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{{trope}}
In [[Speculative Fiction]], the word "human" can seem out of place in a universe where every other species is named after their homeworld. Unless, of course, [https://web.archive.org/web/20100824162041/http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/lingo.html they come from Humus].
As a consequence of this, or perhaps just to sound "exotic", alien cultures often come up with their own monikers for [[Puny Earthlings]]. Indeed, the word "Earthling" itself is an example, and it also shows that most of the time, oddly enough, they name humans after our own terms for our planet and its surroundings, rather than whatever Earth or the Sun is named in ''their'' language.
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A subtrope of this is [[Planet Terra]].
{{examples}}
== General ==
* "Terran" (from the Latin ''Terra'', "Earth") is probably the most popular choice by far, which crept into all kinds of settings, from ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' to ''[[Blake's 7
** Note that the French for Earthling is "Terrien", which reads and sounds pretty close to Terran. Thus, in many French-translated stories where 'Terrans' are involved, their name does not sound that cool and exotic (it even sounds dull when said with
** ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' uses the term "Terran" not to describe humans, but as a term to encompass any Earth-based sentient species, which includes humans, [[Uplifted Animal|gorillas, chimps, dolphins, and African and Indian elephants]]. And yet aliens still say, [[Fantastic Racism|"All you Terrans look alike to me"]].
** There's also the less common "Tellurian" from "Tellus", a variant Latin term for the Earth. The probably-most-famous usage of these terms is in the ''[[Lensman]]'' novels.
* "Solar(i)an" (from latin ''Sol'', "Sun") is used less frequently, but to exactly the same effect.
* An older established term was "Earthling" - something of a [[Discredited Trope]], as nowadays this brings to mind "naive children under the bootheels of little green
** ''[[Star Control]]'' used the term "Earthling Cruiser" to describe our Alliance starship in the first game. The subsequent game([[Canon Discontinuity|s]]) switched to calling them "Human Cruisers" likely due to the word's discrediting.
* It's worth bearing in mind that there are several technical words for "beings closely taxonomically related to humans". "Hominid" used to mean "humans and their extinct relatives", but according to [[The Other Wiki]] [[wikipedia:Hominid|the modern term for this is "hominan"]]. [[The More You Know]]...
** The term "humanoid" refers to anything relatively human-shaped (bipedal, upright, two arms, one head), including [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]], [[Rubber Forehead Aliens]], and denizens of the [[Uncanny Valley]]. Sentience and genetic relation to humankind are not required.
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' gives us the title of ''Pekoponjin'', because they refer to Earth as "Pekopon". In the manga it was "Pokopen", a rather nasty Japanese word for the Chinese, which was changed for obvious reasons.
* In ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'', humans and miniaturized Zentradi are known as "Microns" ("Micronians" in ''[[Robotech]]'').
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* In ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', the humans are also referred as "Lilim", {{spoiler|and the entire humanity is the 18th Angel}}.
== Card Games ==▼
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' considered doing this when they first decided to make Human into a creature type (previously, humans had only a "class" creature type and no "race"). They eventually decided to just use human, though.▼
** Kithkin (or Sangamis in the French version), Magic's [[Hobbits]] [[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 [[Amazing Technicolor Population|blue skin]], both qualify as examples of this trope.▼
▲== Comics -- Books ==
* ''[[2000 AD]]'''s alien Editor-In-Chief, Tharg the Mighty, refers to humans as "Earthlets."
* In the original [[Marvel Comics]] version of the [[Transformers]], the Autobots would refer to us as humans, while the Decepticons used the more derogatory "fleshling".
== Films -- Live-Action ==
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* In ''[[Willow]]'', humans are referred to as "Daikini".
* In [[Tron]], the programs call humans "Users".
== Literature ==
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* The [[Our Dragons Are Different|Kantri]] of [[Tales of Kolmar]] call humanity "Gedri", [[You Are the Translated Foreign Word|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 [[Tamora Pierce]]'s ''Immortals'' quartet call humans "two-leggers", for obvious reasons.
