Do aliens need science fiction-y names?

If it's supposed to be goofy, I probably wouldn't overthink names; you could use "translation convention" to explain. Quick bad example: There was an alien boy called Bob. Actually, he wasn't a "boy" and his species spoke in mixes of scent and bioluminescent display, so his real name was Citrusy-Wet-Fur-Yellowy-Lavender, but for convenience he'll be referred to as Bob.

Just finishing up Zoe's Tale by Scalzi in which a few aliens are named out a nursery rhyme because their species has no naming conventions--just numbers. Your task with names will always be transliteration and approximation unless your aliens have adopted English after years of monitoring TVLand transmissions. I'd say, have fun, and work in a reference to ALF for your Alfie character.

If an author gets too creative with names, I end up changing them into common, easy to remember versions anyway. Tad Williams threw this gem at me in the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy: Binbiniqegabenik. Forever after called Biny in my reading. Not SF, but speaking to the point.

I think your alien names sound fine. I can pronounce them (whether correctly or not is another issue) at first glance with the exception of this one: Charsybil. S/he would be called Char as I read.

I think you'd better ask Ian McEwan I'M JOKING!

ETA: Kevin, Alfie and Ray are great names.

Depends on how serious a story it is. The problem with alien names is they could distract the reader. If you had a character with the name, "jdfkjenwnofvdsvpvjvsa" it would really bother readers. If the characters are goofy and the story is goofy, go for it. If the characters are goofy and the story is serious, I would recommend names like "Zot," "Klux," or "eBican."

As for how you feel about the names, consider what your plans are for your story. Is this story for yourself? Or do you plan to share it with others? If it is for an audience, you should consider their needs/wants as well.

I personally would choose the second option. I would not want my readers questioning why these characters, even if they are goofy, have human names. The imagination is an amazing thing, be creative. Your readers will love you for it.

Well, there was once this story, don't know if you've ever heard of it, about a Galaxy far far away, with a main character named Luke, so I'd say it really depends on the author's style. I don't think your readers will have any issues with it, and if they do, you can change them in your next draft. I'd actually done this with a character, changed their name, and I've even changed another character's gender, because the first wasn't working out. It's easier if you keep the same first initial or go with something that sounds like it a bit, but eventually you'll be using it without trouble.

I think "translating" xenofiction to English is always going to make it understandable to an English-speaking reader to some extent, even if the language spoken is totally unlike it.

My elves for instance have the names of poisonous flowers: Purpurea, Larkspur, Henbane, Crocus, Polygala, but their own language isn't even a language, it's an imitation of one ("like a strong perfume that masked the stench of death", it's described as in the text), so they're given flower-names so that the reader can actually understand what is going on.

If "Kevin" is the English-language equivalent of something that can't be understood by the reader, then I think it's fine. Maybe consider having your species communicate non-verbally, and let the reader know somehow that it's being translated for their convenience. Like there's a chicken that's really nothing like a chicken, but it fills the same niche as one - eggs and meat, so that's what it's called.

Names have meanings. Kevin is derived from Irish, meaning something like 'noble birth'. You could explain it away as translator's convention to take an English name with similar meaning to the character's real name, which might be unpronounceable.

Albedo said:

Names have meanings. Kevin is derived from Irish, meaning something like 'noble birth'.

Click to expand...

It also denotes physical attractiveness.

Ray, of course, derives from regal, and Alfred means Elf-Council, so all the names can have some fun connotations.

Sarahrizz said:

Well, there was once this story, don't know if you've ever heard of it, about a Galaxy far far away, with a main character named Luke, so I'd say it really depends on the author's style. I don't think your readers will have any issues with it, and if they do, you can change them in your next draft. I'd actually done this with a character, changed their name, and I've even changed another character's gender, because the first wasn't working out. It's easier if you keep the same first initial or go with something that sounds like it a bit, but eventually you'll be using it without trouble.

Click to expand...

These are some very good points.

