Who named the Earth, and from where was the name derived?

Answer 1

I've seen suggestions that it comes from a very old word, used interchangeably for the planet itself and for the Mother Goddess ("mother earth"). Check out Julian Cope's book "The Modern Antiquarian" for one person's crack at an etymology. There are certainly lots of er- and ur- words that could point to this being true, but it's all buried so deep in history it's all guesswork really.

One example: if you check out references to Hera in Greek mythology, you'll find she was the "earth" to Zeus' "sky", and was considered the "mother goddess" to Zeus' "father". This male/ female double god is a feature of many ancient religions (in fact the Christian Mary has a lot in common with ancient representations of the Great Mother too!). You'll also see that the word "Hera" does not have its origins in any known Greek or Indo-European word. According to Wiki, "she therefore seems to be a survival of a pre-Greek great goddess figure". Maybe the name Hera comes from the same stem (er-/ ur-) as the modern word Earth?

There were British pagan goddesses named Ur and Artha. Consider the English word "her". And the German prefix ur- is used (in English too) to denote "original" - this could be interpreted in the sense "that which gave rise to" / "that which gave birth to" / "mother" , i.e. ur-civilisation could be written "original civilisation" or "mother civilisation"

If any of this is true, the name seems to stem from a very old word that pre-dates known civilisations, and has survived in many forms in many present day languages.

Or could it all be a coincidence?

Answer 2

Earth is the only planet whose English name does not derive from Greek/Roman mythology. The name derives from Old English and Germanic. There are hundreds of other names for earth in other languages. In Roman Mythology, the goddess of the earth us Tellus - the fertile soil (Greek : Gaia - terra mater - mother earth). It was not until the time of Copernicus (the 16th century) that it was understood that earth was just another planet.

Answer 3

I guess the words for the Earth, not just in our language, first meant earth in the sense of land, soil, terrain, ground, rather than a planet, as many people thought up until the renaissance that the world was flat. So Earth just comes from earth, from old English eorthe c.f. German erde, although I don't know whether the Germans call the Earth, Erde.

Answer 4

Earth is simply the English name for the planet. Each language has a name for it. They are always some of the most archaic words in the language. In English, for example, the word Earth is pre-Roman (possibly celtic Briton).

No-one named it. In fact, it is the only body in the solar system that doesn't have an official scientific title.

Answer 5

Based on what I Know, our planet, Earth, is the only planet in our Solar System that didn't got it's name from any Gods. (Greek, Roman, etc)

Answer 6

Nerthus an ancient Germanic goddess.

Answer 7

God did: "And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He seas; and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:10

...............and if you believe that crap, well, you`ll believe that he made this hunk of rock in 7 days lol

Answer 8

It was called Darth but he was a bad man so they went to the next letter in the alphabet. Personally I would have called it Garth.

Answer 9

Earth maybe because it has survive thing on it.

Answer 10

Me, I just thought it up. I said, "what on earth is that"? you'll never grow peas in that lad.