Names that mean star

Why a star name works

Stars were the first maps and the first clocks, so a star name says something that holds its course. It also says far away, which is why star names fit characters who left home, who are waited for, or who are remembered more than met.

Because star is such a gentle, widely loved meaning, it is easy to overuse. The way round it is specificity: a star plus a second root says which star, for whom and why. Star-oath is a promise; star-sea is a sailor; star-song is a lullaby that outlived its singer.

Character hooks

• A paladin whose order names its knights for the star they navigated by in the war, so every name in the chapter is a promise to a dead comrade.
• A halfling astronomer whose family thinks the telescope is a phase.
• A tiefling who chose a star name to cover an infernal one, and is slowly being found out by the sky.

What to avoid

• Star names tend to look alike on the page. Vary the second root, and let some characters carry only the bare root.
• Avoid stacking star with light and bright: all three say the same thing.