History Main / NamedAfterTheirPlanet

* In ''Series/{{Defiance}}'' the seven Votan species originated in the Votanis system, but as far as specific homeworlds go only the Irathients and Gulanee play this one straight (unless one counts the terraformed Castithan colony of Casti). In fact Irath was home to the Liberata and Sensoths too as well as the Irathients. Castithans and Indogenes originated on Daribo and the Volge first showed up on Omec but are supposedly from somewhere else. Additionally, other sources claim that Casti is not a terraformed planet but Irath, after it was conquered by the Castithans, who then renamed it after themselves.

* The Jaridians in ''Series/EarthFinalConflict'' come from Jaridia, although it may not be their original homeworld, given that they used to be the same species as the Taelons. After the split, the Taelons settled another world in the Q'ruu'faa system of the Ma'hu'ra'va galaxy, calling it Taelon. This makes it the reverse case. This was the Taelon homeworld for hundreds of millions of years.

* ''[[D20Modern d20 Future]]'' both plays this trope straight and averts it, seemingly at random.

* The Matoran in ''Franchise/{{Bionicle}}'' are named for Mata Nui, [[spoiler: the planet-sized robot they live inside.]]

* Variation. The aliens in ''TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' hail from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania. They're known as Transylvanians.

* Subject of a gag in ''TenchiMuyo'': When Tenchi first meets Sasami, he immediately assumes that she's come from a planet called Sasami. Why he jumps to this conclusion is a bit of a headscratcher, though he was having kind of a bad day and probably wasn't thinking straight.

* In Creator/AnneMcCaffrey's ''Freedom'' series, the alien overlords are called the Catteni, and they come from the planet Catten. One of the characters lampshades this when they discover the capital of the planet is called Cattena.

* In AnneMcCaffrey's ''Freedom'' series, the alien overlords are called the Catteni, and they come from the planet Catten. One of the characters lampshades this when they discover the capital of the planet is called Cattena.

* The aliens in ''TheForeverWar'' are dubbed Taurans since they were first discovered in a star system that is in the constellation Taurus (as seen from Earth). Their real homeworld (and name) are unknown.
* The ''YoungWizards'' universe simultaneously uses and averts this trope; almost every species (or, every dominant species, anyway - this isn't an issue with the other wizarding species on Earth, of which we see whales and cats) calls themselves "humans" and their planet "Earth" in their own language, but after this is noted in ''High Wizardry'', they're usually referred to by names derived from their homeworld's name. It gets a CallBack occasionally, such as the conversation at the start of ''Wizards at War'', when [[HumanAliens Roshaun]] objects to being called a humanoid: "''I'' am the human. ''You're'' the humanoids."

* {{Inverted}} in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}},'' usually--the planets don't seem to have names, instead being referred to as "the Andalite homeworld," "the Hork-Bajir homeworld," and so on. Interestingly, they still call the human homeworld "Earth." The only time this trope seems to be played straight is with the Leerans from the planet Leera. Apparently, if the planet's dominant species decided to give their planet a name, that's their planet's name; if they didn't, it's "the (dominant species) homeworld."

*** That brings up a bit of FridgeLogic: How do the Andalites determine which of the regularly-shaped objects orbiting a star count as planets? We had trouble with that, and we ''live'' here. (Though it's possible that the Sol system has an unusual amount of big chunks of rocky debris floating around at its edge.)
*** Presumably the Andalites had decided on a standard for what counts as a planet (e.g. it has enough gravity that you don't have to tether yourself to the surface, or something), kinda like we have. Lord only knows what it is, of course...

** Or that unlike other species they are not limited to a single planet?
** Perhaps the books (written in human languages, as far as I'm aware) simply suffer from the same translation problems outside of the fourth wall as the characters do inside. Maybe if the books were written in a Kelgian language, Kelgians would be referred to as "Earth-Humans", with our species being referred to as DBDGs or whatever the Kelgian word for our planet is.

