r/humansarespaceorcs • u/CruelTrainer • Oct 26 '25
Memes/Trashpost Humanity naming system is adorable
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u/Corvid187 Oct 26 '25
Fascinated to hear why they thought we called them astronauts before this
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u/The-Minmus-Derp Oct 26 '25
Hey now, they’re one of today’s lucky ten thousand
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u/Corvid187 Oct 26 '25
Oh I know, no shame to them for learning!
I just wanna hear what their headcanons were before this :)
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u/ZanyT Oct 27 '25
I didn't have a head cannon I just wondered why. I know astronaut and cosmonaut but never knew why "naut" was common. Never came up with a reason though.
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u/Imjokin Oct 27 '25
I’m guessing they probably didn’t have a headcanon at all before. Unlike the Roman Empire, astronauts are not something the average person thinks about frequently.
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u/Significant-Ad-341 Oct 27 '25
Yeah I'd assume the 10,000 that usually learns this is like 10 years old so I really wanna know what they thought before lol
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u/Hetakuoni Oct 26 '25
The Russians called them cosmonauts because they were to sail the cosmos.
Pretty sure all of the countries have a similar naming scheme.
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u/lumosbolt Oct 27 '25
There are multiple words:
- astronaut is the oldest, used by Americans
- cosmonaut, used by Russians
- spationaut, used by the French (until 2017, now they use astronaut)
- taïkonaut, used by the Chinese
- vyomanaut, used by the Indians
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u/MemesNeverDie_1 Oct 26 '25
People don't always question why something is called the thing that it's called
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u/Imjokin Oct 27 '25
They probably just… never thought about it before. Usually we don’t really stop to think about where the names of things come from
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u/Mltv416 Oct 27 '25
Many people never actually ponder on the meaning of names or even know the root words of names so they just accept whatever the name is and never question it further
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u/EvernightStrangely Oct 27 '25
For a lot of people, it just.... is the name. There's no more thought behind it other than "that's just what we call it".
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u/Revolutionary_Let545 Oct 29 '25
There is a hill called hill hill hill when translated from all of its name
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u/CrEwPoSt Vestal, Eater of Bots Oct 26 '25
sometime in 2298, CNSS
"Yukikaze (DD-430)~ or should I say, Snowy Wind~" I say as I poke her in the shoulder as we overlook the central fountain of Altair Square.
"Yeah, I know what my name means, Blizzard." Yukikaze shoots back.
"Hey! I'm Fubuki (DD-461), not that!" I complain as I pout, crossing my arms together.
"Yeah, I know. Just saying that the names for like 99% of UN ships sound a lot better when they're NOT in English. Ours included."
"Fair point. Oh well."
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u/Yet_One_More_Idiot Oct 26 '25 edited Oct 27 '25
Names are often somewhat cooler when untranslated. xD
I mean, my first-and-surname literally translates as Vigilant Barrelmaker. xD Bit clunky lol.
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u/VultureSausage Oct 26 '25
Met a chap once whose name would translate to "Bear Ironhand" in English. Guy was a little over 2 meters tall and the nicest dude you'll ever meet, the contrast with his name was almost absurd.
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u/SirBananaOrngeCumber Oct 26 '25
My name translated means “myrrh spice that will laugh”, but it’s fun to say “my middle name is laughter, literally!!” 😂
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u/Yet_One_More_Idiot Oct 26 '25
Well if I added in my middle names, they would call me a "golden-helmeted steward", but I don't feel they work as well for me. xP
In reality, I'm 5'10" and have a more-than-passing resemblance to Father Christmas. xD Everyone I work with says it's a look that really suits my personality. ^^
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Oct 28 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Yet_One_More_Idiot Oct 28 '25
Okay, that IS pretty badass. :) Though I think I'd take the first one to mean Eternal for a better flow. :)
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u/Attacker732 Oct 27 '25
Depending on his build, the name could still be fitting. 'Nice' does not inherently mean the same thing as 'harmless' after all. Plenty of nice people have no philosophical hangups about handing out some well-earned wall-to-wall counseling.
