as propaganda to give the illusion of stability during that period (even of peace comes afterwards they will still keep the name). If Earth unites in peace then it will not need a name that is used for propaganda.

So, some sugggestions:
Government Name:
Federated States of Earth (FSoE)
Earth Federated Aliance (EFA)
Terran Bloc
Planet Earth Government (PEG)
United Earth Government (UEG)
Global Earth Conglomerate (GEC) - this would most likely be a corporate state

Military Names:
Well curently it is the Air forces that uses space, rahter than the navies as space is seen as an extention of what planes do. It is aeronautics companies that design and build space ships.

With that in mind, here are some suggestions:
United Earth Aeronautic (UEA)
Global Air focre - Astronautical Division (GA-AD)
Earth Areonautical and Space Administration (EASA)
Space Exploration Syndicate (SES)
Space EXploration sYndicate (SEXY) - this one is a joke
Astronautical Defence Force (ADF)
Earth Defence Administration (TDA)
Global Security Branch (GSB)
Homeworld Security

[impossible]

The People's Republic of Earth.

[TheMysteriousStranger]

1) The Terran Conglomerate
2) Galactic Security Agency

[Escapee]

The cute nation
The nation deluxe
Elite force of cute nation
Zuzzle nation of marvel
Juma nation of excellence
Luzor command
The fairies elite force
The mystic force of galaxy
the galactic nation of atlantis
the mystery XXX force
tradewinds coalition

[arcadetown]

Earth Gov - the government (in B5 but not trademarked so would it matter?)
Earth Command - military leaders
Earth Fleet - the military

[Nauris]

The Cooperative
Junta Inc.

[Infinite_Reflection]

For example, an evil dictatorship could have a name like "Terran Empire" with the "Black Nebula" military.

I'm more inclined to believe that an evil sovereign power would choose a name of deception, ala "The Ministry of Peace" in Orwell's 1984.

With that notion in mind

Earth Government:
The United Peace Party
United Collective


Military Space Branch:
Orion
Order of Babel....too biblical, perhaps?
Celestial Centurions
Interstellar Research Union
Aegis .......( Altruistic Explorers Gathing Information on Space)


eh, okay, I admit I'm not feeling very inspired right now.

[Sean Doherty]

Earth Gov - the government (in B5 but not trademarked so would it matter?)
Earth Command - military leaders
Earth Fleet - the military

Brian,

Theses are all names used in Babylon 5. Although, I would think it would be hard to copy right such generic terms?

Thanks

PS: New release coming out this weekend. Are you going to have a look?