It's impossible to say exactly who first named the planet 'Earth'. Most think that it was not named Earth by an individual, but rather it developed over time as part of the English language. Earth is Old English and German in origin, related to the Old Saxon 'ertha', the Dutch 'aerde', and the German 'erda'. Terra is a French and Latin word, and so isn't part of the 'Earth' etymology. It seems likely that people used Earth to mean 'land' and then it was the natural thing to refer to all the land and the planet. I tried to look up more specific details about the specific usage of the word over time, but even the Oxford English Dictionary (online) admits: "Men's notions of the shape and position of the earth have so greatly changed since Old Teutonic times, while the language of the older notions has long outlived them, that it is very difficult to arrange the senses and applications of the word in any historical order." The Merriam-Webster dictionary places the word word Earth at "before the 12th century". http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=451 Earth is the only planet in the solar system, whose name is not derived from the Greek or Roman mythology, the origin of the now used form of naming comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Erda (Erdaz), which means ground, soil, and Earth, the word changed to Eorthe or Erthe in Old English and to Erde in German. 8th Century, in Old High German: erda, al therda, from OHG al th[iu] erda 'der gesamte Erdkreis', (meaning: hole world, earth) Latin: Terra, Norwegian: Jorda, Icelandic: Jord, Aramaic: Ereds, Hebrew: Eretz, Greek: Era. http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/earth.htm#Name The Earth is the only planet whose name doesn't derive from Greek or Roman mythology. 'Earth' is derived from Old English. The Romans however, referred to the planet as Terra. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/earth/index.shtml How the name Earth is believed to have evolved over the course of history: Mythological Origin-Goddess of the earth Sumerian-Ki or Ninhursag Babylonian-Aruru Greek-Gaea Latin-Terra English-Earth http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/astronomy/q0171.shtml

Creation. The planet’s coming into existence is recounted in the Bible with the simple statement: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Ge 1:1) Just how long ago the starry heavens and the earth were created is not stated in the Bible. Therefore, there is no basis for Bible scholars to take issue with scientific calculations of the age of the planet. Scientists estimate the age of some rocks as being three and a half billion years, and the earth itself as being about four to four and a half billion or more years. EARTH .....he fifth-largest planet of the solar system and the third in order of position from the sun. It is an oblate spheroid, being slightly flattened at the poles. Satellite observations have indicated other slight irregularities in the shape of the earth. Its mass is approximately 5.98 × 1024 kg (13.18 × 1024 lb). Its area is about 510,000,000 sq km (197,000,000 sq mi). Earth’s measurements are (approximately): circumference at the equator, just over 40,000 km (24,900 mi); diameter at the equator, 12,750 km (7,920 mi). Oceans and seas cover approximately 71 percent of its surface, leaving about 149,000,000 sq km (57,500,000 sq mi) of land surface. The earth rotates on its axis, bringing about day and night. (Ge 1:4, 5) A solar day or an apparent day is a period of 24 hours, the time taken for an observer at any one point on the earth to be again in the same position relative to the sun. The tropical year, which concerns the return of the seasons, the interval between two consecutive returns of the sun to the vernal equinox, is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, on the average. This figure is the one used in solar-year calendar reckoning, and its fractional nature has caused much difficulty in accurate calendar making. The axis of the earth tilts 23° 27′ away from a perpendicular to the earth’s orbit. The gyroscopic effect of rotation holds the earth’s axis in basically the same direction relative to the stars regardless of its location in its orbit around the sun. This tilt of the axis brings about the seasons. The earth’s atmosphere, composed principally of nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, and other gases, extends over 960 km (600 mi) above the earth’s surface. Beyond this is what is termed “outer space.”