Names of Planets, Stars, Moons in the Animorphs Universe

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Being the least creative person I know, I've found some difficulty in coming up with names for the planets and other celestial bodies in the Animorphs series. Throughout the books we only ever hear of the Yeerk, Andalite, Taxxon, and Hork-Bajir home world...as just that: home world. Even when speaking to Ax, Alloran refers to the Andalite planet as the home world. Now, this could mean a few things: K.A Applegate ran out of anagrams to make out of local companies, or human beings are the only species that names its planet.*

     So I checked all 51 pages of the classic Animorphs board, didn't see a thread for Planet names--unless I'm so incompetent that I missed it-- and decided I'd make one for us to spitball some names of our own. Of course, lately the forum seem to be pretty empty, so it's likely that I'll be the only one contributing for a while.

*But this wouldn't make sense, because we know the Yeerks have a name for their sun and moon, so why not their planet?

[Aluminator (Kit)]

I've heard it said that the Andalite homeworld is probably called Andal (with them being the Andal-ites), and the Pemalite homworld was Pemal. That makes sense- species might have similar names for themselves and their world. I remember hearing that "human" is derived from an old word (Latin?) that means "people of the earth" (as opposed to heaven and the gods), so even we have done that. *shrug* Might get you started, anyway.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Maybe. I don't know. I never dug the Andal, Pemal, text naming.

[Gumby]

But then, why are Humans from Earth? I think its sound to assume the planets names don't necessarily reflect the species name. And I doubt the Hork-Bajir actually had a name for their planet.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     No, but the Arn most likely did. 

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Honestly, since these things aren't stated in the series, you can probably go nuts. F... Fancyplanet? Fulsaria? Varin. Vinglong. Voulonticon! Coulter? Coomaria? Com... Om... Omnomnomlia? Zexxez Prime? Exezex Prime? Zekezexekek Prime?

Haha. I dunno. I could go on with random names all day. Kinda just depends on what you want each planet's name to feel like.

But then, why are Humans from Earth?

Because:

"human" is derived from an old word (Latin?) that means "people of the earth" (as opposed to heaven and the gods)

[TobiasMasonPark]

     The omnnom one seems fitting for the Taxxons :p

[TobiasMasonPark]

     I found this in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles:

     "<We follow the usual practice of naming a planet after its sentient species,> my mother said." (14)

     Ok. So, to the Andalites, at least, the planets would be "Hork-Bajir", "Taxxon", and "Yeerk". That's all well and good, but that's probably not what the species itself calls the planet. I mean, are the Andalites really going to call their planet "Andal"?

[Aluminator (Kit)]

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the etymology and the mythology. Human and Earth have the same root if you trace back far enough, thanks to the ancient mythology saying that we were the people of the realm between heaven and the underworld. Since the Andalites use thought-speech, it may be safe to assume that their language would vary less with time, meaning that if their mythology led to them considering themselves to be the "people of their own world," they may well call themselves the Andal-ites.

Of course, that's a lot of "ifs" and assumptions for one name, and if you don't like the name "Andal" for their homeworld (and I've gotta say I think I agree), I say you're well within your rights to change that ^_^

[Terenia]

The Leeran Homeworld is called Leera -- we know this for sure.

Madra is the name of one of the Yeerk Homeworld's moons.

I'm going to guess the Yeerks themselves didn't get into the practice of naming worlds, since they hadn't even seen the stars until very recently. They probably adapted another species naming mechanism...namely the Andalites, since everything they borrow is from there.

Hork-Bajir were not intelligent enough to consider their planet a planet. They knew everything as Mother Sky and Father Deep.

Taxxons...while we don't know their full cognitive capabilities I doubt they had the opportunity to name their planet either.

So...my impression is that the names are followed through the Andalite tradition of naming a planet after its inhabitants.