* Interesting subversion in ''Series/MyFavoriteMartian'' "Uncle Martin" always refers to himself as a Martian, as does Tim O'Hara - however, that's in English. There is an actual Martian language as evidenced in several episodes. The audience what ''Martians'' calls themselves in their native Martian.

* Common in ''Franchise/StarTrek''. The vast majority of the species are named after their homeworld. They do have exceptions, like the Humans (Earth), Klingons (Qo'nos), Borg (homeworld unknown as no origin story was ever told for them)....
** Of course, in the ParallelUniverse featured in [=DS9=], humans are all called Terrans.
*** Well, "terra" is Latin for "earth"; you just wouldn't use this form in Latin.
** Actually Qo'nos is supposed to literally translate to "Klingon" so....
*** And in one episode of TNG, the planet is called "Kling".

* Almost completely averted in the Franchise/StargateVerse -- except for the Asurans. And, of course, except for the displaced human cultures -- they may be called Abydonians, Eurondans or Tollans, but they're still humans. All of which is basically the same as calling someone from New York a "New Yorker" or someone from Germany a "German".

* Most of the alien races featuring prominently in the story arc in ''Series/BabylonFive'' fit this trope (Minbari/Minbar, Centauri/Centauri Prime, Narn/Narn Homeworld or Narn). The Shadows stand out as an aversion with "Z'ha'dum."[[note]]"Shadow" isn't their real name, but it's said that their real name would be 10, 000 letters long in English, so it can't possibly be anything like "Z'ha'dum."[[/note]]

* Often averted in ''Series/DoctorWho''. The Daleks are from Skaro, the Cybermen from Mondas, the Time Lords from Gallifrey...but also often applied. Sontarans are from Sontar.

** It's implied that the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Atavus]] homeworld (which isn't named in the show) was the original homeworld of the Jaridians and Taelons.

** For reference, the San 'Shyuum (Prophets) originally came from Janjur Qom (both during prehistoric times during their alliance with ancient humans and after the Forerunners wiped out their species and reseeded the planet with no memory of the past), the Unggoy (Grunts) are from Balaho, the Jiralhanae (Brutes) hail from Doisac, the Lekgolo (Hunters) evolved on Te, the Yanme'e (Drones) come from Palamok, and the Kig-Yar (Jackals) began on Eayn.

** It should be noted that the original prototype called ''Star Lords'' called Psilons [[Franchise/{{Dune}} Mentats]] and Darlocks [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Nazguls]]. By this account, the names of their homeworlds (Mentar and Nazin) make this trope true.

** For reference, "Vasuda" means "Earth" in Sanskrit.

** Of course, [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith that's not actually what they're called]].

** Please note, however, that in both cases, that's "earth" with a lower-case "e," i.e. soil. In the Hebrew instance, it's a transparent reference to the [[Literature/TheBible Biblical]] story of God creating the first man (Adam) out of clay.
*** For reference, the Hebrew word for "Earth" (the planet) is ''Eretz'', which, confusingly enough, also means "land," both as in "land you build on/farm" and "a country". ''Kador Eretz'', meaning "Earth Sphere", is used in modern Hebrew to refer to the planet specifically.
*** Same with the French word, ''Terre''.
*** Averted in Russian, with the word for human - ''человек'' (chelovek) has no roots in common with the word ''Земля'' (Zemlya) - Earth (the lower-case ''земля'' has the same meaning as lower-case "earth"). Of course, "zemlyanin" (Earthling) is used heavily in science fiction.

* Every alien race in ''{{Tracker}}''.
* The Jaridians in ''EarthFinalConflict'' come from Jaridia, although it may not be their original homeworld, given that they used to be the same species as the Taelons. After the split, the Taelons settled another world in the Q'ruu'faa system of the Ma'hu'ra'va galaxy, calling it Taelon. This makes it the reverse case. This was the Taelon homeworld for hundreds of millions of years.

