Constellation Name Generator

Real constellation names come in three flavours, and this generator covers all of them. The 88 official constellations use Latin names for figures, animals, and objects: Lyra the harp, Corvus the crow, Fornax the furnace, Vela the sails. Folk asterisms are the everyday names people give to bright star groups: the Plough, the Teapot in Sagittarius, the Winter Hexagon, Charles's Wain. Then there are the sky-lore names from cultures around the world, such as the Chinese Azure Dragon of the East, the Norse Frigg's Distaff, the Egyptian Meskhetyu (the Bull's Foreleg, our Big Dipper), the Aztec Mamalhuaztli (the fire drill), and the Inca dark-cloud constellations like Yacana the Llama, which are shapes in the dust of the Milky Way rather than in the stars.

The list includes invented Latin figures (Lucerna, the lamp; Custos, the guardian; Serpens Marinus, the sea serpent), invented folk names in the same register as real ones (the Milkmaid, the Butcher's Cleaver), and mythic titles for darker fantasy skies (the Drowned King, the Hanged Thief, the Bridge of Ghosts). Real Arabic-derived star names like Zubenelgenubi and Rukbat show the sound of star names that came into Western astronomy through medieval translations.

A good invented constellation tells you about the people who named it. Farmers see ploughs and sickles; sailors see anchors and sails; a warlike culture sees swords and broken crowns. Choose names that reflect who is looking up.