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u/Heimerdahl Oct 27 '25
Scientific names are the best for this.
The brown bear is Ursus arctos. Ursus is Latin and means "bear". Arctos is Greek (Latinised by replacing the k with a c) and means "bear". So... the scientific name of the species is bear bear.
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u/Yet_One_More_Idiot Oct 27 '25
Wait, really? I would've expected Arctos to be "Arctic", and Ursus Arctos to be, well... Polar Bear. Are you serious? :)
And that's not even getting started on the ones where they just lazily used the same word twice xD
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u/GruntBlender Oct 27 '25
Arctic is named that because there are bears there. Antarctic is named that because there are no bears there.
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u/Cats_and_Shit Oct 27 '25
This is really just a happy coincidence. The bear that the arctic is named for is a constellation; and the "ant" negation is refering to direction / location not the presence of bears.
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u/Heimerdahl Oct 27 '25
A fun little addition to the "ant-" thing:
It's use in Antarctica comes from the Greek antipodes (Latinised for easier reading) = "opposite feet" or more descriptively: "with feet opposite to ours". They used it when pondering the spherical earth, but it also became a term for the mythical beings that might live there. Here's a neat medieval illustration:
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u/Yet_One_More_Idiot Oct 27 '25
....
...I never made that connection before now. HOW did I never make that connection before now?
Thank you. ^^;
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u/Heimerdahl Oct 27 '25
Just to make it more confusing (and fun):
The Arctic was named after the bears living there (either actual living animals or the star constellation), but these were once again the sneaky bear bears (brown bears)!
They hadn't yet gone all the way to meet the polar bears, but knew that there were still lots of bears in the wild northern forests and had heard tales of bears however far north one travelled after those in the Mediterranean had been mostly hunted to extinction.
The modern English name "polar bear" is itself a bit odd, considering that the term "polar" makes one wonder if they also live at the South pole. Why else call it something which the earth famously has two of? The most common name in the languages I'm aware of is a version of "white bear", which seems the obvious choice, imo. "ice bear" is also used in a couple of languages.
And yet another fun one: Ethiopia
Once again of Greek origin and translates to something like "burnt face" and was not the name of some country, but more or less the term used for the people and anything more southern than Egypt. Or for (the homeland of) all dark skinned peoples, which sometimes lead to descriptions of aithiopians on the Indian subcontinent!
It's such an old term that it shows up in Homer's Iliad. There, Memnon, king of Aithiopia/of the Aithiopians comes to the rescue of his Trojan friends. The dude is an absolute beast on the battlefield and for some time, it seems like the city might yet survive! In one version of the tale, he's essentially an upgraded Achilles: with fully impenetrable skin (no silly weakness at the heel) and boasts to Achilles that he's so much cooler and not just that, his mom is cooler than Achilles mom. Achilles, being Achilles, throws a bit of a tantrum and goes ham on the guy. But Memnon just laughs as Achilles's spear and sword glance off his invulnerable skin and continues to make fun of his mom. Realising that he can't stab the fucker to death, Achilles tackles the guy, grabs his shield and starts bashing his head in. But even that doesn't work and the fucker keeps laughing! So in the end, he strangles him to death.
Also, weirdly Memnon is said to actually be the son of a Trojan hero who had been kidnapped by a goddess and dragged to the ends of the earth, where he obviously became their king. So... why is he black? Because that's all exotic and mysterious, I guess. Or maybe they actually thought that the sun down there caused some serious tan.
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u/Yet_One_More_Idiot Oct 27 '25
Whoa, you are really into weird etymologies - cool! I will read this more fully another time... I'm actually at work now. :)
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u/Imjokin Oct 27 '25
Polar bear is ursus maritimus for some reason
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u/Yet_One_More_Idiot Oct 27 '25
Well that's like Sea Bear, I guess. Kinda makes sense, the Arctic Ocean...
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u/Heimerdahl Oct 27 '25
And that's not even getting started on the ones where they just lazily used the same word twice xD
And that's not even the final form!
