Science Fiction and Fantasy Title Generator
Fantasy titles promise a world; science fiction titles promise an idea. Give the generator your magic system, your ship or your strange planet, and get titles shaped like the ones on the SFF shelf.
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Ash Tithe
A village pays its dragon in burned memories instead of gold.
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A Crown of Moths and Ruin
Romantasy: a moth-shifter spy and the exiled fae king.
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Ninth Generation Problem
Ship-born colonists learn Earth stopped answering four centuries ago.
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Mercy Protocol
A hospital AI refuses an order to triage its own staff.
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Who Feeds the Kraken?
Cozy fantasy: a harbor cook keeps the sea monster fed and friendly.
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Orrin Tallowmere Is Not a Wizard
A candlemaker mistaken for a wizard keeps lying to survive.
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Seven Moons, No Tides
Colonists on a calm water world find out why it's calm.
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The Cartographer of Lost Hours
A mapmaker who charts stolen time instead of land.
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Send More Oxygen
The last message from a mining crew on Callisto.
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Ironroot
A forest that eats swords, and the smith who learns why.
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Teacups for the Dead
A retired necromancer opens a tea shop for local ghosts.
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Under a Rented Sky
Debtors on a corporate moon pay monthly for daylight.
Naming Science Fiction and Fantasy books: what works
Science Fiction and Fantasy transport readers to worlds of the extraordinary. These genres explore the unknown, whether it's in outer space, alternate realities, or magical realms, offering a limitless canvas for creativity.
Titles in these genres should spark curiosity and wonder. Think of names that encapsulate the vastness of space, the depths of fantasy, or the fusion of both. Titles like 'Dune' or 'The Lord of the Rings' capture the essence of their worlds.
Know the romantasy pattern before using it
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas helped fill a whole shelf with 'A [Noun] of [Noun] and [Noun]' titles. The shape signals romantasy instantly, which is useful, and it now blends in, which isn't. If you want that reader, use it, but choose nouns nobody else has claimed.
Science fiction: name the premise
Many science fiction titles read like a label on the experiment. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu is a physics problem, and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is the name of the mission. A technical-sounding noun phrase tells readers to expect ideas and problem-solving rather than swords.
Invented words: one is plenty
William Gibson's Neuromancer is a coined word that hints at both neurons and necromancy, and it works because it stands alone. A title made entirely of invented names is hard to say, hard to spell and nearly impossible to search. If you coin a word, pair it with plain English so a reader can ask a bookseller for it.
Title book one with the series in mind
SFF is a series genre, so plan the shape early. N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth books run The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky, and Martha Wells's Murderbot novellas use clipped systems language like All Systems Red and Exit Strategy. A consistent shape tells readers which books belong together.
Well-known Science Fiction and Fantasy titles
Titles that already work in this genre. Read them for shape and length: how many words, how much they give away, what they leave out.
| Title | Author | Published |
|---|---|---|
| Dune | Frank Herbert | 1965 |
| Neuromancer | William Gibson | 1984 |
| The Hobbit | J.R.R. Tolkien | 1937 |
| 1984 | George Orwell | 1949 |
| The Left Hand of Darkness | Ursula K. Le Guin | 1969 |
| Ender's Game | Orson Scott Card | 1985 |
| Snow Crash | Neal Stephenson | 1992 |
| The Martian | Andy Weir | 2011 |
| Fahrenheit 451 | Ray Bradbury | 1953 |
| Brave New World | Aldous Huxley | 1932 |
| Foundation | Isaac Asimov | 1951 |
| American Gods | Neil Gaiman | 2001 |
| The Handmaid's Tale | Margaret Atwood | 1985 |
| The Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins | 2008 |
| A Game of Thrones | George R.R. Martin | 1996 |
| The Lord of the Rings | J.R.R. Tolkien | 1954 |
| The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Douglas Adams | 1979 |
| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | J.K. Rowling | 1997 |
| The Chronicles of Narnia | C.S. Lewis | 1950 |
| A Wrinkle in Time | Madeleine L'Engle | 1962 |
Thrillers & SuspenseA thriller title has one job: make a stranger in an airport pick up the book.
Historical FictionHistorical novels carry their period in the title: a trade, a house, a war, a city.
RomanceRomance readers decide in a second whether a book is their kind of love story.
Mystery & CrimeMystery readers like a title that turns out to be a clue.
Movie, TV, and Literary Fan FictionFic titles follow their own rules: lyric fragments, quotes, puns and lowercase sentences.
Contemporary FictionContemporary fiction lives on the book club table, where titles are quieter and do more work.
A plot, a first scene, a shelf
Questions about Science Fiction and Fantasy titles
Should a fantasy title include the name of my world?
Usually not for book one, since readers don't know the name yet and it means nothing on a cover. It can work when the name sounds evocative in plain English, as Earthsea does in Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea. Later books can lean on the world's name once readers have learned it.
How long should a fantasy title be?
Epic fantasy can afford more words than most genres; three to six is common. Cozy fantasy goes shorter and lighter, like Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes. Whatever the length, it should fit on a cover in type large enough to read as a thumbnail.
How do I keep a sci-fi title from sounding like a B movie?
Avoid stacking genre words like invasion, galaxy, attack and planet. Choose one specific detail from your premise, such as a mission name, a technology or a strange local fact, and let it carry the strangeness. Specific beats grand.
A title deserves a book.
Put it on a cover, write the first chapter under it, and see if it holds.
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