A reader named Sam is having twins (a boy and a girl) in several weeks, but hasn’t yet found names for them. Sam writes:
My partner and I already have a 3 year old boy called Ryker after Will Riker on Star Trek Next Generation, as we both like Sci Fi.
The first thing that popped into my head is Robert Schnakenberg’s book Sci-Fi Baby Names. Google Books offers a nice preview.
The book seems to focus on names from TV and movies, so let’s balance that out with some ideas from literature:
- Arthur, for Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- Douglas, for Douglas Adams, who wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
- Isaac, for Isaac Asimov.
- Julia or Julian, for Jules Verne.
- Philip or Philippa, for Philip K. Dick.
- Richard, for Richard Matheson, who wrote I Am Legend.
- Ursula, for Ursula Le Guin.
Names that are more like Ryker in terms of style include:
| Boy Names | Girl Names |
| Beckett Cash Drake Easton Everett Gavin Jude Leo Max Phoenix Pierce Sawyer | Alexa Fiona Harper Jetta Kira Luna Maya Phoebe Sage Sienna Stella Violet |
What other sci-fi names can you come up with for Sam’s twins? And what other names do you think sound good with Ryker?
Here are some names from “Stranger in a Strange Land”:
Jubal
Caxton
Joseph
Douglas
Gillian
Miriam
Dorcas
Zenobia
My favorite Star Trek names are B’Elanna and Julian. Some others I like:
Annika
Keiko
Kira Nerys
Ezri
Jadzia
Naomi
Kes
Majel
Geordi
Alexander
Montgomery
Jean-Luc
Icheb
Dax
Pavel
Wesley
Hikaru
Tiberius
Luke and Leia! So obvious… :)
fun theme!
Battlestar Galactica (new series): Adama, Apollo, Athena, Tigh, Gaius, Roslin, Kara, Thrace, Anders, Dualla, Elosha, Galen
Ender’s Game: Ender, Valentine, Mazer, Alai, Petra
Firefly/Serenity: Joss, Wheadon, Malcolm/Mal, Inara, Zoe
How about just think of other people/characters you like?
I’m more of a book nerd that a movie/comic fan, but here’s some more ideas:
Eleanor “Ellie”, from Carl Sagan’s novel Contact.
Katniss, the Hunger Games novels by Suzanne Collins
Lyra, from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.
Viola, the Chaos Walking Trilogy written by Patrick Ness.
Sybil, The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.
Coraline, same named novel by Neil Gaiman.
Guy, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
Ford and Arthur, from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Harrison, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut.
Winston, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Hiro, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
Phileas, Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days .
Griffin, The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
From Star Trek, I think Kira or Annika and Scott or Pike would make excellent names for twins.
Ursula is a lovely choice. So many of the ones I thought of have already been listed here. We seriously considered Malcolm for Mal in Serenity but felt it might be overused due to “Malcolm in the Middle”….
I’ve only recently started getting into sci-fi, so I don’t have a long list – I’m much more into high fantasy type novels!
One boys name that I really like is Toran (from Asimov’s Foundation Series), with the nn Tory in the book
How about Octavia for the girl? After Octavia Estelle Butler, a famous female science fiction writer.
Thank you for your comments,
My partner and I have chosen for our son Pavel Tiberius and for our daughter (Unconventional as a girls name I know, but we like to be different) Sawyer Gillian Lyra.
luke and leigh