4 Tips For Science Fiction Technology Ideas and How to Name Them
Naming stuff in science fiction can be fun, but if nothing immediately comes to mind it can become tedious and rather difficult at times.
You might think that creative people have a superpower and names for things in their fiction just come to their mind without any work or effort.
I assure you, this is mostly not the case. For the ones that seem to make it look easy, it is because they have tricks they use to help them put together names more easily.
Hopefully, these tips help you name your sci-fi stuff faster and better.
Word mash.
Word mashing is a foundational trick for naming stuff in fiction.
Let’s say I have a new gun. It looks like a revolver, but it shoots bullets that stop time in a certain limited space and amount of time in the direction I shoot them.
If I pointed this revolver at you and shot it wouldn’t kill you, but it would freeze you for let’s say 5 to 10 seconds while I run away and when time resumes for you it will look as though I have vanished in the speed of light. (This is actually an awesome idea for a gun if no one has done it yet. This needs to become a trope. I’ll be sad if it doesn’t.)
So how do I name this time freezing revolver? A video game might do just that, “time freeze revolver,” but that’s no fun. Let’s try to word mash something.
Time-freeze-revolver
Examples:
- Freevolver
- Retimer
- Treeze revolver
These sound really cheesy to me, but hopefully you get the idea. Just keep mashing until something sounds right to you.
Use mythology to name sci-fi technology.
This is a common trick. Take names from mythology and name your new stuff after them.
Let’s use the time freeze revolver again.
If I had to go off the cuff quick I’d just call it, “the Chronos revolver,” which is in Greek mythology for time.
Mash ancient words.
Mashing ancient words is one of my personal favorite tricks because usually, the name sounds a lot better mashing ancient languages than mashing English.
English sounds cheesy to me whereas ancient usually sounds mystical and mysterious.
Let’s try Latin.
Time- tempus
Freeze- glacio
Revolver- revolvere
Examples:
- glaciotempus revolver
- Temglac R
- Glaciorevo R
To me these just sound way cooler than English. (It might be a personal thing, but I’m betting you think so too.)
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Use initials and numbers for objects and tech.
Initials and acronyms for naming stuff in sci-fi are done often and it does usually sound pretty good.
Examples:
- T.F.R. Gun
- T.G.R. Gun
- T.G. Ray Gun
Add numbers for more effect:
- T.F.R 900
I can see the dialogue now, “this is the T.F.R. 900.”
“What’s the T.F.R. stand for?”
“Time freeze revolver.”
“You’re joking.”
“Nope.”
“And the 900.”
“This gun gives a blast radius of time freeze for about 9 seconds in the direction you point it for and 100 yards give or take.”
“Are you kidding me? You’re saying I can time freeze an entire town for 9 seconds with one shot.”
“Oh, mercy no! It’s a revolver, not a cannon! It has a blast circumference radius of about 7 to 8 feet. So to say there won’t be a collateral effect is stretching but an entire town? That would be impossible unless they all lived in a small 8-foot circumference tube.”
(Can anyone else sense the foreshadowing on blasting this baby down an 8-foot tube to save the day?)
I couldn’t tell you why but just combining initials and numbers gives the name a good sci-fi idea feel.
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That’s all for the moment.
Hope this helps springboard some sweet sci-fi tech ideas.
Happy writing!
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