A Planet Named Zok

He's a long way from Xork.

Often, fictional extraterrestrials have bizarre names with Zs, Gs, and apostrophes. So it should come as no surprise to any Science Fiction viewer that the planets, moons, stars, and other celestial objects from which the aliens hail carry on this strange tradition — despite the fact that they still use the Latin alphabet and their names can still be pronounced by English speakers?^note Or Spanish, or French, or really any language that uses the familiar Latin alphabet.

Most of these planets use lots of "weird" consonants (ones that are often utilized in Scrabble Babble), like X, K, Z, Q, R, and N. Given their underuse in regular words, using them in alien contexts works all the better for writers.

Among other variants include planets that follow the "X-tar" or "X-lar" pattern. A few planets have names that end with "-i". Often, they're Punny Names.

Sometimes, it becomes a Brick Joke when a planet like this is first introduced, then finds itself used for Scrabble Babble (as mentioned above).

A Sub-Trope of Law of Alien Names. Compare Numbered Homeworld and Naming Your Colony World for other ways to name a planet. See also Xtreme Kool Letterz and A Villain Named "Z__rg". Descriptively named planets go under Descriptiveville.

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Examples:

Asian Animation

• Happy Heroes has Planet Xing, at least in English materials that actually use that name or "Planet Xingxing". The Miao Mi dub averts this by calling it "Star Planet" ("xing" means "star" in Chinese).

Comic Books

• Fantastic Four: Skrulls originally come from the planet Skrullos.
• Green Lantern:
  • The planet H'lven has produced a number of Green Lanterns, the most famous being C'hp and his successor B'dg. The local inhabitants have tech at a similar level to that of earth and resemble earth squirrels.
  • The planet Zintha is the homeworld of a Green Lantern who requested special dispensation to remain on world because her people developed a culture that was very against interstellar travel after barely surviving an interplanetary war. Zintha is also orbiting a living star, as in an actual living creature acts as their sun.
• Nova: The Nova Corps' HQ is located on the planet Xandar.
• Superman:
  • The late and ever-iconic Krypton of the Superman and Supergirl comics is one of the most famous examples. Krypton, however, has a Greek root and means "The Hidden", as in 'cryptic', 'cryptography', and for that matter: 'crypt'. It is also the name of a chemical element (No. 36, a noble gas).
  • In the Red Daughter of Krypton storyline Supergirl visited some weirdly-named world such like Ysmault, Grax or Primeen.
  • In Krypton No More, Superman and Supergirl have to protect Xonn (a planet located in Cygni-Gi system) from an Alien Invasion.
  • In War World, after appropriating the eponymous super-weapon, Mongul headed straight for the Raydor galaxy.
  • In the Pre-Crisis universe, the survivors of Krypton settled in a world they called Rokyn (meaning "Rao's gift"). It was featured in The Krypton Chronicles and other stories.
  • In her Post-Flashpoint series Supergirl visits a world named I'noxia.
  • In Way of the World, Supergirl must free a planet named Krall from an alien overlord.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes'' member Timberwolf comes from a human colony on the mining planet Zuun.
  • Substitute Legion member Stone Boy hails from the planet Zwen. The place was originally settled by meta-humans rescued by Valor after being abducted and experimented on and they developed the ability to put themselves in suspended animation to deal with the planet's slow rotation.

Comic Strips

• The original Calvin and Hobbes also had this in the various alien worlds that Spaceman Spiff found himself crash-landing on.
• The Zorgons of Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, who come from the planet Zorgo.
• An extremely early Dilbert strip has bovine-looking aliens from the planet Moothron visit Dogbert.

Fan Works

• The trope is named for an alien planet in The Calvinverse.

Films — Live-Action

• Highlander II: The Quickening has Planet Zeist - which is a real city name in the Netherlands.
• Some of the planets of Star Wars fit this, the best example being Kashyyyk, the Wookiee home planet mentioned from near the beginning and first seen^note at least in anything anyone would want to see in Revenge of the Sith.
• One of the main planets in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) is Xandar.
• The planets named in Star Games include Alriscon, Zandez, Furdik, Nurwan and Skutenesh.

Literature

• Planets mentioned in the Cthulhu Mythos have especially weird names, the most obvious example being Yuggoth.
• Some of the planets in Outernet, like Vered II, fit.
• The eponymous K-PAX from the book series by Dr. Gene Brewer. The K-PAXian visitor/possible mental patient "prot" also calls his planet's two suns K-MON and K-RIL, discusses the planets FLOR, NOLL and TERPSION, and refers to Earth in his own language as B-TIK. The all-caps spelling of planets, stars and constellations is also part of their naming convention, while the names of individuals and most locations smaller than a celestial body are left uncapitalized.

