History Main / NamedAfterTheirPlanet

** Andalites use a complex Alpha-Numeric system to designate planets, invoking the type of star to give the star a name, and giving the planet a number x/y where x is the number of the planet and y is the total number of planets in the system. To give an idea, Earth would be Sol 3/8 or Sol 3/11 (depending on if you count dwarves)
** In ''The Hork-Bajir Chronicles'', which introduces the Alpha-Numeric system the Andalites use, one of the first Andalites to land on the Hork-Bajir homeworld explains to his son that they will "follow the usual convention of naming the planet after its sentient species." (Though if they do name the planet anything, it never comes up in the story again.)

* In ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'', The Bortronians are named after their star, Bortron. The planets in that system are named Bortron 1, Bortron 2, and so on.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars''. The [[SapientCetaceans Liir]] (their name meaplaneplaneplanetns "Choir") come from the [[SingleBiomePlanet water world]] of Muur, the [[TheReptilians Tarka]] comeplan 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]]. The [[AbusivePrecursors Suul'ka]] is a name given by the Liir, meaning "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Winter Mind]]" ([[spoiler:they're actually Liir Elders, who have gone insane and enslaved their own species in order to avoid death by SquareCubeLaw]]).

* 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, [[SpaceNomads quarians]] - Rannoch, [[BeePeople rachni]] - Suen, [[TheGreys salarians]] - Sur'Kesh, [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy krogan]] - Tuchanka, [[ProudMerchantRace volus]] - Irune, raloi (mentioned in a news report) - Turvess, yahg - Parnack. All species names are notably uncapitalized too.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': Played with. Darth Nihilus refers to the humans of Remnant as "Remnantians" since he's from a setting where naming one's ethnicity after their home planet is standard practice. However, Remnant's humans simply refer to themselves as "humans" because as far as they know, they're the only species of humans that exist.

* Largely averted in Creator/MikhailAkhmanov's ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'' and ''Trevelyan's Mission'' series. The advanced races typically come from worlds whose names have nothing to do with their racial names. For example, the [[SpaceElves Lo'ona Aeo]] come from Kullat (although they have since voluntarily become SpacePeople), the [[HumanAliens Teruxi]] are from Dingana-P'how, the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Haptors]] are from Harshabaim-Utartu, and the Kni'lina are from Yezdan (which is also the name of their religion's prophet). In ''Trevelyan's Mission'' series, many of the primitive locals on planets discovered and studied by humans and other races are frequently named after their planets but only by the advanced races (e.g. Osierans from Osier, Arkhangs from Arkh). Their own names for their races aren't usually mentioned.

* Neosapiens in ''WesternAnimation/ExoSquad'' always refer to ''homo sapiens sapiens'' as "Terrans." This works because the Neosapiens were created on Mars and regard it as their homeworld, and it is simpler than using the full species name. "Human" refers to both species.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' is on and off. The Zerg from Zerus play it ''almost'' straight, while the Terrans from Earth are [[PlanetTerra an indirect example]], while the Protoss from Aiur are a complete aversion.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' is on and off. The Zerg from Zerus play it ''almost'' straight, while the Terrans from Earth are an indirect example ("terra" being Latin for "earth" in both the dirt and planet senses), while the Protoss from Aiur are a complete aversion.

* ''VideoGame/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 the ExpandedUniverse, Sontar is an inversion: a general named Sontar conquered the planet, had all future members of the [[MesACrowd species be his clones]] and [[{{Egopolis}} re-named the world and species after himself.]]

** Also, the Cybermen weren't always called Cybermen. It was only after they were forced to become cyborgs that they renamed themselves. The Daleks are also an artificial race (a forced mutation of the HumanAlien Kaleds by a MadScientist).

* The asteroid belt miners in Literature/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' stories call themselves "Belters".

* The only sapient species we know of (aside from apes), 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.

* Every alien race in ''Series/{{Tracker}}''.

** The volus alone play the trope more or less straight. They have a clan-based society, and seem to consider members of other species as belonging to the "clan" of their homeworld, so they're often heard calling humans "Earth-clan." Blasto's volus superior calls him "Kahje-clan," and the volus that lost his credit chit in the second game refers to quarians - who live as space nomads after being driven from their homeworld - as "clanless". Some more polite volus refer to the quarians as "Migrant-clan".

* An Aversion in ''''TabletopGame/{{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.

* Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse and [[Franchise/StarWarsLegend Legends]]:

* The ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' averts this most of the time. The [[FishPeople Boron]] homeworld transliterates as Nishala, and the [[ProudMerchantRace Teladi]] homeworld is Ianamus Zura. The [[HumansByAnyOtherName Argon]] capital is Argon Prime, but that's a case of the planet being named after the faction rather than the other way around: the Argon are [[LostColony displaced humans]] from Earth who renamed Sonra-4 after their leader Nathan R. Gunne. The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Split]] are from the planet Hodie according to their legends (some aren't sure if it exists, the others think it suffered a nuclear war). The [[PlanetTerra Terran]] homeworld is Earth, [[CaptainObvious obviously]]. The [[TheEmpire Paranid]] play the trope straight: their homeworld is Paranid Prime. Nobody knows the name of the Kha'ak homeworld, and the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Xenon]] homeworld is technically Earth since they're an entire race of [[AIIsACrapshoot insane terraforming drones]] first built by the Terrans back in the 22nd century.

* 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]]. The [[AbusivePrecursors Suul'ka]] is a name given by the Liir, meaning "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Winter Mind]]" ([[spoiler:they're actually Liir Elders, who have gone insane and enslaved their own species in order to avoid death by SquareCubeLaw]]).

* The Draenei in ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' come from Draenor... but so do the orcs, ogres, and a few other sentient species, none of which were named after their world. Further averted later when it turns out that Draenei come from ''another'' planet, Argus, and used to be called Eredar. They fled to the orcs' world and named it Draenor, or "Exile's Refuge" in their language, and apparently their new neighbours hadn't thought of how to call their world yet. Moreover, the inhabitants of Azeroth and K'aresh are not called after their world either.
** "Draenei" means "exiled ones" in their language. Also, the Orcs never had a proper name for their world, they just called it "world" (much like we live on "dirt"). After the Draenei came along and named it, other races pretty much just adopted the name.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/MyFavoriteMartian'':
** Interesting subversion. "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.
** Another subversion is Uncle Martin's name; a much more personal example of being "named after your planet. Martin is so in the first episode. Tim O'Hara stumblingly introduces him as a Martian, before correcting himself and callinf him "Martin". In the episode ''We Love You, Miss Pringle'', Uncle Martin tells Tim O'Hara that his real name is Exigius 12 1/2.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** The vast majority of the species are named after their homeworld. They do have exceptions, like Humans (Earth), Klingons (Qo'nos), Borg (homeworld unknown as no origin story was ever told for them), the Vorta and Jem'Hadar (both created by genetic engineering)....
** The Romulans are notable for calling themselves after a world they didn't originate on. They left Vulcan 2000 years ago after refusing to follow Surak's philosophy, found a habitable planet, called it Romulus, and changed their own name. Actually, some ExpandedUniverse novels claim that this is TranslationConvention by humans[[note]]The standard 'real name' for both Romulans and Romulus ''are'' directly related, but that's because the Romulans named the planet after themselves -- using their own term for their side of the cultural split with the mainstream Vulcans -- when they colonized it[[/note]].
* ''Franchise/StargateVerse'':
** Almost completely averted -- 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".
** In one episode, a human alien refers to SG-1 as ''Earthens''. Jonas Quinn then "corrects" her to ''Earthlings''. Otherwise, humans from Earth go by the Goa'uld name Tau'ri to distinguish from other humans. It is implied that this name was used for the planet as well, but as both names were assigned by the Goa'uld on discovery, this doesn't quite count.
** While one might assume that the [[TheGreys asgard]] hail from Othala, it's not explicitly stated that this is their homeworld. In fact, it's not even stated that Ida is their home galaxy. Given that they can galaxy-hop in minutes, it's not inconceivable to assume they could have come from yet another galaxy.

** 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." Lorien says it isn't their original homeworld, they just like to use it as a settlement because he hangs around there.[[/note]]

** Often averted. The Daleks are from Skaro, the Cybermen from Mondas, the Time Lords from Gallifrey...but also often applied. Sontarans are from Sontar.
** 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 separate descriptors (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.

** In the ExtendedUniverse, Sontar is an inversion: a general named Sontar conquered the planet, had all future members of the [[MesACrowd species be his clones]] and [[{{Egopolis}} re-named the world and species after himself.]]

* The ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' uses this convention to name most of its alien species.
* Every alien race in ''Series/{{Tracker}}''.

* 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. Played straight with the Omec, whose original homeworld is called Omec.