Pronounciation Guide

Whirligig World Pronounciation Guide.

Notes: Names generally have some logic to them, though not necessarily a good logic. Asteroids have numbers in front representing the order they were discovered in, just like real asteroids. Wers and Vizea are both number 1 despite Vizea being a moon for complicated observational reasons detailed in its in-game description box. Some names were designed with advice from a video by Stoneworks World Building titled Creating Place Names Artistically.

Kaywell: Kay-Well. Named by my mother on vacation before I actually started work on Whirligig World. I asked her, "what's a good name for a Star?" and this was her response. Kaywell specifically refers to Kaywell's Star, a star discovered by "ancient" Kerbal astronomer Kaywell Kerman.

Shol: Shawl.

2 Wolda: Wole-dah.

Tyepolbynar: Tie eh poll buy nar. People seem to hate this name in particular, so an alternative is Typobal (Typo Ball). It was named as an intentionally long but pleasing (to me) sounding planet. Sometimes I feel the need to pronounce it with a british accent and call it Tie That Pol'd Bynar. This is entirely optional.

Jifgif: Jif Gif or Jif Jif--massive debate among astronomers! Named after the popular argument over the pronounciation of the animated image format .gif.

Imterril: Im Ter rell. It was named before I knew what it'd actually be, I just handwaved the existence of "the hot planet Imterril" in an early dev post discussing possible future features.

Etrograd: Et Roe Grahd. Retrograde but with a short a sound and no "R"

Tannor: Tan or / Tan er.

Aerious: Air Ee Us. Named to include all full-time vowel letters in english, and to sound like it's airy, sparsely packed.

1 Wers: Werz.

1 Vizea: Vie Zee Ah. V sound refers to Vesta, the solar system object it is heavily based upon.

Mesbin: Mez ben. Named as a portmanteau of Mesklin (Mez Klen) and Kerbin (Kerr-Ben). Mesklin is the original, classic spinning super-earth created by Hal Clement in 1954. Its inhabitants are known as Mesbals (Mez-bahls) or Mesbinites (Mez-ben-eye'ts)

Statmun: Stat muhn / moon. Named for its stationary appearance from the surface of Mesbin.

Thresomin: Three soh min. Named for its THREE to one RESonance, and being a MINor moon.

Graymun: Gray Muhn / Moon. Name is exactly what you think it is.

Kerbmun: Kerb Muhn/Moon. Portmanteau of Kerbin and Mun.

Troymin: Troy Min. Trojans are from TROY, and this is a MINor moon which is a trojan of Kerbmun.

Derbin: Derb In. Bin comes from Kerbin, though I don't know why I chose that, and Der is meaningless.

Derminmus: Der Min Mus. Portmanteau of Minmus and Derbin.

Valyr: Vah Leer / Val ir. Name is a modification of Lyr, the planet designed by Chris Wayan that Valyr is heavily based upon.

Denna: Den nah. The original system had Rik (Will Riker) and Denna (Deanna Troi) orbiting as trojans, a vague Star Trek TNG reference.

Plaph: Plaff / Phlaff. Sounds vaguely like "fluff"

Oshan: Ocean. Name is a modification of Oisin, the moon designed by Chris Wayan that Oshan is heavily based upon.

Manonam: Man Oh Nam (the a sound is the same in Man and Nam, and matches the english word "man"). Named after Mananan, a moon mentioned by Chris Wayan to orbit Lyr, and the They Might Be Giants song i Palindrome i, where "manonam" is chanted in the background vocals.

Didd: Did. Named after the asteroid Didymos. Diddmun: Did Mun / Did Moon. Named after minor planet minor moon Didymoon.

Egad: Ee Gad. Originally named Adjar (Add Jar), both versions are plays on the name Egar, the original name for Duna from NovaSilisko's original solar system concepts. Both Egad and Egar were proposed to have more extended ice caps compared to Duna. Adjar originally orbited Reander, and Egar originally orbited Meander, so at the time the name made even more sense. For a long time I felt that Adjar just didn't sound quite right, so I changed the name to Egad because it is also an exclamation that feels kind of... antique? (It means A God, and saying "Egad!" is like saying "oh my god!")

Yeerbor: Year Bore / Yeer boor. Originally this name went to a moon that had belonged to Shol. Both moons had one thing in common: they both had eccentric orbits. The original Yeerbor was a boring lump of salt and sand in an orbit that skimmed Shol's atmosphere and its SOI boundary, which frankly was rather ridiculous and unstable. The current yeerbor has a similarly eccentric orbit brushing Egad's roche limit, and has a rather nice and interesting shape and surface.

3 Rik: Rick / Rike. Named for Will Riker, for reasons discussed above.

Reander: Ree An Der. Named for Meander, the original name for Jool in NovaSilisko's solar system concepts.

Lito: Lee Toh. Scrambled version of Tylo.

Yalthe: Y'all'th. Scrambled version of Laythe (it was originally larger and had an atmosphere similar to Laythe.)

Yokane: Yo Cane. Very vaguely resembles the word Vulcan.

Dakkonme: Dack On Me. I was listening to Take On Me when I named this moon.

Totoöa: Toe Toe Oh Ah. The ö means that the first o sound is repeated, as in the constellation Boötes. I was listening the Toto-Africa when I named this moon.

Mally: Mal-lee / Molly.

Yawer: Yaw er / Yauer. Named after the fact that it is "yawing" (turning the same way a spacecraft or aircraft might yaw) very quickly.

Gememma: Jem Emm Ah / Jem Emma. Named by picking a random female Kerbal name. Gememma specifically means "Gememma's Star." The Kerbin Kerbals called it Kaywell B, the Mesbinites had long called it "Rodocer," (Row-doe-serr) confusing it with a totally different red giant star, and it was Mesbinite Gememma Kerman who first discovered the planetary nature of the star.

Ammenon: Am Men On. Butchered version of the name of my friend Annie, who like Ammenon, is both hot and cool. ;)

Lowel: Low ell / Loh well. Named after Percival Lowell, the 1800s astronomer who thought he saw criss-crossed patterns on Mars and came to the conclusion that Mars had intelligent life. He thought they were artificial canals, which is probably due to a misunderstanding with italian astronomer Schiaparelli, who saw "canali" (natural channels) on the surface. In both cases, they were actually seeing the blood vessels in their retinas projected onto their view of Mars.

Ollym: Olly em / All eem / Ah lee im. Named after Olympus Mons, the martian mountain.

Gannovar. Gan no var.

Mandrake: Man Jrake / Man Drake. Drake rhymes with Cake. Mandrake and Rutherford are names taken (with permission) from former KSP dev NovaSilisko's original design for the solar system, which would have had two nearly equal mass Neptunian planets orbiting each other in the outer system. In universe, in both Whirligig World and in NovaSilisko's original plans, Mandrake and Rutherford were conjoined twin astronomers.

Rutherford: Ruh therr ford / Ruh therr ferd. See above explanation.

Lozon: Loh Zahn / Loz on.

Beagrid: Bee Grid.

Jancy: Jan See / Yan See.

Tatian: Ta sheean / Ta tee ahn. It either rhymes with Martian or it is a shorter version of the name Tatiana.

Pragnik: Prag Nick. The "nik" was meant to evoke "sputnik," as it was originally envisioned as a trojan of Reander.

1P/Fophie: Foe Fee. Rhymes with Sophie.