This random planet name generator joins one of 41 openings to one of 20 endings, for 820 invented names, and adds one of 20 kinds of world, from a gas giant to a city world.
Read the full guide
Real kinds of world, made-up names
Twelve kinds, grouped as Found in space, are real classes: a hot Jupiter hugs its star, a rogue planet has none, and a circumbinary planet circles two stars, as Kepler-16b does. The rest are story worlds, from ocean to storm. Lock a kind you like and press until the name fits.
What was screened out
Every name was checked against Wikipedia, named moons, and planets on 24 science-fiction wikis. The endings us, is, ethe and idia went because they kept spelling taken names: Umbriel is a moon of Uranus.
Tips
Keep one ending for a whole star system, such as ara, so Kessilara and Lyssara sound like neighbors.
Questions and answers
How are real planets named?
An exoplanet takes its star's name and a lower-case letter, starting at b, as in 51 Pegasi b. The International Astronomical Union also gives some of them proper names through public naming contests.
Can I use these random planet names in my book or game?
Yes, at no charge. None matched a page title on Wikipedia or on the fan wikis we searched, but no list is complete and trade marks were not searched, so search a name before you publish it.
Is there a random name for a planet that sounds friendly?
Pick a soft opening such as Lyss, Phael or Luth and an open ending such as ara or ea, then lock Kind of world on a garden world or an ocean world.
How this list was compiled: Own list of 41 openings, capitalized because each one starts the name. Every one of the 820 names the Opening and Ending rows can spell (41 x 20) was screened by script on 2026-09-23: against every English Wikipedia page title (and its plural), the words of 60 Wikipedia pages on fictional planets, named moons, exoplanet and star names and science-fiction settings, exact page titles on 24 science-fiction fan wikis (among them memory-alpha.fandom.com, starwars.fandom.com, tardis.fandom.com, masseffect.fandom.com, dune.fandom.com, stargate.fandom.com, marvel.fandom.com, dc.fandom.com and warhammer40k.fandom.com), GeoNames cities15000 with alternate names (https://download.geonames.org/export/dump/, CC BY 4.0), a US English dictionary, every list on this site, and a rude-word list read across the join (https://github.com/LDNOOBW/List-of-Dirty-Naughty-Obscene-and-Otherwise-Bad-Words). A first set of 40 openings and 24 endings hit 207 times (Umbriel, a moon of Uranus, and Korus, a Star Wars world, among them); the endings us, is, ethe and idia and ten openings went, twelve new openings were screened in, and Ondr was cut for Ondrea. After the cuts no name hits. No list of fiction is complete, so search a name before you publish it. Licence: own work
Ending: all 20 endings
A 5
andeStately, with a low close.
anePlain and steady.
anthFlowery, but with a hard edge at the end.
araOpen and bright, like a call across a valley.
axBlunt, like a blow.
E 4
eaSoft and watery.
emisLight and quick, with a whispered end.
eonSounds vast and old, like an age of time.
essaGentle, with a hiss in the middle.
Show all 20 endings (11 more)
I 4
ielBright and light, almost a chime.
ionSounds scientific, like a catalogue entry.
iumSounds like a chemical element.
ixShort and sharp, a hard stop.
O 4
olosEchoes like an ancient word.
oraRounded and old, like the name of a goddess.
othHeavy and dark, with a breathy close.
ovaRound, like a new star.
U 2
uneLong and cool, like a dune at night.
uriaGrand and sweeping.
Y 1
yrClipped and cold.
How this list was compiled: Own list of 20 endings in lower case. The screen of every name is described in the opening row's source. Licence: own work
Kind of world: all 20 kinds of world
Found in space 12
circumbinary planetIt circles two stars at once, as Kepler-16b does.
dwarf planetRound but too small to clear its path, like Pluto or Ceres.
gas giantMostly hydrogen and helium, like Jupiter and Saturn, with no solid surface to stand on.
hot JupiterA gas giant hugging its star; 51 Pegasi b, found in 1995, is one.
Show all 20 kinds of world (16 more)
Found in space, continued
ice giantLike Uranus and Neptune: a giant made largely of water, ammonia and methane ices.
lava worldSo close to its star that its surface is molten rock.
moon of a gas giantA world circling a giant, like Europa, which may hide an ocean under its ice.
ringed worldCircled by rings of ice and rock; all four giant planets of our Solar System have rings.
rocky worldSolid rock and metal, like Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury.
rogue planetA planet that drifts through space with no star to circle.
super-EarthHeavier than Earth but lighter than Neptune; our Solar System has none.
tidally locked worldOne side always faces its star, the way the Moon always shows Earth the same face.
Story worlds 8
city worldBuilt over from pole to pole into one endless city.
dead worldAirless and silent, with ruins or craters and nothing alive.
desert worldSand, rock and heat, with water rarer than anything else.
garden worldMild, green and easy to live on, the kind every explorer hopes to find.
ice worldFrozen from pole to pole, as Earth itself may once have been.
jungle worldHot, wet and covered in forest taller than any on Earth.
ocean worldWater from pole to pole, with no dry land in sight.
storm worldWrapped in winds and lightning that never stop.
How this list was compiled: 20 kinds of world. The 12 under Found in space are real classes of planet or moon, each line checked on 2026-09-23 against the English Wikipedia article in x.src (51 Pegasi b found in 1995; Kepler-16b circles two stars; all four giant planets have rings; Europa may have an ocean under its ice). The rest, under Story worlds, are kinds common in science fiction, described in our own words; ocean, desert and ice worlds were checked against Wikipedia's Ocean world, Desert planet and Snowball Earth articles. Licence: own work