Names for sci fi earth government

[Maquise]

I'm brainstorming up some names for a united, Earth-based interstellar government in a sci fi setting. It would be a fairly loose organization, with a lot of autonomy given to each planet/nation.

[avr]

It might relate to how such a government came about. If it was a military alliance formed when hostile aliens showed up, you could expect a military name - the Terran Alliance, the Defenders of Earth, etc. If it was a legal or trade agreement initially it might reflect that - the Interstellar Trade Organisation, the Earth Tribunal. If it was initially a commercial organisation controlling interstellar travel it could be called anything at all - Stellar, VoidCorp, Virgin Galactic, L5 Holdings.

How are you imagining it starting?

[BRC]

How unified is it? How diverse? What were the circumstances of it's founding.
Is it a single unified government, or a coalition of governments.

Personally, I like the idea of "The Martian Congress". During the government's founding, Earth was still separate nations, but Mars was neutral ground, so the earth government met on Mars. Nowadays "Martian" is slang for a politician or somebody who works for the government. The same way people today may call FBI agents "Feds", people would refer to agents of the Martian Congress as "Martians".

[Maquise]

History:

When humanity first started colonizing space, it was agreed that there would be no interstellar government. Each world would be independent. However, negative encounters with aliens and infighting amongst the colonies lead to attempts to organize a unified human nation. This organization started out being considered an illegal group, and had to work to gain legitimacy.

[BRC]

If the group started out illegal, that would be a pretty big deal, and is probably reflected in the group's name.

So, lets say there was some sort of treaty that banned representatives of national governments from interfering in the affairs of other nations, specifically banning any sort of UN-type arrangement between planets. Within each nation, any attempts to form such a government would be seen as giving up the nation's sovereignty to foreigners.

The government today has an official name, but people still refer to it as The TUB, or Trade Union Banquet.

One of the earliest groups to push for such a government was a union of interstellar shipping magnates who wanted a unified government to protect their ships in space. This Union was very powerful, and worked with the highest ranking members of every national government.

Eventually they had the idea to throw a regular Banquet, and invite the leaders of the various national powers. Ensuring good relations with the Union was crucial to the economic wellbeing of every nation, so nobody objected to various government officials attending the massive banquet. Before long, the Banquet became a pretense for various governments to negotiate and work together on neutral ground without looking like they were violating the treaty.

Today it's the Interplanetary Union or something, but for a long time people referred to it as "The Banquet"

Alternatively if the Banquet was held on some sort of space cruise liner, it could be named after that ship.

[Maquise]

Interesting, and possible.

The only thing is, is that the alliance (a possible name) was formed in large part in opposition to an alien, inter-species corporation known by humans as the Orion Consortium (Named after the arm of the galaxy it operates in). It functions similar to one of the old colonial trading companies, and has a large control over the FTL network. It heavily exploits the weaker human worlds, but some of the wealthier ones have managed to cut profitable deals with them.

I only say this because I question how much a unifying human group would want to be associated with that kind of organization.

[sktarq]

A small collection of starting ideas to work from.
Since it grew from an oppositional group to human/alien co-ops it may well take up a name that places emphasis on its human origins-probably making a reference to either Human, Mankind, or Earth/Terran/Sol (as the unifying origin of all humanity)
It may take its name from a part of its history. A council or meeting that laid the foundation for the moment-most likely being a place name, an event that catalyzed the movement (such as a particularly horrible instance of Orion corp abuse), a founder whose ideas or hosting discussions led them to be a common point of reference to the disparate groups who eventually linked up to make the movement.
Finally since it started and then became a major governmental power it may well have changed its name at some point. Most likely when it gained ruling power of a critical number of planets. As such they would likely pick a new name to be as official sounding as possible.

For ideas look at the translated names of various liberation and would be ruling powers in such places the middle east or fringe political parties. Or Monty Python's People Judean Front vs the People's Front of Judea clip of Life of Brian.

[Kislath]

Terran Confederation

Terran Concordium

[Axiomatic]

I'd call it the Association.

Because, see, they're not really an organized group, they're just associates. So it's technically not illegal, see?

[Kitten Champion]

Gaiasol, a personal favourite mine.

The Amalgam

Future Intelligent Reform Mandate Association (FIRMA)

[Xyphan]

Don't think of it as an intergalactic organization but as what it truly is, a country. Names such as The Galactic Empire from Star Wars work with this idea if you were to replace the word galactic with a regular countries name, it would make just as much sense, and probably sound equally cool. You could also go Star Trek style and have it as an alliance between the different planets, ( however the name The Federation doesn't have that great a sound for it). With that in mind you could call it something like The Interplanetary Alliance ,I.A.

[Grinner]

Don't worry. I've got this:

{table="head"]Roll | Format
1 | <Adjective> <Noun>
2 | <Adjective> <Noun> <Preposition>
3 | <Adjective> <Adjective> <Noun>
4 | <Noun> <Preposition>
5 | <Noun> <Adjective/Preposition>*
6 | <Adjective> <Noun> <Adjective/Preposition>*
[/table]

{table="head"]Roll | Adjective
1 | Galactic
2 | Interplanetary
3 | Interstellar
4 | Andromedan
5 | Intergalactic
6 | Cosmic
7 | United**
8 | Allied**
9 | Terran
10 | Star
11 | Imperial
12 | People's
[/table]

{table="head"]Roll | Noun
1 | Federation
2 | Confederation
3 | Alliance
4 | Empire
5 | Concord
6 | Covenant
7 | Union
8 | Republic
[/table]

{table="head"]Roll | Preposition
1 | of Worlds
2 | of Peace
3 | of Harmony
4 | of Unity
5 | of the People
6 | of Andromeda
[/table]

*Composed as <blank> <adjective> <blank>. For example, "of Galactic Worlds".
**Pluralize relevant nouns if this results.

[Axiomatic]

The United Union of Unity?

[Grinner]

I had thought of that, yes, but I elected to not care.

[Kislath]

HAHAHA! That's great!

[Admiral Squish]

Probably not helpful, but in space games I always go by 'The Awesome Initiative', an organization dedicated to making the galaxy more awesome wherever possible.