# What shall we name the little green men? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 20, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873 "2009-09-20T20:42:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dobieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@dobieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dobieman)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/1 "2009-09-20T20:42:32Z")
As the possibility of finding life elsewhere besides on Earth seems to be increasing, it caused me to wonder what sort of classification system or taxonomy we would have to create. Would all species from that discovery onwards have to carry a designation of, say, “Homo sapiens (Earth)” as opposed to “Homo sapiens (Mars)” or what? How would we differentiate in our nomenclature between Earthly species and non-Earthly? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/2 "2009-09-20T21:12:16Z")
Well, they wouldn’t be “homo sapiens anything” unless they were damn similar to us, including an unlikely evolutionary connection. We’d probably need a new classification above “kingdom,” to identify planetary origins. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/3 "2009-09-20T21:55:11Z")
What’s wrong with using the names they use for themselves? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/4 "2009-09-20T22:12:55Z")
As Larry Niven once put it, L. L. would be more likely to be able to successfully mate with an ear of corn than with Superman. Even if aliens turn out to look kind of sort of like us, they’ll be more distantly related, if at all, than anything on the planet. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/5 "2009-09-20T22:15:22Z")
We’d come up with a system of nomenclature that best represents whatever reality we find on that planet. Without knowing what we find, it’s kind of pointless to speculate. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/6 "2009-09-20T22:18:10Z")
Now that I think of it, why do you believe that we will be the ones on the outside of the bottle of formalin, doing all the naming? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/7 "2009-09-20T22:23:16Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > What’s wrong with using the names they use for themselves? What if they communicate by farting? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/8 "2009-09-20T22:34:02Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > What if they communicate by farting? In _Rainbow Mars_, Niven posts that Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Green Martians, being of insect descent, would breathe through tracheae in their abdomens. To talk, they would swallow air and then talk by means of a sustained belch. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/9 "2009-09-20T22:37:57Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > What if they communicate by farting? We give them human equivalents. “Greetings Madam President. My name is His Excellency **Whoo, Boy**. I would like to introduce my assistant, the Honorable **What Died Inside You**. We are replacing Her Excellency \*\*What the Hell Have You Been Eating \*\*and the Honorable \*\*My God, My Eyes are Watering \*\*, who have returned to our Homeworld of **Silent But Deadly.** ” ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/10 "2009-09-20T22:38:10Z")
Since I doubt there can be a “correct” answer to this, let’s move it to IMHO. **samclem** Moderator, General Questions ---
**Author:** ![\_cc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/e19b73/32.png) [@\_cc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_cc)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/11 "2009-09-30T07:20:13Z")
Fuzzy fuzzy Holloway. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/12 "2009-09-30T07:28:15Z")
Prawns? 😉 Maybe we could import some back to Earth and keep them in a shanty-style “district” of some sort also? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/13 "2009-09-30T10:12:58Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > What if they communicate by farting? How is this different from any other Greek House undergraduate student?😕 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2009, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/14 "2009-09-30T10:45:13Z")
I think we’d just use the current nomenclature, expanded. Probably come up with a “-form” system, indexed by planet origin, like “Areogens Archeabacterioform _Misterus dibblicus_” for a Martian Archea, or “Orionigens Mammiliform _Verdihomo Hotti_” for Orion slave girls. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-shall-we-name-the-little-green-men/510873/15 "2009-10-01T04:09:02Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > What if they communicate by farting? Then we could have teen agers communicate with them.