Asteroid Name Generator

Real asteroid names follow rules set by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, and knowing them is the quickest way to make an invented one sound authentic. A name must be 16 characters or fewer, pronounceable, a single word where possible, and not offensive or purely commercial. The first asteroids discovered in the 1800s were given classical feminine names (Ceres, Pallas, Juno, Vesta, Hygiea, Psyche), and that Greco-Roman habit stuck for most of the main belt. Later conventions assign mythology by orbit: near-Earth objects get gods of motion and danger (Apollo, Icarus, Toutatis, Apophis), Jupiter Trojans take heroes of the Trojan War (Hektor, Patroclus, Achilles), centaurs are named for centaurs (Chiron, Pholus, Chariklo), and distant trans-Neptunian objects use creation deities from many cultures (Quaoar, Sedna, Varuna).

Before naming, every asteroid carries a provisional designation such as 2004 MN4, which later becomes a number plus a name: (99942) Apophis. Science fiction rarely bothers with that, and instead asteroids get the names miners, smugglers and survey crews give them: Halvorsen's Rock, the Splinter, Tumbler's Reef.

This generator mixes all of those registers: real named minor planets from the famous to the obscure, new names built on the same classical patterns, and belt-frontier rock names for novels, tabletop campaigns and space games.