Albedo said:

Names have meanings. Kevin is derived from Irish, meaning something like 'noble birth'. You could explain it away as translator's convention to take an English name with similar meaning to the character's real name, which might be unpronounceable.

Click to expand...

Depends on how deep one wants to go in explaining, IMHO. Yes, names technically have meanings, but the average reader isn't usually aware of them; "Kevin" is more likely to generate a momentary mental image of Kevin Bacon or that kid Kevin from seventh grade who brought a stick insect to science class than to immediately be associated with "noble birth", especially in a setting where nobility isn't a thing. (Or am I the only one who doesn't know offhand the meanings of names beyond cultural osmosis or personal connections?)

I think it could be very funny to have one alien with a human name, and then have a scene where a human character reacts to that name, and another character shrugs and says it's just a coincidence it's a name on Earth too.

I have actually seen that joke in an old fantasy show, where there are these hobgoblin creatures who are acting in cahoots with the bad guys. At one point, the leader of the hobgoblins--a knobbly TV-monster who only spoke in a guttural garble--goes over to talk to the main baddie, who just matter-of-factly calls her Gloria during the conversation.

You would be IMO giving the reader a slight jar if the names are utterly, not only normal human ones but extremely typical American/English ones... a moment of wondering "why?" which would throw them out of the story, especially since - given your premise - I can't really see how you could answer that "why" in-universe.

Maybe you could just twist them a tiny bit so they sound not-quite-typically-human? For instance Kevin -> Kefan. (I have a very big, very old book on British surnames which includes old forms, and when I was writing a story set in the future, used the old forms of sometimes quite ordinary names, they sounded real but just odd enough...)

It depends on the tone of the piece and how funny your gags are.

Make me lose bladder control and I'll happily suspend all disbelief.

First post...

I always kind of just give the "xenomorph" races (a term I just decided to use for non-human species) names that sound cool, or at least evocative, but with the side-note that this may not be exactly what they call themselves. Some names can be translated to English, obviously, because it may be a specific sound or something, like "Gurrin" has a long history and meaning to their race but at the end of the day it's pronounced gerr-in, not that hard to reconcile with English. But other names are either a basic approximation of what they would sound like, or some equivalent name.

Like one of the races I came up with are called "Chemical Burners". That's obviously not what they call themselves but their actual name is a series of pops and whistles because of how they talk, so it's impossible to translate perfectly--however, for various reasons, "Chemical Burners" can be said to be the closest approximation that Human translators could come up with. They have a long history involving what is essentially alchemy, and place a massive importance on the sky and chemical gasses, evolving on a moon orbiting a gas giant with a wildly variable atmosphere compared to our much more stable atmosphere. So "We are the Chemical Burners" essentially equates to "We are the Pop-Whistle-Pop-Pop-Whistle who have a monotheistic faith based around alchemic science and chemical bonding". Obviously it's easier to say the former, so that's what we call them--and frankly most other races have some equivalent term, which again is easy to cross translate.

Likewise you have the Legion, who again have a "language" which is a combination of body language, pheromones and vocal cues, obviously impossible for Humans to properly translate. But they also have a long and very storied history as, essentially, an entire race of mercenaries. Their government, the Legion Empire, is made up of PMCs (private military corporations) for lack of a better word and they have a polytheistic faith based around worshiping their long-dead commanders like their equivalent of Alexander the Great or Napoleon who have become deified figured to them, so when we finally explained what the word Legion meant to humans (e.g., a group of closely bonded soldiers who serve a larger empire) they could understand it fairly easily and just said, "Oh, ok call us the Legion for short then".

Giving your aliens overly plain names might emphasize their goofiness.

A four armed slime creature named Bob.
A tall and slender plant creature named Mary.

Juxtaposition can work in your favor.

Name them Khevan, Alfhay, and Rhey. The fact that they're written out will prevent the reader from subconsciously associating them with the common Earth names, allowing you to maintain the alien flavor while preserving their mundane nature.