Throughout the story, the comet that Tim Hamner discovers is known by many different names. Some of the names are Hammerfall, The Hammer, Hamner-Brown comet, Hammer of God, and Lucifer’s Hammer. I find it interesting that among all those names that the authors mention in the story, the one they used for their title was “Lucifer’s Hammer.”
After attempting to get different meanings of the name “Lucifer,” I thought the one meaning that might explain the decision of the authors was the one that stated that Lucifer was the Devil’s name when he was an angel, which could parallel the comet being among the stars, a wonder for all to see, sort of “angelic” in that way perhaps. Yet Lucifer the angel was thrown out of the sky or heaven and became the “devil.” This could parallel the comet’s being thrown down from the sky and causing death and destruction. Along with physical destruction, the comet also causes the evil side of many people, such as Fred Lauren, and others to come out and physically or mentally injure others.