Why was the Earth not named after a god?
Well, it’s a guess, but … The other planets weren’t known to be planets (well, they may have called them planets, but they didn’t know what planets were, or that we lived on one) when they were named. They were up in the heavens, the gods are up in the heavens, they move (even in relation to the other stars), they must be gods! I do believe that the heavens were believed to be immutable. Believing that the planets were gods would help explain their movement — they weren’t part of the heavens, not exactly. (Of course, things like comets and supernovas (rare, but a few are documented) and such really upset them!) Earth is down here with us. Back then, they didn’t realize that Earth was related to the Venus or Mars or Jupiter. Earth was too close, too approachable to be a god, but perhaps Mother Nature qualifies? As for who named it Earth, not sure. It’s probably a translation of something else, and the original name would give more of a clue. (But also note that this is just the Engli
