History Main / HumansByAnyOtherName

* The two major human factions in the ''{{Videogame/X}}-Universe'' series are called the Argon and the [[PlanetTerra Terrans]]. The Argon Federation is a LostColony that was cut off from Earth several hundred years before the games take place, and is [[NamedAfterSomebodyFamous named after its first leader]], Nathan ''R. Gunne''. The Terran State is the continuation of Earth's government, and controls the Solar System. Members of the minor factions like the [[ActualPacifist Goners]], [[LostColony Free State of Solara]], and the [[AllThereInTheManual Hatikvah Free League]] are generally just called humans.

** Played with in the ''StargateAtlantis'' episode "Letters from Pegasus". Carson Beckett is recording a letter to his mom, and starts going off on a tangent about how "Earthlings are a scrappy bunch". Ford immediately stops him, assuming the use of the word "Earthling" as opposed to "human" to be a security breach. Carson matter-of-factly states, "She's knows I'm from Earth."

** The naming convention has been retroactively applied for the Zerg in ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'': they come from Planet Zerus (''not'' {{Zeerust}}), and to tell the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Zerus-zerg]] from [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Overmind-zerg]], the from-Zerus ones are called "Primal Zerg". Neat, huh?

* The animals from Creator/TamoraPierce's ''[[Literature/TortallUniverse Immortals]]'' quartet call humans "two-leggers", for obvious reasons.

* ''[[ComicBook/TwoThousandAD 2000 AD]]'''s alien Editor-In-Chief, Tharg the Mighty, refers to humans as "Earthlets."
* In the original MarvelComics version of ComicBook/TheTransformers, the Autobots would refer to us as humans, while the Decepticons used the more derogatory "fleshling".

** Kithkin (or Sangamis in the French version), Magic's {{Hobbit|s}} {{expy}}, could qualify. Especially since in the Lorwyn block, there are the creature type closest to what you would expect from humans (live in cities, have pink skin, use tech rather than magic...) They have the proportions of hobbits and lead idyllic, pastoral, cooperative lives. Lorwyn deliberately had no humans in it at all unless planeswalkers count.
** Other creature types like Metathran and Kor showed up around the same time as Human in much the same manner: previously, all members of these races had only had "class" creature types. Apart from their [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation blue skin]], both qualify as examples of this trope.

* In FredSaberhagen's ''Literature/{{Berserker}}'' universe, ''all'' sapient life forms are called Human. Homo Sapiens is called the E.D., or Earth Descended "theme" of humanity. (Non-human Earthlife is also referred to as E.D. lifeforms.)

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' has the Homs, inhabitants of Bionis, who are pretty much identical to humans with a few exceptions. The word human isn't even mentioned once between them, [[spoiler:and with good reason, since they aren't really humans. Actual humans used to exist long before the game's events before [[ApocalypseHow something went]] [[GoneHorriblyRight horribly right]]]].

* Mysteron agents in ''CaptainScarlet'' would use "Earthman" after having broken, or in order to break, the {{Masquerade}}. The invisible Voice of the Mysterons themselves also announced "We know that you can hear us, Earthmen" each week.
* In the earlier GerryAnderson show ''Series/{{Stingray 1964}}'', various sea-dwelling uglies would call humans "Terraneans," since we come from land (terrain).

* PiersAnthony's ''Literature/{{Cluster}}'' books used the term "Solarian", named after the star, as opposed to the planet.
* Similarly, the Lizards in HarryTurtledove's ''{{Worldwar}}'' novels refer to humans as "Tosevites" -- derived from Tosev, their name for Sol. When speaking formally, anyway. In casual speech, they're just as likely to refer to humans as "Big Uglies".

* In ''TheCulture'', humans are the most common species - apparently capable of interbreeding - despite evolving independently on thousands of different worlds, and the word "human" is generally understood to refer to all of these people.
** Well, within the Culture itself at least, but they all have tons of specialized organs which probably contributes to their capability of reproducing with other Humanoids outside the Culture (such as one half-Culture-by-biology character in "Consider Phlebas" who becomes pregnant with the child of a non-Culture Humanoid).
*** In "Player of Games", at one point, the main character is forced to bet his reproductive organs on the outcome of a match and his AI companion assures him that the Culture has no intention of letting such "advanced biological equipment" fall into a potentially rival civilization's hands (the reverse engineering possibilities would be disastrous). If it came down to it, they would simply evacuate him as soon as he lost and face the political/military consequences.
** Interestingly, this does not seem to include ''H. sapiens'' itself- Earth is an uncontacted backwater through most of said books.

* In the ''SectorGeneral'' books, every sentient species refers to themselves as "human", or by a word that the TranslatorMicrobes translate as "human". As this is utterly useless to the medically-oriented protagonists, they frequently have to insist that their patients use the hospital's four-letter code description for different species.

* In HilariBell's YA science fiction novel ''A Matter of Profit'', the humans call themselves the Vivitare.
* The [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Kantri]] of {{Literature/Tales Of Kolmar}} call humanity "Gedri", [[YouAreTheTranslatedForeignWord Silent Ones]], because humans [[spoiler: mostly]] can't use or hear the psychic "truespeech" that Kantri have as well as vocal speech.
* The animals from TamoraPierce's ''[[TortallUniverse Immortals]]'' quartet call humans "two-leggers", for obvious reasons.
* In the ''MythAdventures'' books, the dimension humans come from is known as Klah, and the humans themselves are Klahds (pronounced "[[HumansAreMorons clods]]").
* In ''TheSecretsOfTheImmortalNicholasFlamel'' the [[PhysicalGod Elders]] typically call humans "humani".

