This is gonna piss a lot of people off...

[Graham Kennedy]

I have no problem with the idea that names like Vulcan and Romulan are just Earth names for those species, and in their own language they are called something completely different - I believe in the books the Romulans call themselves the Rihannsu, with their worlds being ch'Ríhan and ch'Havran. No doubt they have some word they use for Humans too.

[Mark]

I have no problem with the idea that names like Vulcan and Romulan are just Earth names for those species, and in their own language they are called something completely different - I believe in the books the Romulans call themselves the Rihannsu, with their worlds being ch'Ríhan and ch'Havran. No doubt they have some word they use for Humans too.

Unflattering I'll bet

[Teaos]

Who got to name them? Who discovered them? Imagin if some random guy found them and called them something retarded like Bizaro-Vulcans.

[Sionnach Glic]

It could have been anything, like an off hand comment someone made when hearing about their world like "Sounds like Vulcan's forge!"

I seriously doubt anyone from that era would, upon hearing about an arid desert planet, liken it to Vulcan's forge. He'd be far more likely to say something like "sounds like Egypt".

or someone mispronouncing the way VULCANS pronounced their own racial name, and it just stuck.

That's not a bad explaination.

[Mikey]

I tend to agree with Graham's explanation, but it's a stretch even from there to explain the Romulans having "centurions."