Title - First book in series

None of the Jo Nesbo 'Harry Hole' novels follow an order in their titles.
None of the Lee Child 'Reacher' novels follow an order in their titles.
None of the Louise Penny 'Inspecteur Gamache' novels follow an order in their titles.
None of the Val McDermid 'Tony Hill & Carol Jordan' novels follow an order in their titles.


Not having a cute title ordering scheme is not a showstopper for success.

-cb

Personally, I tend to dig sequels that aren't clearly sequels, judging from the title. It always irks me when movies (heh) can't figure out a better title than "First Movie Name 2". Luckily, most novels don't have that problem, and the series you mentioned have handled it in a fairly creative way. But I would guess that the majority of novel series are just titled individually, with little regard for their part in the larger whole, and are none the worse for it.

Based on what I've read about the subject, the publisher often changes the title, so your working title isn't a big deal.

If you're self-publishing, you could always keep the titles as you'd like and then specify that the books are part of a series.

Like:
Wither (Chemical Garden Trilogy, #1)
Fever (Chemical Garden Trilogy, #2)
Sever (Chemical Garden Trilogy, #3)

In this case, the titles sound similar, but that doesn't have to be the case. Any title should be fine as long as it's clear that the book is part of a series.

Matching titles is definitely a marketing tool, so chances are it would be marketing that gives suggestions, assuming the working title you give isn't sufficient. I agree that you shouldn't really worry about it at this point.

Hunger Games also didn't have a series title. Catching Fire just has a little note on the book that says: Book 2 of the Hunger Trilogy.

When I completed my first book, I had not considered a series, but have since decided to do so. I figure I'll promote the series at the cover's bottom using my protagonist. You could use something like; "Book Title" at the top to grab a potential reader, then "A (Protagonist Name) Mystery" at the cover's bottom. Just a thought...

http://www.timfairchildbooks.com

It took me forever to decide on the eventual title of my first self-pub novel. It ended up coming about when I managed to gather my beta readers and editor into the same chat room with that specific goal. We created the perfect title AND the concept art for the cover. It took several hours but it was worth it. Maybe that would be worth a shot for you?

I think coming up with the title is such a struggle. I tend to leave it for the end unless I'm sure I know it. I do agree matching titles is a marketing too, but there's also a bent towards publishers seeking stand alone titles from new authors (not sure if you've published before Jeff - can't tell from your profile). I think I remember seeing a discussion on the subject on Mary Kole's blog a while back - she said series are very marketable but if it's a debut author writing a stand alone novel is a good idea. She argued publishers are less likely to take a chance on a trilolgy or larger series if the story isn't going to make sense on its own, as it's important to see how the first novel sells. She even suggested letting the agent know, if you'v got a series in mind, that the novel itself stand alone. The Hunger Games is probably a good example: definitely written to be a series, but if it flopped the first book alone would still make sense and fans wouldn't be left hanging.