* Initially played straight but then averted in the ''Literature/KPax'' novels -- prot refers to himself as a [=K-PAX=]ian, but later clarifies that his species are called "dremers" and referes to several other creatures from his planet as [=K-PAX=]ians too.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'':
** Usually played straight, but sometimes averted. For example, the Twi'leks are from Ryloth and [[Literature/BlackFleetCrisis the Yevetha]] come from N'zoth. Even the species that use names derived from their planet will sometimes use atypical variations: the Barabel homeworld is Barab I, and the Bimms come from Bimmisaari.
** Variation in the ''Literature/NewJediOrder''- the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Yuuzhan Vong]] originated on the (long-destroyed) planet Yuuzhan'tar (and when they reshape Coruscant in its image, they reuse the name), but they are neither named for the planet nor vice-versa. Rather, both species and planet are named for the chief god of the Vong pantheon, Yun-Yuuzhan.

* ''DragonballZ'': Used with the Namekians, but averted with the Saiyans, whose planet is called Vegeta, named after the Saiyan King. And before he renamed it, it was called "Plant".
** Thus much frustration and confusion from the Plantians.

* ''StarControl'' uses this pretty consistently, the only species named for their homeworld are the (extinct at game start) Algolites (on Algol, duh) and they're named as such by your exploration team.

* Averted in ''Franchise/MassEffect'', in which none of the known races are named for their homeworlds, which are instead names as follows: [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe asari]] - Thessia, [[HeavyWorlder elcor]] - Dekuuna, [[StarfishAliens hanar]] - Kahje, [[ExtraEyes batarians]] - Khar'shan, [[SpaceRomans turians]] - Palaven, [[TheReptilians drell]] - Rakhana, quarians - Rannoch, [[BeePeople rachni]] - Suen, [[TheGreys salarian]] - Sur'Kesh, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy krogan]] - Tuchanka, [[ProudMerchantRace volus]] - Irune, raloi (mentioned in a news report) - Turvess, yahg - Parnack. All species names are notably uncapitalized too.

** Post-Crisis and post-TheDeathOfSuperman, Krypto was an ordinary puppy that Bibbo had rescued and [[InvokedTrope decided to name "Krypton."]] The nametag only had room for six characters.

** Except natives of Gallifrey are sometimes Gallifreyans, playing it straight. Sometimes it's just another name for time lords other times it seems to be two seperate discriptors (time lords being the ones that use time travel). The episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E4Listen Listen]]" confirms that only a Gallifreyan who graduates from the Academy can be called a Time Lord.

* The terragens in ''OrionsArm'', the term used to refer to all of humanity's diverse descendants and sentient creations. Any lifeform tracing back to Earth basically.

* ''Fanfic/BaitAndSwitchSTO'': Averted with the Pe'khdar, a species created for the fic. They originally came from a world called Dar Klatus that they destroyed in a nuclear war.

* In the ''SectorGeneral'' books, everyone calls his race "human" and his homeworld "Earth" when run through the translator. Every race is given a four-letter code that describes their environment and requirements. Generally, the other species are named after their world but humans are just called "Earth-humans" suggesting that either HumansAreSpecial, or they're just unimaginative.

* An Aversion in ''{{Traveller}}''. Aslan got their name because FirstContact was made by a ship with a Turkish-speaking crew that thought they looked like lions and so gave them the Turkish name for lion. However there are instances of this trope being played straight as well.
* Warhammer40K: While very few homeworlds are known (the Eldar's have been eaten by the Eye of Terror, the Ork homeworlds lost to the mists of time, and Chaos not having one), the Tyranids are an aversion: They are extragalactic, and are named for the first planet that they officially encountered the Imperium of Man on, Tyran. The Tau play this much straighter, as their homeworld is called "T'au."
** The Literature/SpaceWolves are a strange case, in that they're actually called the Wolves of Fenris (their homeworld) and refer to themselves as such. Everyone else knows them as Literature/SpaceWolves due to an InUniverse case of BlindIdiotTranslation.

* The Matoran in ''{{Bionicle}}'' are named for Mata Nui, [[spoiler: the planet-sized robot they live inside.]]

* The Race in HarryTurtledove's ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' series call their homeworld "Home" and Earth "Tosev 3". (Tosev being the Sun.) Humans are dubbed Tosevites.