List of references to Earth in Star Wars

Despite being explicitly set in a galaxy far, far away, various sources have established what appear to be connections between the Star Wars universe and the real world (i.e. Earth). This page attempts to make a List of references to Earth in Star Wars.

Many of these examples, of course, could be the result of clever, multi-layered, Tolkien-style "translations" from Galactic Basic Standard to English.



Alien Exodus
In the cancelled novel Alien Exodus, Earth is revealed in a flashback story to be the original home of the Human species. A group of refugees and dissidents from Earth commandeer a spacecraft and flee a computer-controlled society (a society which, apparently, will later become the setting of George Lucas's first film, THX 1138.) They accidentally travel backwards through time and through intergalactic space to arrive in the Star Wars galaxy.

Christmas In the Stars
Christmas In the Stars, a 1980 record album, has R2-D2, C-3PO, and Chewbacca, among others, singing Christmas songs and celebrating the Earth holiday.

"Into the Great Unknown"
In "Into the Great Unknown", a short comic story in Star Wars Tales 19, Han Solo and Chewbacca are caught in a hyperspace misjump, and are forced to land the damaged Millennium Falcon on a primitive planet. They land in a forest reminiscent of Endor, where Han is killed by the native Human inhabitants. Chewbacca survives to roam the woods.

126 years later, an archeologist and his sidekick investigate rumors of a large beast in the forest, known to the locals as "Sasquatch". When he comes across the Falcon and Han Solo's remains, he finds them eerily familliar. He decides to leave the remains, the spaceship, and the Sasquatch as part of the "great unknown."

Though the planet Earth is not specifically named, the story obviously takes place somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, and the two archaeologists are clearly Indiana Jones and his sidekick Short Round.

It is of note that in his Star Wars Timeline Gold, Nathan Butler analyzes this non-canonical story and calculates the years that the major events in the Star Wars universe would take place in (based on the story's clues) according to our measurement of time. His calculations give a date of 1794 for 0 BBY.

Appears on their own
These species appear on screen "as themselves", or are mentioned in text without qualifiers (i.e. as "Turtles" rather than "Space Turtles".)
 * Cats
 * Dinosaurs (of Trammis III)
 * Dogs
 * Ducks
 * Dung beetles
 * Elephants
 * Horses and ponies (not to be confused with bordoks)
 * Humans
 * Jellyfish
 * Owls (on the Forest moon of Endor)
 * Portuguese man-o'-war
 * Pterosaurs
 * Rabbits

Has namesakes appear
These animal species have something named after them in the Star Wars galaxy (like a starship, or another animal), but may not exist itself.
 * Barnacles
 * Bats
 * Bears
 * Beetles
 * Boars
 * Buzzards
 * Catfish
 * Cobras
 * Crows
 * Eels
 * Falcons
 * Fish
 * Fleas
 * Frogs
 * Hawks
 * Hogs
 * Hound dogs
 * Lizards
 * Mice
 * Moles
 * Moths
 * Panthers
 * Pigeons
 * Piranha
 * Rats
 * Ravens
 * Salamanders
 * Seahorses
 * Sharks
 * Shrikes
 * Sloths
 * Slugs
 * Snakes
 * Spiders
 * Squid
 * Tigers
 * Vultures
 * Wasps
 * Wolves
 * Zebras

Mythical creatures
These creatures exist on Earth only in legend, but their names, at least, are reused in the Star Wars galaxy.
 * Basilisks
 * Cerberus
 * Chimaerae
 * Dragons
 * Gorgons
 * Hydrae
 * Jackelopes
 * Manticores
 * Airen Cracken was nicknamed "Kraken" by his Imperial foes,
 * The Alliance Starbird was commonly described as a Phoenix.

Plants

 * Dandelions
 * Most plants seen in Naboo, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, or Forest Moon of Endor location shots are arguably "playing themselves" on screen.

Food and drink

 * Blue milk
 * Hot chocolate also known as "hot milk"
 * "Trix"-brand breakfast cereal is referenced in the description of the constellation known as the Silly Rabbit.  This does not establish its existence, but it  does establish the existence of raspberries, oranges, and lemons.

Names
These characters have first or last names which wouldn't be out of place in an Earth phone book (or in some cases, first and last names.)
 * Ana
 * Armstrong
 * Barney
 * Bernie
 * Bobby
 * Brion Peck
 * Burtt
 * Carl
 * Zayne Carrick
 * Cecil
 * Dergar Chester
 * Tsui Choi
 * Coby
 * Coleman Kcaj
 * Coleman Trebor
 * Carole Crawley
 * Katie Crawley
 * Dana
 * Hanna Ding
 * Nathan Donar III
 * Hanna Doshun
 * Lucien Draay
 * Ivan Dragos
 * Evan
 * Falcon
 * Jake Farrell
 * Niles Ferrier
 * Samuel Tomas Gillespie
 * Simon Greyshade
 * Josef Grunger
 * Bret Hanson
 * Bob Hudsol
 * Ibtisam
 * Jade
 * Jake
 * Wes Janson
 * Skorg Jameson
 * Jenny
 * Jess
 * Jessica
 * Dexter Jettster
 * Kyle, Patricia and Morgan Katarn
 * Keith
 * Ken
 * "Ben" Kenobi
 * Danielle Kieran
 * Jaden Korr
 * Alec Lamere
 * Larry the Shriek
 * Beru and Owen Lars
 * Liam
 * Lucien Draay
 * Casandra Mateil
 * Jasper McKnives
 * Pharl McQuarrie
 * Julias Narn
 * Nik
 * Jocasta Nu
 * Alfonso Luiz Obota
 * Didi Oddo
 * Joey Orsel
 * Otto
 * Nile Owen
 * Lee Phenets
 * Phoebe
 * Loreli Ro
 * Nick Rostu
 * Samuel
 * Seth
 * Helena Shan
 * Silas
 * Simon
 * Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker and Ben Skywalker
 * Jaina Solo
 * Tammi
 * Ganwick Trag
 * Junas Turner
 * Shawn Valdez
 * Kelly Vermillion
 * Lt. Watts
 * Lt. Williams
 * Alexandra Winger
 * Xiong Wong
 * Demetrius Zaarin

