Do you know your address? We hope so! Most children learn to memorize their address early on in their school careers, since they need to be able to tell a teacher where they live if they happen to miss the bus home.
Most addresses start with a house number, such as 3 or 100 or even 43765. What follows the house number is usually a street name, like Brown or 42nd or Peach. The street name is then followed by a specific street type, such as street, lane, or boulevard.
Since there may be a 10 Main Street in many different and cities across the world, an address needs to include additional information. That extra information usually identifies the city, state, and country that you live in.
Your complete address allows mail to reach you and people to visit you. Did you know that there's one part of your address that is the same as everyone else in the world? In fact, it's so obvious that we don't even include it as part of your address. What is it? Your planet: Earth!
Since we all live on Earth, we don't have to include Earth as part of our address. It's not like we're going to send mail to anywhere other than Earth, right? In fact, we all call our planet Earth…or do we? And how did we come up with the name Earth to begin with?
Earth actually does not have the same name in every language. Like most words and names, Earth has its own unique name in each of the many different languages around the globe. Let's take a look at the English word "Earth" first.
Although it might not seem like it at first glance, Earth is a very unique name when it comes to the planets. Earth is the only planet in our solar system not named after a Greek or Roman god. As astronomy developed and other planets were discovered, scientists turned to Greek and Roman mythology for names for these heavenly bodies.
Earth, however, already had its name long before these other planets were discovered. Long, long ago, the only thing prehistoric man knew was the ground beneath his feet. Sure, he might know about large rivers or even an ocean, but he had no idea that approximately 70% of Earth's surface was covered with water. He also didn't know Earth was a sphere flying through space.
It's no surprise, then, that "Earth" came from the Anglo-Saxon word "erda" and the German word "erde," both of which mean ground or soil. The Old English version of these words became "eor(th)e" or "ertha," which eventually became "Earth." In fact, one of the earliest recorded uses of the name Earth can be traced back to the translation of the Bible into English.
So how should you refer to your home planet when you visit another country? In Spanish, you'd call it Tierra. Other versions of Earth include Aarde (Dutch), Terre (French), Jorden (Norwegian), Nchi (Swahili), and Bumi (Indonesian).