Alien Species Name Generator

Alien species names in science fiction fall into a handful of recognisable families. The oldest is the star-derived demonym: take a real star or constellation and add a suffix, giving Arcturan, Rigelian, Betelgeusian or Zeta Reticulan. It sounds authoritative because it is how astronomers already talk. A second family is phonetic: writers choose sounds to match the creature, so warrior races get hard consonants and apostrophes (Kraath, Vor'kraal, Zhal'kesh), serpentine or reptilian species hiss (Ssithrak, Isseth), graceful telepaths flow with open vowels (Aeliri, Selenai, Ithariel), and insectoid hive species click (Chk'tikk, Zzt'k, Kikkitiri).

A third family is descriptive and usually comes from humans who met the species first: Greys, Reptoids, Tall Ones, Bugs, or Latinate labels like Silicari and Cephalonians. Collective intelligences prefer singular abstractions such as The Consensus, Unity or The Manifold, and long-vanished elder races get reverent titles like Precursors, The Watchers and The Architects. Real franchises mix these freely: Star Trek's Andorians and Vulcans are demonyms, Mass Effect's Krogan and Asari are phonetic, and Halo's Covenant races have both an in-language name and a human nickname.

Use the list above as a palette. Pick the sound that fits the biology, then decide whether the name is what the species calls itself or what humans call them; the gap between the two is often where the best worldbuilding lives.