If you look at names in our culture today, you'll notice that none of them are very modern. Names like Miller, Smith, or Carter are all taken from professions that haven't been commonly held for an age. Others like Morrison, Robertson, and Fredrickson have similar origins that have to do with parentage. But in sci-fi, you may well be setting your story several hundred years and light years away from twenty-first century Earth, so why stick with the names of bygone tradesmen?

If your character has an ancestor that was a weapons technician, Laserman might be a name he would have (or if his family were astronauts in a more primitive culture, his name might be Skywalker). You could also borrow from professions of this era and have names like Photoman, Mechanic, or Programmer. If you consider the changes in culture between now and then, the possibilities are limitless.

Very thought-provoking.

I've been considering this. I didn't agree that such names would be likely to happen, but I couldn't figure out why until last night. Surnames originated because the population had grown enough that people shared first names, so they needed a second name to distinguish the ones from each other. Thus, they took names of their craft, or who their father was.

In an advanced industrial society with occupations involving lasers, space travel, and so forth, there has to be a lot of people. Far too many to have without already having surnames. People would be unlikely to adopt their job as a surname, I think, because it's viewed differently. People change jobs an average of 5 times in their lifetime now. They would possibly have to change their surname just as often.

There are reasons that such surnames could be adopted though, I think. Not entirely sure what they'd be at the moment.

*nods* There could be a lot of odd worldbuilding reasons that something like this happened, but yes, a basic straight progression as we are now wouldn't get you there, unless first and last names both become too common and people start taking on a third...

It might even be a fourth name, since we have middle names too. I wonder how many names could be added before people just give up and start afresh with a new system or start adding numbers.

You mean like Thurston Howell the Third?

This is probably why some cultures have a first name, and then the four most recent last names in the family...

Then again, it could be that orphans started being assigned last names based on profession, especially if there was a communist regime at some point.

No, that's a two word name, with a numeral indicating which one he is. I meant something like Zaran Jask-7-9. Not an indicator, but an actual part of the name.


Orphans could have had that happen, certainly. Assign them a trade name and help them move upward in society then.