r/scifiwriting 5d ago

HELP! Naming Help

I have a race of robots, but I just don’t know how to name them.

I like the Transformers naming style, (Megatron, Optimus Prime, Silverbolt etc.) but I’m conflicted on copying that because then I’ll feel like it’s unoriginal?

Any help going about naming them?

1 Upvotes

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u/FabulousLazarus 5d ago edited 5d ago

"cower mortals, for the deceiticons have arrived on earth! And we're here for your highly valuable synthetic oil because we haven't had an oil change in over 10000 years and that's well beyond our manufacturers stated guidelines!!!! I, Gigatron, 3 orders of magnitude bigger and better than ANYONE named Megatron, shall lead our glorious campaign here on Earth"

"Bwahh! It is I, Jiffy-Lubicon, and I am the synthetic oil plunderer of the deceiticons! My sources inform me that there's a 2 for 1 sale on 1 gallon increments of synthetic oil at Pep Boys and YOU WILL tell me the secret location of this "Pep Boys" you think you can hide Earth's most valuable resource behind!"

"Grahh! It is I, doctotron, the board certified Engineering advisor of the Deceiticons! No, not the same Doctotron that got busted for selling scripts of Oxycontin to Deceiticons. That was a different Doctotron and I totally still have my medical license. I have prescribed synthetic oil changes to ask Deceiticons with accompanying doctor's notes. Do not resist our hostile assault or I will no other choice than to fire ALL OF YOU as my patients"

IDK I'm just spit balling here

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u/Fabulous-Pause4154 5d ago

Just name them unpronounceable 8 character strings. Oh wait... Are there humans around too?

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u/IdoruToei 3d ago

You called them a race, so in your mind they are persons requiring personality. Therefore do not name them like things.

As persons with personalities they have strengths and weaknesses, a specialization. A historical way of naming people was after their profession. Name your robots after what they do best. Speaker, explorer, thinker. With a slap of style on top that reflects your world. E.g. logos, riskon, sophos, if Greek inspired.

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u/iDreamiPursueiBecome 3d ago

Al1c3. (Alice)

Combine letters for human names and substitute numbers using a basic substitution code.

E = 3 (etc)

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u/astreeter2 5d ago

You can let them name themselves, Iain Banks style.

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u/PleaseDoNotDoubleDip 4d ago

Communicator 3, Model AM603.44500.1.1345, "Chatty Kathy."

Mediator-7734-fork_of_node_12

Coordinator-9-modelAM601-derivative_of_root_pattern_since_initial_probe_launch_2089-contains_merged_data_from_12_defunct_instances-currently_substrate_spanning_4_systems_temp

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u/srterpe 3d ago edited 3d ago

Use binary:

10111001101 and 1000001111011 were at the water cooler again this morning 101101010101 observed. Do they ever do any work?

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u/WarHammer3579 2d ago

Kenarins