== Live-Action TV ==
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** Names for the earlier races seem to be names given to them by Humans, rather than what they actually call each other. The two Romulan home worlds are Romulus and Remus, then there's the afore-mentioned Vulcan and Kronos...whoever was naming these races seemed to have a yen for Greco-Roman mythology.
** On at least one occasion, a Klingon has been heard referring to his homeworld as Kling. Of course, Star Trek suffers massively from [[Canon Discontinuity]]. And, it's also been said that the original Klingon Homeworld was destroyed, and Qo'noS is the "new" Klingon Homeworld.
** Also in ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', one (nonhumanoid—indeed, ''inorganic'') alien race referred to our intrepid crew as "[[Call a Human a Meatbag|ugly bags of mostly water]]." The science officer points out that this is technically accurate.
== Puppet Shows ==
* Mysteron agents in ''[[Captain Scarlet]]'' 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 [[Gerry Anderson]] show ''[[Stingray (1985 TV series)|Stingray]]'', various sea-dwelling uglies would call humans "Terraneans," since we come from land (terrain).
* In ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'', the Fraggles call humans "silly creatures"; not an insult, as they ''like'' things that are silly. {{spoiler| Doc later agrees it's a rather accurate description.}}
== Tabletop Games ==
▲=== Card Games ===
▲* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' considered doing this when they first decided to make Human into a creature type (previously, humans had only a "class" creature type and no "race"). They eventually decided to just use human, though.
▲** Kithkin (or Sangamis in the French version), Magic's [[Hobbits]] [[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 [[Amazing Technicolor Population|blue skin]], both qualify as examples of this trope.
=== Tabletop
* ''[[Traveller]]'' divides "humaniti" into the "Solomani" (humans from Earth), the "Vilani" ([[Human Aliens]] from the planet Vland), and the "Zhodani" ([[Human Aliens]] from the planet Zhodane/Zhdant). The ancestors of the Vilani and the Zhodani were originally moved to those planets by the [[Precursors]]. There are several other minor human races, which were similarly transplanted from Earth.
* In ''[[Nobilis]]'', humans get referred to as "beasts".
* In ''[[Warhammer
** The Tyranids were retconned to actually be named after a world - Tyran, the first Imperial planet they ''ate''. Knowing the Imperium, the name probably came from some filing protocol: the Tyranids were first properly identified on the planet Tyran, and thus the data probably got filed under "Tyran-ID" and the name stuck.
* The chock-fulla-weird-races ''[[Talislanta]]'' game system generally refers to humans by their nationality, and virtually ''never'' as "humans". The fact that some of those "human" nationalities lie well outside the range of physical types known on Earth—green humans, metallic golden humans, purple humans; humans with bat ears or webbed hands or no nose—would make the use of "human" seem incongruous at best.
== Video Games ==
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* In ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'', the [[Our Elves Are Different|elves]] (particularly the Dalish) refer to humans as shemlen. The shorter term "shem" is used in a derogatory manner (not surprising, given what humans did to them).
* ''[[Albion]]'' uses the expression Celt and Helromier (a portmanteau of Hellenic and Roman) to distinguish the magic using humans of Albion and the technologically advanced Terrans. Terran humans are also referred to as Earthlings by the Kenget Kamulos.
* In ''[[
* While the term "human" is used in ''[[Rift]]'', humans are more likely to be referred to by whichever of the two battling nations to which they belong.
== Web Animation ==
* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' has Shisno, which means the excrement of the excrement of the most repugnant creature in the world.
== Web Comics ==
* Aliens in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' usually call humans Earthlings.
== Web Original ==
* While being human in the modern sense is now very rare in ''[[Orion's Arm]]'', the term terragen is used to denote anything with an ancestry going back to Earth.
* Nepleslians of ''[[Star Army]]'' are displaced humans who were taken from the [[Earth-That-Was]] to [[A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away|a distant sector of space]]. Naturally, they're the setting's main source of [[Badass Normal]]s.
== Western Animation ==
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* ''[[Megas XLR]]''
** Humans are called Earthers by the [[Cthulhumanoid|Glorft]].
** Before that however, [[Widget, the World Watcher|Widget]] used "Earther" when referring to humans.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Humans by Any Other Name]]
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