In search of a fiction-writing / naming pattern: You have a novum technology in your story. Your narrator and characters need to call it something. What do you name it? (A thread, asking for discussion.)

In the real world, common technologies might be called by their brand name (iPhone), an appropriated word brand-ized (Android), a proprietary eponym (Coke (in the south), Kleenex, Xerox), the category (smartphone or just phone), or even an individual name (Frank.) Others?

In fiction, how do you determine which etymology to go with for your novum tech (especially in a short story where you are pressed for literary time)?

A unique brand name or proprietary eponym hints at a consumer tech with lots of branding behind it. This may not be the case in the story, and naming has so many trends it feels like it could age out quickly. Think “iCar” here. Nonexistant naming trends seems similarly risky.

An appropriated word might confuse people, though the capitalization is a clue. “She picked up her Android and pressed it to her face despite her tears” would read very strangely to someone in, say, the 1980s.

The category might be the right answer for a less-branded tech, but it has a believability problem. New tech categories tend to get marked-version-of-familiar-thing category names. “Mobile phone” and “smartphone,” for example.

But marking only lasts a short while. Eventually, speakers drop the marker and return to the base: For example, most people nowadays just say “phone.” Additionally, people born into a tech will find the use of a marker to sound really old fashioned and avoid it like bad humors…

…(Here I’m thinking of my son, who will only ever know a phone as a mobile, digital thing.) But using a base word in fiction doesn’t signal its _newness_. It might mislead the reader to imagining it as the thing they already know. It could be the “garden path” of naming.

Individual name seems charming, but might confuse readers into thinking it’s a person. Or might just be plain ole confusing. The gendered pronouns in particular… “She picked up Frank and pressed them to her face despite her tears.”

What I’m saying is that the psychology and linguistics of naming is complicated enough in the real world that it seems really tough to work out in fiction. Does anyone know of good rules of thumb? Or prior art on the topic?

Tagging knowledgable &or interested folks: @YeekMonkey @amandacpeterson @bruces @KevinBankston @Annaleen @m_older @hondanhon @miniver @KevinBankston @warrenellis @gaileyfrey @ChuckWendig @eliotpeper @MadelineAshby @MARIADAHVANA @hannu @GretchenAMcC @doctorow @AndrewDHudson

Please forgive if this was a nuisance tagging. Please forgive if I should have tagged you and I failed to I am quite tired. Please forgive.