Ideas on naming a group of people, thanks.

I started a thread question on what to call people that were not ancient enough to be ancestors and not directly related to my protagonist making the term 'relatives' not work either.

As I wrote out the question, it came to me that if my group gave themselves a name, I wouldn't need to worry about ancestors vs relatives.

The scenario, a group of people arrive on the planet 50 years after the initial settlers. Initial settlers call themselves the Founders. The Founders have named the newer arrivals, tressers, for trespassers. Tressers in turn called their escaped brethren, runners, a term the Founders also adopted.

My protagonist only learns about the names tressers and runners when she arrives in the Founder city. She's descended from runners but that term is new to her. Her group did know about the Founders, they fled from them decades ago.

There is a need for my protagonist to have a group identity. Ethnic groups on Earth do not apply. Both the Founders and the newer arrivals are an ethnic mix. I have purposefully avoided ethnic stereotypes as the baggage wouldn't fit the story. The same is true for national identities, I want to avoid all the assumptions that would go with ethnic or national identities. The story works best with a clean slate.

Consider your group would have given themselves a name long before arriving. They knew about the Founders before leaving Earth.

What would you name yourselves as a group that set out to further colonize a new planet given the name, Founders, was already taken?

Some ideas, I'd like opinions on them as well as I'm interested in new ideas.

Second Wavers
Homesteaders
Pioneers
New Wavers

Thanks in advance.

Oow, I like that direction.

Some of that doesn't fit the story, but looking at a name related to why they left might.

blacbird said:

I wonder about the term "Founders". I know it's been a while, but back in the 90s, the Star Trek series Deep Space Nine featured a long-running set of stories about the "Founders", who were ultra-powerful and generally evil shape-shifters having a portal for intragalactic transport. So, for some people, that name carries a little baggage.

caw

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Hmmm, hope not. They're just people in my novel, they were first to colonize the planet. Colonists and settlers didn't have the entitlement that these people believe they have. I thought Founders better implied the entitlement.

rosehips said:

In terms of the Founders, how about the Architects? Or the Builders? Gives the sense that they made everything.

In terms of the new group, I'm sorry if it's just me, but I'm not sure I understand who they are. Are the the Tressers, but the Tressers don't call themselves Tressers, so this name you need is what they call themselves?

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Think of tressers as illegal immigrants. The name is derogatory used by the Founders. It's not the name they would use for themselves.

I do like considering other names like Architects. I'll look at that angle.

WeaselFire said:

How about The Originals? First Arrivals? Startups? You could make up almost anything I guess...

Jeff

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Umm, I need a name for the second arrivals.

Without revealing too much, (until I'm published anyway, ), the second group emigrated on their own a half century after the first group. There is no bigger galactic scheme, government or purpose beyond that.

Both groups are ethnically diverse and include individuals that come from different countries on Earth.

lonestarlibrarian said:

When Stephen F Austin was handing out land grants to colonize Texas, the first batch of 297 grantees were known as the Old Three Hundred.

When Oklahoma was opened up, the people who went in to claim land ahead of schedule, before the Land Rush's official designated opening period, were called the Sooners.

There are also things like the Order of the First Families of Virginia, the Holland Society of New York, or the Mayflower Society, for people who can trace their lineage to colonial Virginia, Netherland-occupied New York/New Amsterdam, or to people who had come over on the Mayflower. So it wouldn't be hard to imagine a group of people coming up with their group name based on a common thread that unites them-- a national origin, a new area they've settled, a particular vehicle/transport that took them there.

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I like these ideas. The group could have been part of an organization back on Earth as they gathered together, that makes good sense and does fit with the story.

rosehips said:

But why did they emigrate? What was driving that move?

I've considered moving abroad as a teacher and I can tell you that seriously considering moving to another country is pretty terrifying. Much easier just to stay where I am. I can't imagine how hard it would be to move to another planet. Something would seriously have to be driving that move. I think the answer to your conumdrum is in that motivation.

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I'll have to think about that. I'm not quite seeing how the reason for emigrating would impact the name they might give themselves.

rosehips said:

Well, as others have said, if they left where they were due to religious oppression, for instance, they could call themselves something to do with their religion. Or if they were farmers in the previous world but due to some ecological disaster they sought out greener pastures, again, the farming thing could be the core of the name.

The thing is, you've described them emigrating as a group, so they must have some common reason for doing so.

Unless it was new technology that allowed them to all emigrate at that time. But then, what changed from when the founders emigrated?

What do they all have in common?

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And why do the founders hate them so much?

Referring to them as trespassers is pretty hateful.

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You'll have to wait for the book to come out.

Tabitha Rose said:

If they were a bit self-aggrandizing, and imply that they were needed to keep the colony going, they might have chosen something like "The Cavalry", or "The Reinforcements".

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That might require tweaking the story a sliver, but it's an interesting idea.