Does this generator make up fictional planet names?

No. It picks one of the eight real planets of our solar system and shows its image and a short description. The section on how planets are named gives the conventions you can use to invent your own.

No. The list has the eight planets recognized by the IAU: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Pluto has been classed as a dwarf planet since 2006.

Can I get more than one planet at a time?

No. Each press returns a single planet. It never repeats the previous result, so pressing eight times in a row will not necessarily show all eight, but you will see them all within a few more presses.

Where do the descriptions come from?

They are short summaries written in the style of NASA's Solar System Exploration planet profiles, one or two sentences each, covering the planet's most distinctive fact.

Random Planet Name Generator

Press the button to get one of the eight planets of our solar system, with an image and a short fact card, never the same one twice in a row.

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This is a picker for the real planets. Press the button and you get one of the eight planets of our solar system, Mercury through Neptune, shown with a photo and a two-sentence description of what makes it distinctive. The tool remembers the last planet it showed and will not give you the same one twice in a row. It does not invent fictional planet names; if that is what you came for, the section further down explains how real planets and exoplanets are named, which is the fastest way to make up convincing ones yourself.

What you get

There are no settings, only the Generate Planet button, and it returns one planet per press. Each card has the planet's name, an image, and a short description in the style of NASA's planet profiles: Venus spins backwards and is the hottest planet because of its runaway greenhouse atmosphere; Uranus rotates at nearly 90 degrees to its orbit, so it appears to spin on its side; Neptune was the first planet found through mathematical prediction rather than observation; Jupiter is more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined. Pluto is not included, in line with its 2006 reclassification as a dwarf planet.

Ways people use it

Classroom warm-ups. Press once, read the card, and have students add one fact the card does not mention. Eight planets fit neatly into a two-week unit at one per lesson.
Assigning research topics so that eight students each get a different planet without arguing over who gets Saturn.
Quiz questions. Hide the name, read the description aloud, and ask which planet it is.
A random world for a story or game. Setting a scene on the planet you roll, using the description as the constraint.

How planets actually get their names

The eight planets carry the names of Roman gods, assigned in antiquity for the five visible to the naked eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) and by later astronomers for Uranus and Neptune. Earth is the exception, from Old English rather than Latin. Since 1919 the International Astronomical Union has controlled naming. Moons follow themes tied to their planet: Jupiter's moons are lovers and descendants of Zeus, Saturn's are Titans and giants, Uranus's are Shakespeare and Pope characters (Titania, Oberon, Miranda). Dwarf planets and large Kuiper belt objects take names of creation deities from any culture, which is how we got Makemake, Haumea and Quaoar.

Exoplanets are named systematically: the host star's catalog name plus a lowercase letter starting at b, in order of discovery. Kepler-186f is the fifth planet found around the 186th star flagged by the Kepler telescope; TRAPPIST-1e is the fourth around the star TRAPPIST-1; 51 Pegasi b was the first exoplanet found around a Sun-like star. A few have been given proper names through IAU public campaigns, such as Dimidium (51 Pegasi b) and Dagon (Fomalhaut b).

For a fictional planet, borrowing these conventions makes a name feel real. A god's name from a mythology you have not seen used (Nyx, Belenus, Tiamat, Inti), a catalog-style tag (Gliese 581g, HD 40307 g), or a colonist's name plus a suffix (Kepler's Landing, New Hokkaido) all read as plausible. If you need the wider setting, the Civilization Name Generator and Random Kingdom Name Generator supply the societies living on it, and the Island Name Generator and Castle Name Generator handle smaller places. All of these are listed under all name generators.

Frequently asked questions

Does this generator make up fictional planet names?: No. It picks one of the eight real planets of our solar system and shows its image and a short description. The section on how planets are named gives the conventions you can use to invent your own.
Is Pluto included?: No. The list has the eight planets recognized by the IAU: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Pluto has been classed as a dwarf planet since 2006.
Can I get more than one planet at a time?: No. Each press returns a single planet. It never repeats the previous result, so pressing eight times in a row will not necessarily show all eight, but you will see them all within a few more presses.
Where do the descriptions come from?: They are short summaries written in the style of NASA's Solar System Exploration planet profiles, one or two sentences each, covering the planet's most distinctive fact.