Star map Names
What's in a name
Bethesda packed the Settled Systems with in-jokes, memorials, and mythology. These lists are naming themes, not factions or survey filters. Every name opens that place on the star map. Wiki icons jump out to the Starfield Wiki or Wikipedia.
The Settled Systems look vast from a cockpit. They are not. Every system on this chart sits inside a 50 light-year bubble around Earth, a patch about 100 light years across. The Milky Way is about 100,000 light years wide. Space-wise, that is about 0.1 percent of the galaxy's width.
This chart has 121 stars. NASA puts the galaxy at about 100 to 400 billion. Against the low end of 100 billion, that is about 0.000000121 percent of the stellar population, or roughly one star in 826 million.
This extra map lore is on Reddit. The identifications that go past our Real sky list start with u/avheuv mapping Starfield's stars back to the night sky in Starfield's stars are real. I'll show you how to find them.
u/LeBourgeoisGent then walked that same sky in the Tour of the Stars series: Observations on the Night Sky, and Round and Round.
Physicists, astronomers, and inventors get whole solar systems. The densest cluster sits in Delta Pavonis, where the moons do the homework.
Jump to a random oneAl-Battani
Al-Battani, medieval astronomer whose tables refined the solar year.
Archimedes
Archimedes, Greek mathematician of levers, buoyancy, and pi.
Bardeen
John Bardeen, twice a Nobel laureate in physics.
Bessel
Friedrich Bessel, astronomer who measured the first stellar parallax.
Bohr
Niels Bohr, founder of the Bohr model of the atom.
Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus, who placed the Sun at the center of the solar system.
Copernicus Minor
A companion system to Copernicus, named for the same heliocentrist.
Delta Pavonis
Delta Pavonis, a nearby Sun-like star in the Peacock.
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Johann Elert Bode, of Bode's law for planetary spacing.
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Marie Curie, pioneer of radioactivity and two-time Nobel laureate.
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Michael Faraday, who linked electricity, magnetism, and induction.
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André-Marie Ampère, namesake of the SI unit of electric current.
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Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, namesake of the SI unit of electric charge.
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Georg Ohm, namesake of the SI unit of electrical resistance.
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Alessandro Volta, namesake of the SI unit of electric potential.
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George Gamow, physicist of the Big Bang and stellar nucleosynthesis.
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Satyendra Nath Bose, namesake of the boson and Bose-Einstein statistics.
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Fermi
Enrico Fermi, architect of the first nuclear reactor.
Feynman
Richard Feynman, quantum physicist and teacher of diagrams.
Foucault
Léon Foucault, who proved Earth's rotation with the Foucault pendulum.
Hawking
Stephen Hawking, physicist of black holes and Hawking radiation.
Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg, author of the uncertainty principle.
Huygens
Christiaan Huygens, who described Saturn's rings and Titan.
Kapteyn
Jacobus Kapteyn, astronomer who mapped the Milky Way's structure.
Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus, father of modern biological taxonomy.
Lunara
A star system in the Settled Systems.
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Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who charted Saturn and its gap.
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Antonio Abetti, Italian astronomer of solar physics.
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Newton
Isaac Newton, who wrote the laws of motion and universal gravitation.
Nikola
Nikola Tesla, inventor of alternating-current power systems.
Piazzi
Giuseppe Piazzi, who discovered Ceres, the first asteroid.
Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford, who discovered the atomic nucleus.
Sagan
Carl Sagan, astronomer who brought the cosmos to a public audience.
Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov, Soviet physicist and later a human-rights advocate.
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The Bonner Durchmusterung, a 19th-century catalog of northern stars.
Schrodinger
Erwin Schrödinger, who wrote the wave equation of quantum mechanics.
Alpha Centauri is a memorial more than a neighborhood. Planets and moons take the names of people who actually left Earth.
Jump to a random oneAlpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Sol.
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Roberta Bondar, Canada's first woman in space.
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Robert Curbeam, NASA astronaut and spacewalker.
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Gus Grissom, Mercury and Gemini astronaut lost in the Apollo 1 fire.
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Kalpana Chawla, astronaut who flew on Space Shuttle Columbia.
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Yuri Gagarin, first human in orbit.
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Mae Jemison, first Black woman in space.
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A Jemison moon in Alpha Centauri's astronaut naming set.
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John D. Olivas, NASA astronaut and shuttle mission specialist.
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Steven Hawley, NASA astronomer-astronaut on five shuttle flights.
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Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13.
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James S. Voss, NASA astronaut with five spaceflights.
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George D. Zamka, Marine aviator and shuttle commander.
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Olympus leans into Greek underworld names, then the map wanders through Norse, Mesopotamian, and Roman legend. Death and sleep share a planet-moon pair.
Jump to a random oneCharybdis
Charybdis, the whirlpool opposite Scylla in the Odyssey.