* "Tau'ri" in the ''StargateVerse'' is an example that does ''not'' involve an Earth term, although, strictly speaking, it only refers to humans born on Earth (since most aliens are human). And even then, they couldn't resist the temptation to use "Terran" as well, because "Terra" [[JustifiedTrope just happened]] to be what the Ancients called Earth. The season six episode "Cure" also has an alien use the term "Earthans"... about Jonas Quinn and Teal'c, both of whom are actually HumanAliens. Jonas then corrects her: "Earth''lings''".

* The Locust in GearsOfWar tend to refer to humans by the derogatory term "groundwalker".[[hottip:*:Because the humans walk on the surface.]]

* It is endlessly debated as to whether or not Hylians are human, though the word "human" is used often in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', the Oracle Series, and Majora's mask. Maybe Nintendo was trying to end the bickering?

* In ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', humans are called [[spoiler:[[HumansAreSuperior Spirals]]]] in the end.
** Actually, the humanoid races in general are called [[spoiler:Spirals]]. The term "human" is mostly used of Earth's [[spoiler:Spirals]] as well as the other [[spoiler:Spiral]] races are called by their own term. Possibly.

* The two major human factions in the ''{{Videogame/X}}-Universe'' series are called the Argon and [[PlanetTerra Terrans]]. The Argon Federation is a LostColony that was cut off from Earth several hundred years before the games take place. The Terran State is the continuation of Earth's government, and controls the Solar System.

* In LarryNiven's ''KnownSpace'' stories, humans get different titles based on what planet they're from. Few of of these are references to the name of the planet. Earth humans are Flatlanders, humans from the asteroid belt (or any asteroids in the Solar System) are Belters, those from "We Made It" are Crashlanders (Guess how they -- and the planet -- got THAT name?), natives of Plateau are Mountaineers, and so on.

* ''RagnarokOnline II: Gate of the World'''s humans are called "Normans," which is probably a portmanteau of Human and [[NorseMythology Norse]].
** More likely it refers to the Normans, a viking descended people who ruled various European lands during the Middle Ages.

** The naming convention has been retroactively applied for the Zerg in ''StacraftII'': they come from Planet Zerus (''not'' {{Zeerust}}), and to tell the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Zerus-zerg]] from [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Overmind-zerg]], the from-Zerus ones are called "Primal Zerg". Neat, huh?

* PiersAnthony's ''Cluster'' books used the term "Solarian", named after the star, as opposed to the planet.

* The animals from TamoraPierce's ''Immortals'' quartet call humans "two-leggers", for obvious reasons.

* The colonists in ''Ace Online'' are called "Decaians".

* In ''Guild Wars: Eye of the North'', the Asura use the pejorative term "bookah" for humans. In a cutscene, the term is revealed to refer to a violent, clumsy, stupid, bellowing imaginary creature used to frighten Asura children. This has somewhat expanded to cover any race they see as less intelligent than the Asura, meaning every other race.

* Averted in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' - humans are still referred to as humans. The only exception is the volus, who refer to humans as "Earth-clan". This extends to aliens as well -- in the game, no aliens species are named for their homeworld (asari come from Thessia, salarians come from Sur'Kesh, turians come from Palaven, krogan come from Tuchanka, elcor come from Dakuuna, volus come from Irune, and hanar come from Kahje), and, unlike many, ''many'' other SF franchises, spell them in all-lowercase, just like the word "human".

* Though there is no Earth in ''StarWars'', most humans are referred to by their planet of origin -- Corellians from Corellia, Coruscanti from Coruscant, Naboo from Naboo and so on. Of course, if you substitute "country" for "planet", that's exactly what we do in RealLife.
** This goes for some other species in ''Star Wars'', too. For example, Zabrak from their homeworld Iridonia are commonly called Iridonians.

* Averted in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' - humans are still referred to as humans. The only exception is the volus, who refer to humans as "Earth-clan". This extends to aliens as well -- in the game, no aliens species are named for their homeworld (asari come from Thessia, salarians come from Sur'Kesh, turians come from Palaven, and krogan come from Tuchanka), and, unlike many, ''many'' other SF franchises, spell them in all-lowercase, just like the word "human".

* In ''Franchise/StarTrek'', most species have a name for the species in Federation Standard (English), which is usually derived from the Federation Standard name for their planet. (Bajorans from Bajor, Vulcans from Vulcan; in an aversion, Klingons from Qo'noS (prnonounced Kronos)). However, they also usually have a name for people from any particular planet. So a member of any species that was raised on Earth would be an Earthling, or on Bajor would be a Bajoran & so on. However, all species have at least one language of their own, which has a different name for their species that may have nothing to do with their name for their home planet. For example, in Imperial Standard Klingon (The Klingon language used by the Imperial Council, that can be learned at the Klingon Language Institute in RealLife)Klingon = tlhIngan. But their homeworld is called Qo'noS. Presumably the English word 'Klingon' was just a bad Human pronunciation at first.

* ''Series/TheTomorrowPeople call normal humans "saps" (short for ''Homo sapiens'', or just because they're saps).

* In ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'', the humans are also referred as "Lilim", [[spoiler: and the entire human race is the 18th Angel]].