Why are they called the Zerg? Did they name themselves? or was the name given to them by the Terrans? ...and why were they called Zerg by Terrans? -or- ...if name was given, what do the Zerg call themselves? Any answers would be great. Thanks in advance :yes:
Zerg was named presumably by the protoss I believe, actually it would make sense for them to be self-name -- the overmind and the race grew up on zerus, named by the Xel'Naga, and the terrans learned of their "name" from toss i guess. best guess.
The terrans called them xenomorphs when they first appeared, so the protoss must have named them. The protoss speak Xel'naga, so it likely isn't a coincidence that the Xel'naga named the zerg homeworld Zerus and the Protoss named them Zerg. It likely means 'second attempt', 'evolving' or 'grows more teeth than we can handle' or something like that.
But they were called Zurg and something like "aliens from outer space" before that. So unless they kept renaming their homeworld as well, the planet name has little to do with the race name.
What? The protoss don't know the name of the zerg homeworld, it was named Zerus by the Xel'Naga. And I don't think the protoss ever called em anything but Zerg (The terrans on the other hand...)
Kuvasz, i think he meant Lore-wise. Development does NOT count. Drie, toss dont speak xel'naga. They have their own language.
I would agree with the other comments and say it was likely from their homeworld. Though, I never payed too much attention to lore, so I always thought their homeworld was Char since that's the only zerg planet I hear named multiple times in the games, never heard of Zerus until now.
The two must be related since calling a race "Nightmarish invaders" after a planet called Zerus doesn't make much sense now, does it?
okay guys... So I think that the Zerg were named by the xel'naga. They named them after they discovered them on the planet Zerus. At the time the Zerg were the lowest form of life on the planet Zerus, but the xel'naga saw in them the purity of essence. So the xel'naga then aided/manipulated the evolution of the Zerg so that they could eventually use the Zerg to continue their lifecycle. In order to control the Zerg the xelnaga subordinated all of the Zerg to one entity: the Overmind. They did this to prevent the Zerg from turning on each other as the protoss had done in the Aeon of Strife. However, when the Overmind became aware of the xel'naga it turned the Zerg against them, and the xel'naga were forced to flee from Zerus. The Overmind also learned of the Protoss from the xel'naga and believed that if the Zerg assimilated the Protoss the Zerg would become perfect; achieving purity of essence and purity of form (from the Protoss). Using knowledge the Overmind had learned from the xel'naga the zerg set off from Zerus to travel to the Protoss home world: Aiur. Along the way they stopped at other planets to assimilate the tools that they would need to defeat the Protoss and assimilate them.
Zerg were named by Xel Naga, as I remember from the manual. They named them when they created them, then the Protoss knew from Xel Naga, and the Terrans understand that from the Protoss. Little messy, but it is not such difficult to answer.
never thought of this question before myself. I did a little research and found out that Zerg was created by the ancient race called: Xel'naga, in an experiment after they abandoned toss. But the rebell of Xel'naga absorbed Zerg. You could check here for more detail description http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Zerg
The Zerg are called the "Zerg" because of their Zerg-ness. IMO, "Zerg" just sounded like a cool name.
lol why are Terran call Terran and not Human? or Protoss called Predators and Zerg call Aliens which I'm pretty sure that's where Blizzard got their ideas from
Well, the zerg coming from alien is at least confirmed. Many of the units even quote the movie. And terrans are called terrans because they are not humans. They are the descendants of anything forbidden by humanity. Or at least, thats how you can see it poetically. More likely is that their name comes from the old families of the confederation not wanting to associate with a power that would kill most of their supporting/serving populace due to genetic impurities. And since this power, the UED, had close to all of humanity behind it, the old families pr-group simply decided to rename the koprulu humans. Or it could be that due to UED propaganda, humanity has split into two groups: the humans, who are pure of body, and the terrans, who are not, with the koprulu humans embracing the term as a mark of honor. Or it could be blizz liked a movie with humans called terrans.
