Star Name Generator

Real star names come in three layers, and a convincing fictional sky uses all of them. The oldest layer is proper names, most of them Arabic descriptions worn smooth by medieval Latin copyists: Aldebaran is 'the follower', Deneb is 'tail', Rigel is 'foot'. They share a sound, with lots of al-, -ar, -ib and -ah, plus a handful of Latin and Greek names like Regulus, Spica and Sirius. The second layer is Bayer's 1603 system, a Greek letter plus the constellation's genitive (Alpha Centauri, Tau Ceti), and Flamsteed's numbers (61 Cygni). The third is modern catalog codes: HD, HIP, Gliese, Wolf, Ross, Kepler and TOI followed by a number, which is how nearly every star discovered since 1900 is known.

Folk names sit alongside all of these. Shepherds, sailors and farmers named stars by what they looked like or when they rose: the Lantern, the Widow's Lamp, the Harvest Star. Fantasy settings tend to lean on this register, sci-fi on catalog codes and made-up Bayer names, and space opera on invented proper names with a Latin or Arabic ring.

The list below mixes every layer. For a setting, pick one convention for navigators and scientists, another for ordinary people, and let the same star carry both names; that is exactly how Earth's sky works.