How did the earth get its name?
The old earth was named long, long before anyone knew it was a big round ball. People who farmed the soil named it. The original meaning of the word earth was to plow or to bury. The original meaning of the word land was a heath, which is a kind of prairie. The original meaning of soil was mud, or muddy swamp, and at one time the word ground meant foundation.
As the early farmers visited from place to place, they found more and more plowing earth. Gradually, the earth came to mean the vast stretches of solid land around the globe and finally the word earth was taken to mean the entire planet itself.