Delta Pavonis
Delta Pavonis, a nearby Sun-like star in the Peacock.
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Arachne, the weaver Athena turned into a spider.
Enlil
Enlil, Sumerian god of wind and kingship.
Freya
Freyja, Norse goddess of love, war, and seiðr.
Lunara
A star system in the Settled Systems.
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Gaia, Greek personification of the Earth.
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Coeus, Titan of intellect and the northern axis.
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Crius, Titan associated with the constellations.
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Numitor, grandfather of Romulus and Remus in Roman legend.
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Remus, twin of Romulus in Rome's founding myth.
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Romulus, legendary founder of Rome.
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Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth.
Marduk
Marduk, chief god of Babylon who slew Tiamat.
Moloch
Moloch, Canaanite figure later tied to child sacrifice in later telling.
Narion
A star system in the Settled Systems.
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Hyperia, a Greek oceanid of the sea.
Olympus
Mount Olympus, home of the Greek gods.
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Aion, Hellenistic god of cyclical time.
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Cybele, Anatolian mother goddess later worshiped in Rome.
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Dionysus, Greek god of wine and theater.
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Mithras, god of a mystery cult popular with Roman soldiers.
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Orpheus, mythic musician who walked the underworld.
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Ananke, Greek personification of necessity and fate.
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Erebus, Greek primordial darkness.
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Pontus, Greek primordial sea.
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Thalassa, Greek personification of the sea.
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The Nesoi, Greek goddesses of islands.
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The Ourea, Greek gods of mountains.
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Thanatos, Greek personification of death.
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Hypnos, Greek personification of sleep, orbiting death.
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Ophion
Ophion, a serpent who ruled the cosmos in some Orphic tellings.
Sol
Sol, the Sun, humanity's home star.
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Deimos, Greek personification of terror, and Mars's other moon.
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Phobos, Greek personification of fear, and a real moon of Mars.
Wolf
Wolf 359, a nearby red dwarf famous in science fiction.
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Chthonic, a name for the underworld gods beneath the earth.
Bugs, beasts, constellations, and one very small companion star. Arachna's moons take the joke further in Wordplay.
Jump to a random oneAranae
Araneae, the order of spiders.
Cheyenne
A star system in the Settled Systems.
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Skink, a family of lizards, here a Cheyenne planet.
Delta Pavonis
Delta Pavonis, a nearby Sun-like star in the Peacock.
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Arachne, the weaver Athena turned into a spider.
Delta Vulpes
Vulpecula, the little fox constellation.
Gamma Vulpes
A second Vulpecula system, still named for the fox.
Katydid
Katydid, a leaf-mimicking insect named for its call.
Leonis
Leo, the lion constellation.
Leviathan
Leviathan, the biblical sea-beast of chaos.
Narion
A star system in the Settled Systems.
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Griffin, the eagle-lion of myth.
Rana
Rana, Latin for frog, and a name used for Delta Eridani.
Serpentis
Serpens, the serpent constellation.
Strix
Strix, a Roman omen-bird and later the owl genus.
The Pup
The Pup, Sirius B, the white dwarf beside Sirius.
Ursa Majoris
Ursa Major, the Great Bear of the northern sky.
Ursa Minoris
Ursa Minor, the Little Bear that holds Polaris.
Wolf
Wolf 359, a nearby red dwarf famous in science fiction.
Units, coinages, and the people who named the laws. Faraday's family is the showpiece: a gas giant whose moons are ampere, coulomb, ohm, and volt.
Jump to a random oneBohr
Niels Bohr, founder of the Bohr model of the atom.
Delta Pavonis
Delta Pavonis, a nearby Sun-like star in the Peacock.
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Michael Faraday, who linked electricity, magnetism, and induction.
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André-Marie Ampère, namesake of the SI unit of electric current.
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Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, namesake of the SI unit of electric charge.
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Georg Ohm, namesake of the SI unit of electrical resistance.
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Alessandro Volta, namesake of the SI unit of electric potential.
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Nascent, a name for something just coming into being.
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Fundament, a first principle, moon of Nascent.
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Rudiment, a first beginning, moon of Nascent.
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Fermi
Enrico Fermi, architect of the first nuclear reactor.
Feynman
Richard Feynman, quantum physicist and teacher of diagrams.
Hawking
Stephen Hawking, physicist of black holes and Hawking radiation.
Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg, author of the uncertainty principle.
Newton
Isaac Newton, who wrote the laws of motion and universal gravitation.
Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford, who discovered the atomic nucleus.
Schrodinger
Erwin Schrödinger, who wrote the wave equation of quantum mechanics.
Nursery rhymes, prison slang, and a wizard's light spell. These are the names that feel like someone in the writing room got away with something.
Jump to a random oneDelta Pavonis
Delta Pavonis, a nearby Sun-like star in the Peacock.