Live-Action TV

• Downplayed example: ALF's recently-destroyed home planet was named Melmac, which was also an old brand of plastic dishware.
• Rita Repulsa and her crew, when making some monsters to combat the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, would sometimes comment that they had done well in committing genocide on a certain planet named like this. Presumably those planets were the galactic equivalent of Ruritania.
  • Other planets mentioned in the Power Rangers series as a whole include Aquitar, KO-35 and Xybria.
• Several planets from Doctor Who, including Raxacoricofallapatorius and Skaro, the Daleks' home planet.
• Babylon 5 has Z'ha'dum (also has apostrophes!), and in The Technomage Trilogy, the Rim planet and Shadow/Drakh stronghold Thenothk.
  • Of course those familar with B5 will know that Z'ha'dum is really an homage to Khazad-dûm (along with boatload of other nods to LOTR).
• A famous example is Planet Vulcan from the original Star Trek.
  • The Klingon home world, in their language, is spelled Qo'noS. Apparently, the letter "K" does not exist, and humans pronouncing it as "Kronos" and even "Klingon" are just the closest we can come to it.
• Zig & Zag, a pair of children's tv puppets that originally appeared on Irish children's television and later on various Channel 4 shows in the UK apparently originally came from Planet Zog.
  • Perhaps the home planet of the Chicago children's television show "Land of Ziggy Zoggo"—which also considered the station call letters (originally WBKB, and called out in universe when changed to WLS to match the station's radio counterpart) to be "words".

Myths & Religion

• According to Scientology, the planet we live on was previously called "Teegeeack" before Xenu deposited humanity there.
• Mormonism: The Mormons have Kolob, described as the planet/star closest to God's throne.

Video Games

• The Neverhood has planet Idznak, home of the Skullmonkeys (where the sequel takes place).
• Each level in Ristar is a planet, and Freon (according to the actual Scrabble rules) just barely qualifies.
• Some of the planets in Milky Way Wishes from Kirby Super Star have names like Cavius. (Ones like Skyhigh and Hotbeat don't really count.)
• Metroid:
  • Metroid/Metroid: Zero Mission and Super Metroid have Planet Zebes.
  • Metroid II: Return of Samus/Metroid: Samus Returns are set in Planet SR 388.
  • Metroid Dread takes place on Planet ZDR.
• Planets in StarCraft share this trait, like Aiur and Zerus (the homeworlds of the Protoss and Zerg).
• The Stylistic Suck flash game A Game About Courage (made by the creator of Riddle School) has you unlock a secret ending by getting a haircut while playing as Cloud. It reads:
  super secret ending
  you screwd up
  everyone on the planet Zeputar hates you to undeath for not killing yourself when you had the chance
• Ratchet & Clank: The former character comes from Veldin.
• Stellaris: By default, most empires in the galaxy will not be humanoid, and many will name their colonized planets this way. They may be nonsense words, but they are appropriate to species type: a name like "Zuppox" suggests the buzzing mandibles of Insectoid Aliens, "Fixash" is appropriate for the scaly hiss of the Lizard Folk, and "Riblagga" might be spoken through the tentacled mouths of molluscoid aliens.
• Escape Velocity Nova have many planets and systems with names like Tre'ar Zalom, Z'precti Hem, Ver'ar Noriout, Nil'ar Kemorya in the east and northeast. Granted this is because of the way the Polaris speak.
  • In Override, the Crescent region of space features worlds (and systems) named Gazdair, Azdgari, Igadzra and Zidagar, with the last two being homeworlds of the eponymous factions and the first two having been homeworlds before they were devastated (the Azdgari system is still the capital, more-or-less, for the Azdgari, but they reside on the moons of the planet Azdgari instead of its surface). There's a reason they share the same letters: Gadzair was the original homeworld for the species, and when internecine conflict devastated it, the survivors decide to split into three separate factions with a Council manipulating things to keep any one of the factions from fully defeating the others.
• Planet Bazoik in Chex Quest, the setting of the first game.
• Massmouth 2: The planet Zeeble, home of the protagonist.
• Features heavily in No Man's Sky with such worlds as Gorogohl, Sayall, Achaia, Yaasirj, and Ikdlak. Even a few star systems get in on the fun with such charming names as Xonnas, N'glik, Toniberli, Oaster, and Ethaedair.
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords lampshades this if you talk to Mira about how she ended up with a Wookiee hunting her across the galaxy. She notes that she doesn't remember the name of the planet he comes from (Kashyyyk, a planet visited in the previous game), only that it has "too many K's and Y's, sounds like you're gargling ronto spit when you say it".

Web Animation

• Homestar Runner's Show Within a Show "Limozeen - 'but they're in space!'" is set on Groupulon 5, a Shout-Out to Babylon 5.

Web Original

• Dinosaur Dracula: While explaining the backstory of a marshmallow space craft, Matthew notes that the pacifist Starmals come from the planet Dextrosa.

Western Animation

• Irk from Invader Zim.
• The Yolkians, whose home planet Yolkus features prominently in the Jimmy Neutron movie.
  • Likewise, the spinoff Planet Sheen revolves around Sheen crash-landing on the planet Zeenu.
• The planet Marklar from South Park. This also the title of every noun on Marklar. As one could guess, much smurfing ensues.
• Futurama has a few, like Vergon 6 and Trisol.
• Yugopotamia from Fairly OddParents.
• Alien's home planet Quome from Wanda and the Alien.
• Wander over Yonder has many oddly-named locations such as Ziziks, a tropical vacation-destination planet, and Mooplexia, inhabited by a race of slow and idiotic-looking aliens.

Real Life

• The scientists who decide on official planet names tend to not approve too exotic-sounding monikers unless they are based in ancient mythology, but every once in a while Pop Culture Osmosis wins out. (For example, one of the proposed names for a planetoid is Xena.) That one ended up getting the classical name Eris (the Goddess of strife from Greek mythology). Its satellite, however, did end up with an oblique popcultural reference: it's called Dysnomia, after the Anthropomorphic Personification of lawlessness - referencing Lucy Lawless, the actress playing Xena.

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