More native planetary names by authors

by Lone Wolf

Hello!

I saw your page about "Names in the Old Solar System" and since I am a bit of an amateur linguist, I always appreciate good naming in the descriptions of fictional cultures. Of course, not every author could be professional linguist like J.R.R. Tolkien who invents whole languages, but creating names with good ring to them and consistency in their background in my opinion contributes greatly to the believability of the fictional world and thus to the success of the story as a whole. You may have noticed that E.R. Burroughs is especially good at that in all his books and sometimes it's difficult not to believe that all those names, terms and designations don't actually come from some unknown language, be it Barsoomian, Amtorian or that of the Tarzan's apes.

So I decided to contribute a little selection of my own, presenting native names (mostly Martian, I must admit) of the planets of the Old Solar System from the works of several other authors, given in chronological order of their publication. Here it is:



Gustavus W. Poppe (“Journey to Mars”, 1894; “Journey to Venus”, 1895):

Names given by the Martians:
Atmu (?) = Earth (this name is not given directly in the text, but derived tentatively by analysing the phrase "atmu samvatasya aryuna" – “son of the earth-born race”, with which the Martians call Earthlings; Poppe concocts his Martian names and terms from Sanskrit and Greek roots, combined with other purely invented words).
Arios Vizulojah = Mars; Sudha Rohanza = Phobos; Sudha Aryuna = Deimos (the latter two most likely are supposed to mean “Red Moon” and “Silver Moon” respectively, although this is not explicitly stated in the text);
Luzio-Avani Dhramza, which allegedly means “Great Shining One” = Pluto (this is not “our” Pluto, not discovered yet then, but the asteroid progenitor planet, which the author names “Pluto” without any explanation about this and claims that it has been destroyed 6000 ago at the same when the humanity of Earth was created);
Bhama Kiszulia = Venus (here "bhama" seems to be taken to mean “planet”).




Aleksey Tolstoy (“Aelita”, 1923):

Names given by the Martians:
Tuma = Mars; Taltsetl = Earth; Ollo and Litkha = the moons of Mars (it is not specified which is which);

Curiously enough, in A. Tolstoy's novel Taltsetl-Earth is said to be a red star, having an ominous significance for the Martians. That is probably because once before the quantum physics there existed such an opinion that since the Earth's atmosphere absorbs the blue light from the solar spectrum, creating our blue sky, the reflected light should be shifted toward its other end and thus the Earth, seen from space, would appear as red.




Otis Adalbert Kline (“Maza of the Moon”, 1929-1930; “The Man from the Moon”, 1930; “Buccaneers of Venus”, 1932; “The Swordsman of Mars”, 1933):

Names given by the Selenites, some of which used also by the Martians:
Ma Gong = Moon; Du Gong or Dhu Gong = Earth; Lu Gong = Mars;

Names given by the Venusians:
Zarovia = Venus; Mignor = Earth.




David V. Reed (“Empire of Jegga”, 1943):

Usau = Mercury; Estannar = Venus; Kren = Earth; Boron = Moon; Jegga = Mars; Phylader = Jupiter; Ermos = Saturn; Hruthes = Uranus; Ania = Neptune; Darziz = Pluto.





Ray Bradbury (“The Earth Men”, 1948; “The Naming of Names”, 1949):

Names given by the Martians:
Tyrr = Mars; Iorrt = Earth;


{Comment by Zendexor: Many thanks, Lone Wolf - you have added much to my knowledge! I think my favourite of the above names is "Darziz" for Pluto.}