Nomenclature

This page describes the naming systems used by Aurora 4X and how naming themes are used for systems, commanders, ships, and classes. Efficient nomenclature is vital for managing large empires, allowing players to distinguish between different fleet roles and galactic sectors at a glance.

Naming Themes

Introduced in v1.0.0.

In the legacy VB6 version of Aurora, racial themes were rigid "all-in-one" packages. If you chose a "British" theme, you were locked into British stars, British commanders, and British ship names.

In C# Aurora, these elements have been decoupled into unified Naming Themes. This allows for a modular approach where a player can mix and match styles independently for different aspects of their empire:

System Themes: Determines the names of stars and jump points.
Class Themes: Used specifically for the names of ship classes (e.g., the Leander class).
Ship Themes: Used for the individual vessels within those classes (e.g., HMS Apollo).
Rank Themes: Managed separately to allow for unique military hierarchies (e.g., using Naval ranks for space forces and Army ranks for ground forces).

Each ship class can be assigned its own theme, allowing a player to have a "Flower" theme for corvettes and a "Great Admirals" theme for battleships within the same empire.

System Naming

Introduced in v1.0.0.

System naming logic in C# Aurora is designed to help players track exploration paths. A unique feature of the current version is the ability to assign a theme to a specific system. Any new systems discovered via jump points originating from that system will inherit that theme, effectively "tagging" different chains of the jump web with distinct naming conventions.

The automated selection priority for a new system is as follows:

Actual System Name: If the system corresponds to a known star in the Aurora star database (e.g., Sol, Alpha Centauri, Wolf 359), that name is used first.
Originating System Theme: If the system was discovered from a system with an assigned Naming Theme, the next available name from that specific theme is chosen.
Racial Default: If no specific theme is found in the jump chain, the game pulls from the primary Racial System Naming Theme selected during Race Creation.
Generic ID: If all name lists are exhausted, the game defaults to “System #” plus the internal database ID.

Players can manually override any name by clicking the system name in the F3 System Information window.

Commander Naming

Introduced in v1.0.0.

Commander names are generated using a "First Name + Surname" combination logic. When a theme is created or edited, it includes specific distributions:

First Name List: Specific to the culture or flavor of the selected theme.
Surname List: A dedicated list of family names or callsigns.
Metadata: Includes Gender Distribution (percentage of male vs. female names) and the probability of Middle Initials.

If a theme lacks enough unique names, the game will begin to cycle or combine them to ensure every newly commissioned officer has a designation.

Ship Naming

Introduced in v1.0.0.

Ship names are pulled from the theme’s ship-name list. Aurora supports several methods of assignment when a vessel is laid down in a shipyard:

Theme-Based: Pulls the next available name from the assigned list.
Class-Based: Uses the Class name followed by a sequential number (e.g., Himalaya 001).
Override: Each ship class can override the global racial theme, allowing for specialized naming conventions for different hull types (e.g., naming Science Vessels after famous explorers).

Creating Custom Themes

Introduced in v1.0.0.

The Naming Themes window (accessible via Ctrl+F12) allows players to define new lists and maintain a personal library of flavors.

Categories: Themes can contain sub-lists for Systems, Commanders (First/Last), and Ship Names.
Formatting: Themes can include mandatory Prefixes (e.g., "HMS") or Suffixes.
Customization: Players can paste lists of names directly into the database to create bespoke sci-fi or historical flavors.

Importing and Exporting Themes

Introduced in v1.0.0.

Themes are stored within the AuroraDB.db file but can be managed via the UI to facilitate community sharing:

Export: Save a theme to a .txt or .xml format.
Import: Load community-created themes.
Merge: Add names from an external file to an existing theme to increase variety in long-running campaigns.

Battlestar Greek Naming Theme

Introduced in v2.7.0.

The Battlestar Greek theme is a specialized hybrid theme. It combines the gritty, callsign-heavy naming convention of Battlestar Galactica (e.g., "Apollo", "Starbuck") with traditional Greek mythological surnames and first names. This theme was originally developed for a specific developer test campaign before being integrated as a permanent option.

Shipping Line Names

Introduced in v1.0.0.

You can rename shipping lines in C# Aurora. Just click on the ‘Admin Command’ that represents the shipping line on the Naval Organization window and click Rename. You provide a full name for the shipping line and a short name for the ship naming.

New Naming Themes

Introduced in v2.4.0.

Aurora v2.4.0 added a large number of new naming themes contributed by the community, significantly expanding the variety of available lists.

Theme	Theme	Theme	Theme	Theme
Adjectives	Adverbs	Aircraft Nicknames	Alliance - Union Merchanters & Transports	Antarctic Volcanoes
Biblical Idioms	Big Cities	Birds of Prey (exc Eagles)	Brazilian States	British Columbia Volcanoes
British East India Company Ships	Cat Types	Chinese Cities	Chinese Provinces	Clipper Ships
Colorado Towns	Constellations	Dragons	Dutch Towns and Cities	European Rivers
European Volcanoes	Exoplanet Names	Exotic Colours	Fast Animals	Flowers
Football Referees	Foundation Characters	Four-Digit Numbers	French Provinces	German Cities
Himalayan Peaks	Indian Cities	Indian Cricketers of the 80s	Indian Rivers	Indian States
Insects of Family Asilidae	Insect Species (Latin)	Irish Navy Ships	Italian Regions	Last Stands
Krellan Battlecruisers	Mythological Birds	Numbers as Words	Octopus Families	People Named Robert
Ranidae	Rag & Bone Men	Road Class Freighters	Scottish Lochs	SFB - Orion Ships
Shakespearean Idioms	Space Liner Names	Space Shuttles	Spanish Communities	Star Trek - Bajoran Ships
Star Trek - Ferengi Ships	Star Trek - Vulcan Ships	Star Trek - Andorian Ships	Tank Names	Texas Alamo Defenders
Texas Animals	Texas Birds	Texas Cities	Texas Counties	Texas Historical Figures
Texas Native American Tribes	Texas Rangers	Texas Reptiles	Texas Rivers	Tigers
Virtues	Virtues - Benjamin Franklin	Virtues - Roman	Weather Terms	Welsh Islands
Welsh Lakes	Welsh Mountains	Welsh Towns	Welsh Waterfalls

Chat GPT Naming Themes

Introduced in v2.6.0.

Aurora v2.6.0 introduced several themes where the name lists were curated using AI to provide highly specific "vibe" based naming (e.g., "Dystopian Megacorp" or "Ancient Sumerian"). These are listed under the GPT prefix in the theme selection dropdown.

There are 24 ship name themes based on Babylon 5 and Star Trek races, with between 60 and 100 names per theme.

The 13 system name themes and 11 commander name themes, all for Babylon 5 races, are a similar size. They are more generic, but suitably ‘alien-sounding’

Random Class from Race Theme

Introduced in v2.7.0. A new 'Random Class from Race Theme' checkbox has been added to the Class window. This is checked by default.

When this is checked and a new class is created, a random name for the new class will be selected from the Racial class naming theme rather than the first available name. Existing class names will still be excluded.

Related Pages

Game Setup - Initial selection of themes.
Automatic Research - Naming conventions for tech projects.
Starting Conditions - How themes affect your home system.
NPR Generation - How Non-Player Races select their own nomenclature.