Places
These planets or other locations have names which bear a close resemblance to places on Earth.
 * Aargau
 * Aboukir
 * Dor
 * Chenini
 * Chiron (mythological reference)
 * Endor
 * England (possibly: more likely a simple production error)
 * Everest (actually a company in-universe with the mountain's name)
 * Halifax (starship)
 * Helena Shan (the name Helena means "woman from Greece")
 * Ibleam
 * Mercury (starship that is both mythological and astronomical reference)
 * Megiddo
 * Mersel Kebir (starship)
 * Salisbury
 * Seoul
 * Tatooine = Tataouine
 * Thule (also a mythological reference)
 * Zug

Real astronomical objects
Despite being real astronomical objects in Earth's neighborhood, these names appear in Star Wars sources.
 * Altair
 * Antares
 * Cygnus
 * Rigel

It should be specifically noted that, contrary to some fanonical ideas, Coruscant cannot be a futuristic Earth. While Earth is far from our galaxy's core, is the third planet from the Sun, and has only one moon, Coruscant is close to the galactic core, is the sixth planet in the Coruscant system, and has multiple moons.

Historical figures
Some real-world historical figures are referenced in the Star Wars galaxy.
 * Ferdinand Magellan
 * Sergei Korolev
 * Josip Broz Tito
 * The Persian king Xerxes

Other fiction
The settings of other fiction stories are referenced in Star Wars sources.
 * Battlestar Galactica
 * Dune
 * Spice
 * Halleck
 * Blenjeel Sandworm
 * Tatooine was seen by many as inspired by Arrakis
 * As a side-note, Kevin J. Anderson wrote Dune books after he stopped writing Star Wars books
 * E.T.
 * Farscape
 * Firefly
 * Isaac Asimov's Foundation series:
 * Korell/Korellian Republic
 * Encyclopedia Galactica
 * FarStar
 * Hyperdrive
 * Jhantor
 * Trantor
 * Hari Seldon
 * Siwenna (possibly)
 * Star's End
 * Homestar Runner (possibly)
 * ''The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
 * Encyclopedia Galactica (possibly)
 * Old Janx Spirit
 * Tizowyrm
 * Lord of the Rings
 * Solanus is very similar to the planet in Solaris, and may originally have been referred to as Solaris.
 * Star Trek (the Original Series): "The Tholian Web"
 * Blade Runner

See also Book of Imperial Shuttle Plans: Cygnus Spaceworks, a non-canonical work sometimes mistaken for canon. This piece of fanart makes extensive references to other science fiction franchises.

Language and culture

 * Beltane was a Celtic holiday.
 * Knight Hammer's name and "Eating a Boat" are puns which only work in English.
 * Teräs Käsi is Finnish.
 * Abraxas was a word used in Gnosticism.
 * X-wings, A-wings and Y-wings (and generally all the -wing craft) resemble the Roman letters they are named for, but no Aurebesh letters.
 * Lambda-class shuttles look like the letter Lambda in the Greek alphabet (though other shuttles with Greek letter names don't look like their namesakes).
 * Dexter Jettster, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, Ganner Rhysode, and an unnamed trooper from the 501st Legion all say "Damn", HK-47 says "Dammit", and Han Solo refers to "Hell" (Corellian legends have nine). Are they referring to a general concept of damnation found in many religions, or a specific religious belief shared with an Earth religion?
 * Han Solo also refers to "Sunday School" in Marvel Star Wars 7: New Planets, New Perils.

Technology
Certain classes of inventions are likely to be reinvented in a galaxy far, far away. When technology gets overly specific, however, suspension of disbelief is strained.
 * Chopsticks
 * E-mail
 * Lightsaber
 * Katana
 * Scimitar

Units of measurement

 * Many in-universe sources use the metric system. The meter was originally based on the size of the Earth.
 * Parsecs are likewise based on the year and orbital diameter of the Earth, respectively (though in the Star Wars galaxy, the orbit of another planet such as Coruscant is probably used to define these units instead, like in the case of standard days, years etc).
 * Saturday is referred to in the Lando Calrissian Adventures. It could be a 'translation' for Natunda or some other day of the Galactic Week..