History Main / NamedAfterTheirPlanet

* The only sentient species we know of, the human race, has its current English name from the Latin adjective "humanus" by way of French. The ultimate origin is thought to be Proto-Indo-European dhǵhem- which means "earth". Furthermore, in biblical Hebrew, the word for "man," Adam, comes from the word for "earth," Adama. However, both words mean "earth" in the sense of '''soil''', rather than the planet.

* [[Creator/IainBanks Iain M. Banks]]'s [[Literature/TheCulture Culture]] are an exception, being formed around Orbital habitats (think Franchise/{{Halo}}, {{Ringworld}}, {{Dyson Sphere}}s) and very large spacecraft.

* Done in ''Franchise/StarOcean'' to distinguish the various HumanAliens from each other, such as Expellians from Expel, Elicoorians from Elicoor II, and Lemurisians from Lemuris. There are two exceptions. One is when multiple sapient races evolved on the same planet, since calling someone a Roakian doesn't clarify whether that person is a [[CatGirl Fellpool, a Lesser Fellpool]], a [[PantheraAwesome Highlander]], or a [[WingedHumanoid Featherfolk]]. The other exception is when a race actively takes a new name for themselves, such as the [[SpaceElves Morphus]] refusing to call themselves by the original name of their race, [[spoiler:the Nedians]].

* ''Anime/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". ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' further reveals that the ''original'' Saiyan homeworld was called "Sadal"; they moved to Vegeta after Sadal was blown up in a civil war.

** "Draenei" means "exiled ones" in their language. Also, the Orcs never had a proper name for their world, they just called it "world". After the Draenei came along and named it, other races pretty much just adopted the name.

* Played straight with the Vasudans in ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'', whose homeworld is called Vasuda Prime. Humans are called Terrans, though Earth is never referred too as Terra.

* Played straight with the Vasudans in ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'', whose homeworld is called Vasuda Prime. Humans are called Terrans, though.

** Additionally, there are the extinct Orions, whose homeworld of Orion is coveted by many. There are also the Antareans of Antares. However, the planet that is attacked at the end of ''MOO II'' turns out to have been just a colony, not Antares. The third game takes place after the true Antareans arrive and promptly kick everyone's collective asses.

** Most of the alien races featuring prominently in the story arc 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]]

* ''TreasurePlanetBattleAtProcyon'' uses a variant of this: The Procyons come from the planet 'Laar' but are named after the star '[[{{UsefulNotes/LocalStars}} Procyon]]', the nearest star to their homeworld.

* In Literature/LarryNiven's ''Draco Tavern'' stories, human beings are called ''tee tee hatch nex ool'' (their biological specification code) by other species. Of course, when fed through a UniversalTranslator, it translates as "human".

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The terragens in ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'', the term used to refer to all of humanity's diverse descendants and sentient creations. Any intelligent being (living or not) tracing back to Earth basically.
[[/folder]]

* ''Franchise/StarCraft'' averts this nicely. The Protoss used to live on Aiur and the original Zerg homeworld is called Zerus, but they seem to like Char. The Terrans, while originally from Earth, had their capital on Tarsonis. Humans from Earth still refer to themselves and terrans as (hu)mankind.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', Kevyn once asked Ebbirnoth why they called his species "uniocs" when his homeworld was "Oth". He replied that being called "one-eyed" was better than "others."

** 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)....

** 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 the Space Wolves due to an InUniverse case of BlindIdiotTranslation.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' mostly averts this, with only the Sangheili (Elites) having a similarly named homeworld, Sanghelios.

* The terragens in ''OrionsArm'', the term used to refer to all of humanity's diverse descendants and sentient creations. Any intelligent being (living or not) tracing back to Earth basically.

* The only sentient species we know of, the human race, has its current English name from the Latin adjective "humanus" by way of French. The ultimate origin is thought to be Proto-Indo-European dhǵhem- which means "earth". Furthermore, in biblical Hebrew, the word for "man," Adam, comes from the word for "earth," Adama.

* PlayedWith in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice:'' {{Superboy}} objects to Sardath referring to their squad as "Earthlings," on the ground that he's a HalfHumanHybrid and [[SuperpowerLottery M'gann]] is a Martian. Sardath responds that they ''are'' from Earth, though, so the name still fits.

* KryptoTheSuperdog is named after his home planet. It'd be like naming your dog Eartho. The entire Kryptonian race also falls under this trope.
** Post-Crisis and post-ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman, Krypto was an ordinary puppy that Bibbo had rescued and [[InvokedTrope decided to name "Krypton."]] The nametag only had room for six characters.

* 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.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars''. The [[SapientCetaceans Liir]] (their name means "Choir") come from the [[SingleBiomePlanet water world]] of Muur, the [[TheReptilians Tarka]] come from Kao'Kona ("Fortress of the Gods"), and the [[InsectoidAliens Hivers]] hail from Tcho'to'pre. The [[PlanetLooters Zuul]] are an artificial species with no known homeworld, although it's assumed they were deployed as bioweapons on Iridia 5 (which is the human name for the planet; the Zuul have no name for it). The [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Morrigi]] homeworld is unknown. It's possible it was destroyed in their war with the [[spoiler:Suul'ka]].