Star Fleet Academy -- Too specific of a term to use?

Regardless of whether or not you're risking legal issues, in the public mind Starfleet is inextricably tied with the ST universe, and "Star Fleet" isn't a very significant variation.

I'd strongly consider renaming on that basis alone.

I definitely agree — it's an instant tie to Star Trek, even if you broke it up into two words. Are you looking for a name to also suggest somewhere where officers of a space corps train? What kind of institution are you naming? That could help others give you suggestions.

What Brightdreamer said. Also, uspto.gov will let you search for trademarks (both "Star Fleet" and "Starfleet" show up there).

IANAL, but anecdotally? Paramount is very protective of their Trek stuff, and for good reason: it's worth a massive amount of money to them.

You might get away with it if you're not writing SFF, and your Star Fleet doesn't have anything to do with space travel or the military. But even under those circumstances I wouldn't risk it.

Paramount is really, really litigious. Like Disney, if they sue (and they sue frequently and easily) they have a flotilla of attorneys on retainer.

Just don't. Even if you win a court case, you lose because of costs.

I agree that it's too specific. My recommendation would be to follow the example of real-life service academies, which tend to be nicknamed after their locations. For example, the United States Military Academy is West Point. The US Naval Academy is Annapolis. You could then have its name be something like "Fleet Academy" or something even more bland, and have people call it by the nickname.

I think it's a bit thorny. I've seen other fiction use "Star Fleet" as a descriptive term for its space navy, (IE the Imperial Star Fleet) but if it's not just a colloquialism you're likely to run into trouble.

I'd look at something like the United States Military Academy as a likely precursor.

Wikipedia tells me it's variously known as "West Point, Army, Army West Point, The Academy, or simply The Point", so it stands to reason a real Starfleet Academy would use similar nomenclature. Think about where this academy is located, and come up with a common-use name based around that.

eg. let's say it's based out of Hellas Planitia (biggest crater in the solar system) on Mars. Graduates might call it Hellas, Hell, Mars, The Crater, The Hive (based on the "honeycomb" rocks), or some kind of corrupted version of the original name ("Planitia" means "plains", but "The Plantation" sort of sticks out to me, so the new recruits might refer to the drill sergeants as "slavedrivers", for instance).

Back in high school, I wrote a story (or beginning of a book) that maybe could best be described as a Catch-22 style Star Trek parody, where I called the space-based military organization the Space Corps. Now, behold, 18 years later, our current president wants to make it a reality.

Sorry, I know that's not really helpful, but I've been dying for a reason to mention that somewhere. More on point, I wouldn't call it Star Fleet academy.

List of United States military schools and academies - Wikipedia, List of government-run higher-level national military academies - Wikipedia are good sources of names for existing military academies.

Also "Star Fleet" is too close to Star Trek for comfort. Try some other name, like "Space Force" or "Space Fleet" or "Star Force".

I looked in Wiktionary for etymologies for terms for military forces, and they are usually very generic. For some of the more recent ones, one does not even need Wiktionary. "Air Force" and "Coast Guard" are rather obvious. Donald Trump's Space Force already exists as a branch of the Air Force: its Space Command.

As to military academies, their names are often very generic. If one has a Space Force, then "Space Force Academy" would be a good name. Aside from that, common sources of names are locations, like West Point, and military heroes, like Admiral Farragut Academy, a college-prep school named after a US Navy admiral during the US Civil War.

On a side note, a nickname or a name after someone specific (or both) can also work well for world-building. Especially if, for example, there's more than one school - depending on how big and widespread your space fleet is, a single point might not be practical. There is, of course, the elite and 'regional' options, which could automatically create some nice intra-force rivalries, not to mention officer training versus enlisted training, depending on how the force works.

Astral, stellar, celestial, space, Frontier, cosmos, solar, galactic, Astronomical,planetary, star, etc

navy, academy, institute, armada, guild, halls, society, ships, fleet, etc

Try jumbling up something or make up a word of your own! Naming stuff is fun. Get creative.