Since they could first look at the sky, the humans of Earth gave names to the distant points of light in the sky. But it wasn’t until the 20th century that Terrans got serious about it and formed an organization devoted to the officially naming of celestial objects. Understanding the etymology of Ilium requires understanding of bureaucratic institutions responsible for the naming astronomical objects along with a surface level understanding of Greek and Roman mythology.

The people in charge of the naming organizations, herby referred to as The Namers, liked naming things after gods none of them personally worshiped. They did this because the people before them did this. A few of them named objects after the gods from the mythology of other cultures, but mostly they stuck to the Greek and Roman pantheons.

Reflected in their world view that bigger is better, the people in charge of naming things named the biggest planet after the top god of the Roman civilization, Jupiter. The other planets weren’t as cleverly named. Mercury was so much more than a small and fast guy. He was also a psychopomp; a deity responsible for shepherding important figures to the land of the dead. Venus looked pretty, so they named it after the goddess of beauty. The sand on Mars looks a bit like blood, so they named it after the Roman god of war.

When they ran out of gods, they turned to lesser mythological figures. The authorities in charge of naming celestial objects named the two most prominent camps of asteroids sharing Jupiter’s orbit after the two sides of the Trojan War. The asteroids in the Greek Camp were named after Greek heroes and the Trojan camp after Trojan heroes. The naming committees decided on the name Ilium after careful consideration. Ilium is alternative name for the city of Troy. From there the committee branched off into a wide variety of discussions ranging from human biology to the works of Kurt Vonnegut. After weeks of deliberation, they decided on the name Ilium for this mystery.

The demonym Ilian (pronounced 𐑦𐑤𐑰𐑩𐑯) is used to describe the sentient residents of Ilium.