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I'm finding that, while I greatly enjoy the "Cantina-feel" of Starfinder, I'm struggling to pick names for characters of some of the other species that have been introduced in the Adventure Paths and Alien Archives.
Like, there's some little tidbits of information that help (i.e. Nuars greatly admire orc culture, so presumably they'd adopt orcish naming conventions like "NounVerber-style" surnames), and we do have a few NPCs in the APs to use as examples, but that isn't always the case.
Endiffans for example, are introduced in Against the Aeon Throne with very little context. They don't appear in the AP as far as I'm aware, and they don't provide example names in the entry.
So while I like almost all of these species, I'm finding hard to make PCs based on them because I can't settle on a name, so I end up trying to shoe-horn in a human name or one based on a fantasy species adjacent to them, like with the aforementioned nuars.
What do you folks think? Am I overthinking this?
A good way to come up with names is take an existing word or name and scramble the letters. For example, Laeno Nevets. It's just my name backwards but it works.
I feel you. I'm glad they started giving us the age/weight/height statistics for new playable races, but I do really miss the common name recommendations that they offered for the core races. A name is a vital part of a character, and I like to tie it into the character's history, culture, and background if I can. Otherwise my names tend to start sounding all the same, or end up in a bucket of orcish/elvish/generic-fantasy-human.
On the other hand, not having suggestions can also mean you're free to choose something for yourself. I gave one of my characters a Chinese-reminiscent name, and in my personal head-canon that's a common sound scheme for her people. If something does get printed on the subject in the future, I can always say that it's her family's particular tradition, if not an entire race.
Elinnia's idea of just naming them something and saying that it's a common naming convention or sound for that race is what I tend to go for. I generally take the look of a species and give them either a name of just made-up sounds that seem fitting to using real-world languages as something to work off of.
There's also the option of giving them a language name. If you've ever learned another language you may have learned what the equivalent of your name is in that language. For example, John, Juan, and Jean. You could do something similar. Let's say you have a Pahtra who goes by "Ace" in common. It's doubtful that's their true name, but it may be one with a similar meaning.
If you're looking to quickly name NPCs, maybe try a generator?
One I use pretty often:
https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/alien-names.php
I feel like you're probably overthinking it. But that's me
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Making up nonsense names is easy; but making up nonsense yet believable names is tough.
I agree that it'd be nice to get some info and/or examples on how cultures think of and name themselves; especially the ones that don't communicate verbally. I really appreciated how, in the Escape from the Prison Moon Chapter of the Against the Aeon Throne AP,