Random thought ofthe day

So, I was washing my hair when I heard Matt turn on Star Trek.

I got to thinking - again, this is a fairly frequent thought of mine - about why the aliens in that program call us 'Humans' when we call them by whatever planet they come from.

Ferengi from Ferenginar
Vulcan's from Vulcan
Bajoran's from Bajor
Clingon''s from - well, Kronos, but originally from Cling
Cardassian's from Cardassia
Betazoid's from Betazed
Bynar from Bynaus
Enaran's from Enara Prime

And so on. But we get called 'Human's from Earth or Terra Firma'. Why aren't we called 'Terran's', 'Earthan's' or even 'Earthling's'?

I'm pretty sure it's not just Star Trek that does it either. I think Babylon5 did it as well and probably every other sci-fi humanity-in-space program out there (except maybe for Battle Star because, seriously, they're none of them from Earth and call each other 'Capricans' and 'Gemanons' anyway - though the collective name is still 'Human'.)

Suffice to say, I think it just generally bugs the hell out of me >>

Our race isn't named after our planet, so why the hell is every race ever thought up in these programs named after theirs? It's silly.

/random thought


Also - I looked at the list of races from Star Trek on Wiki - bloody hell, people >> That is one long-ass list!