Naming Your Interstellar Empire

[Vectorus]

Good idea to make this thread. 

The video didn't really go much beyond basic common sense, I think...I shared Anr's assessment. The guy's political commentary was laughably naïf and out-of-place in a general guide for nomenclature. He should have confined himself to technical facts such as the misuse of "hegemony" or "protectorate". I add that I don't see his objection to including what you might call "mechanical" adjectives (federal, congressional, etc.) in a state's name. One obvious reason why this might be done is to distinguish one state from another with a more general name, but the same territorial designation: especially if the other state is older. 

For example, first we had the Republic of China, then we had the People's Republic of China; since they are both formal Republics, some more specific description was needed for the latecomer. The "Unitary Republic of X" suggests to me an earlier "Republic of X" which was notably fragmented, just as the "United Reformed Church", in itself a somewhat odd name, makes sense when we presuppose the existence of a Reformed Church, and indeed a simple Church before that - the name itself suggests an interesting narrative.

My own country has the formal name Reaume del Seint Graal, Old French for "Kingdom of the Holy Grail", which I trust is self-explanatory. Adjective is Graalois, or in some cases simply "Grail" (e.g. "Grail Knight", "Grail Fleet"). As with most (stylistically) pre-modern nations, there are a bewildering number of poetic and prosaic names for the actual territory. You can call it Listenoise, just as Germany is the territorial name for the political body of the Holy Roman Empire. My ships have no prefix, partly because that is a post-mediaeval phenomenon and partly because culturally French states have never had them, anyway. The adjective "royal" occurs in many institutional names, e.g. Marine Royale; when used internally, this is sufficient. When other Royal Navies are in play, the adjective Graalois/e is added - just as the Queen of the UK is just "Her Majesty" at home, but "Her Britannic Majesty" abroad. 

I'm interested to see that mine is one of only a very few kingdoms on the list, while empires abound.  

I feel that countries ought to have a good single-word name in additional to their formal title, just as most real-world nations do. It somehow adds concreteness and tangibility. I like Weltreich and Foxtail for that reason, and I use Listenoise myself. Can anyone else tell us the equivalent for their country? Things like the United Federation of Planets seem a bit anaemic and soulless to me if they have no simple name: you can go to Italy for a holiday but, frankly, saying "I'm going to the United Federation of Planets for my gap year" sounds a bit silly. You couldn't exactly have a stirring national poem:

Rule, United Federation of Planets! United Federation of Planets rules the waves!
Citizenship holders of the United Federation of Planets never, never, never shall be slaves!

I always thought evocative, simple, euphonious "Gallifrey" was a much better choice than "Celestial Chronocracy of the Temporal Lordship" or any of that rubbish would have been.