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Arachne, the weaver Athena turned into a spider.
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Bitsy, from the Itsy Bitsy Spider rhyme on Arachna.
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Itsy, from the Itsy Bitsy Spider rhyme on Arachna.
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Worthless, the punchline moon after Itsy and Bitsy.
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Kryx
Kryx, Crimson Fleet space, named like a lock and key.
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Alexander Suvorov, Russian general, here the prison planet of Kryx.
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Boron, the chemical element, here a moon of Suvorov.
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Candore, a Suvorov moon in the Lock's neighborhood.
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Ice, a Suvorov moon in Kryx's prison-yard naming set.
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Max, as in maximum security, a moon of Suvorov.
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Neebas, a Suvorov moon in Kryx's prison-yard set.
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Nox, Latin for night, and a cousin of Nyx.
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Rocklock, a jailhouse name on Suvorov.
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The Key, the Crimson Fleet station hanging over The Lock.
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The Lock, the UC prison that became a Crimson Fleet prize.
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Navaha in Cheyenne reads like a parts list. Hardpoint, Laramie, and Bismark are moons you could file under hull, cowboy, and battleship.
Jump to a random oneCheyenne
A star system in the Settled Systems.
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Navaha, a Cheyenne planet whose moons read like a parts list.
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Bismarck, the famous battleship name, on Navaha.
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Hardpoint, shipwright jargon for a weapon or module mount.
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Laramie, a Wyoming frontier town, here a moon of Navaha.
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The Settled Systems keep a handful of real neighbors on the chart. These are the stars you can still look up from a backyard, plus the white dwarf hiding beside Sirius.
Jump to a random oneAlchiba
Alchiba, Alpha Corvi, in the constellation Corvus.
Algorab
Algorab, Delta Corvi, the raven's wing.
Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Sol.
Altair
Altair, the bright star of Aquila.
Arcturus
Arcturus, the orange giant of Boötes.
Barnard's Star
Barnard's Star, a nearby red dwarf with a fast proper motion.
Carinae
Carina, the keel constellation that holds Canopus.
Delta Pavonis
Delta Pavonis, a nearby Sun-like star in the Peacock.
Denebola
Denebola, Beta Leonis, the tail of the lion.
Eridani
Epsilon Eridani, a nearby orange dwarf often used in science fiction.
Eta Cassiopeia
Eta Cassiopeiae, a nearby Sun-like double star.
Groombridge
Groombridge 1830, a high-proper-motion star from the Groombridge catalog.
Kapteyn
Jacobus Kapteyn, astronomer who mapped the Milky Way's structure.
Luyten's Star
Luyten's Star, a nearby red dwarf.
Muphrid
Muphrid, Eta Boötis, a neighbor of Arcturus.
Porrima
Porrima, Gamma Virginis, a real double star.
Procyon A
Procyon, the bright star of Canis Minor.
Procyon B
Procyon B, the white-dwarf companion of Procyon.
Rasalhague
Rasalhague, Alpha Ophiuchi, the head of the serpent-bearer.
Sirius
Sirius, the brightest star in Earth's night sky.
Sol
Sol, the Sun, humanity's home star.
Syrma
Syrma, Iota Virginis, the train of Virgo's robe.
Tau Ceti
Tau Ceti, a nearby Sun-like star long used in SETI fiction.
The Pup
The Pup, Sirius B, the white dwarf beside Sirius.
Toliman
Toliman, an Arabic name for Alpha Centauri B.
Van Maanen's Star
Van Maanen's Star, a nearby white dwarf.
Vega
Vega, the bright star of Lyra and a former north star.
Wolf
Wolf 359, a nearby red dwarf famous in science fiction.
Xi Ophiuchi
Xi Ophiuchi, a real star in Ophiuchus.
Zeta Ophiuchi
Zeta Ophiuchi, a hot runaway star in Ophiuchus.
Zosma
Zosma, Delta Leonis, a star in the lion's hip.
Invented phonetics, Va'ruun names, and a few that wander toward cosmic horror. If a label looks untypeable, it probably belongs here.
Jump to a random oneCelebrai
Celebrai, an invented Settled Systems name.
Guniibuu
Guniibuu, an invented Settled Systems name.
Hyla
Hyla, a genus of tree frogs.
Ixyll
Ixyll, an invented Settled Systems name.
Kavnyk
Kavnyk, the system that holds Va'ruun'kai.
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Va'ruun'kai, homeworld of House Va'ruun.
Lunara
A star system in the Settled Systems.
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Cthol, a Lunara giant with a Lovecraftian ring to the name.
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Az-Valok, a moon of Cthol in Lunara's oddities.
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Nyarloth, a close cousin to Lovecraft's Nyarlathotep.
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Maal
Maal, an invented Settled Systems name.
Maheo
Maheo, a Cheyenne name for the Creator.