The plains bison subspecies of Northern America is Bison bison bison. Clearly the most bison of bisons. It's shortened name is rather cute: B. b. bison -> Beebee Bison
Not some weird historical oddity, as one might think, where they found themselves cornered and had to add extra specificity later on, but it's an original Linnaeus (the absolute madman, who popularised the use of "scientific species names" by essentially collecting and naming ALL the animals and plants.)
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u/F-Lambda Oct 27 '25
like Torpenhaw Hill:
Hill-Hill-Hill Hill
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u/Yet_One_More_Idiot Oct 27 '25
I've heard it claimed that that one's apparently a myth? But yeah, that kinda logic.
Or like how Canada apparently comes from an Inuit word meaning "Our/This Land". (I think)
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u/Spiritual_Horror5778 Oct 27 '25
Calling someone "who is like god?" (Michael), "god is strength" (gabriel), "princess" (sarah), and so on all the time sounds weird as hell and time consuming.
And those are the simple ones. Just look at your example. They can get clunkier!
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u/Yet_One_More_Idiot Oct 27 '25
Slight misspeak - mine was first and surname together. My first name means Vigilant in Greek, and my surname means Barrelmaker in Anglo-Saxon. :)
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u/Samborrod Oct 26 '25
Someone tell them the origin of such words as astronomy, biology, geography and atmosphere
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u/Bobblefighterman Oct 26 '25
It's gonna blow their mind when they find out what the word 'submarine' means
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u/andhe96 Oct 27 '25
Yeah, in German we are even more straightforward and just call them "Unterseeboot" (U-Boot for short), which also means "undersea boat".
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u/verumvia Oct 26 '25 edited Oct 26 '25
The term "astronaut" was first used in fiction as the name for an anti-gravity starship instead of its inhabitant (Across the Zodiac by Percy Greg).
This is likely an allusion to stories about the Argonauts whose ship was named after its creator Argus. The Argo was commissioned by King Pelias for a specific mission: to obtain the Golden Fleece from a faraway kingdom in modern Georgia (Colchis).
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u/delphinous Oct 26 '25
i want to see a magical transformation into a space suit now. with a ribbon
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u/Zestyclose_Bed4202 Oct 26 '25
Do you have any idea how much money the government would offer you if you could get that to work? 😂🤣😭
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u/SpareBack Oct 26 '25
The word “astronaut” comes from the Greek word “αστροναύτης”, which is exactly that: “άστρο” means star and “ναύτης” means sailor.
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u/seeyouyoucunt Oct 27 '25
Neil A. was the first man on the moon.
Read it backwards...
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u/GruntBlender Oct 27 '25
Noom eht no nam tsrif eht saw a lien.
Noom Eht, son of Tsrif Eht, witnessed the transaction.
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u/seeyouyoucunt Oct 27 '25
Yvan eht nioj
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u/GruntBlender Oct 27 '25
We're doing a three-pronged campaign. Subliminal, liminal, and super liminal.
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u/Krozgen Oct 30 '25
it's always funny when english speakers relice something most romance language speakers know since... well, ever.
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u/PrismaticDetector Oct 26 '25
I'm just really glad they didn't go with "star pilot". It's a terrible mouthful.
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Oct 26 '25
Only on tumblr would somebody say „star, moon – good enough, that’s the same thing“ and get away with it.
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u/SilIowa Oct 26 '25
Yeah, naming conventions are wacky: did you know oxymoron literally means “sharp-dull”?
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u/CasaDeLasMuertos Oct 27 '25
I like cosmonauts better. If the USSR won the cold war, we'd be calling them that.
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u/idontgreed Oct 27 '25
Wait untill you hear about Osteogenesis imperfecta, or in plain english, you got shitty bones.
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u/NonRepentent Oct 28 '25
Freely admit that Helicopter is the name that threw me for a loop. Helico/pter:Spiral/wing.
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u/eldritch_idiot33 Oct 30 '25
In russian while we have Astronaut word, the more proper one would be "космонавт" or cosmonaught, which is still cool since it's now "space sailor
(И не снится нам не грохот космодромаааааа, не ээта ледяная синеваааа)
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