Where did the name "Guardians of the Galaxy" come from?

Question

In the film, I noticed the name to be used for the first time by Ronan after the crash landing, talking to the group. Later, Peter says something like “I guess we really are Guardians of the Galaxy”.

Is this where the name comes from? Did Ronan just make it up to mock the team?

Also, I didn't notice the line “They're calling themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy” from the trailer anywhere in the film.

I'm interested in the in-universe origin of the name, not what writer first thought it up. Also, I don't know how much does the film differ from the comic, so I have no idea if a comic-based answer would make sense here.

Answer 1

They did drop John C. Reilly's line "They're calling themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy" from the final release of the film. I also noticed that Drax is not in the lineup scene in the film, as he was introduced later. I think he was included in this part of the trailer so that all five main characters could be introduced in a similar way.

To answer your question, yes, Ronan the Accuser is the first to use the name "Guardians of the Galaxy" in the film. Peter Quill (Starlord) and Rocket do talk about saving the galaxy in earlier scenes, but they don't use the titular phrase until after Ronan coins it.

In the comics, there is some confusion as to where (more accurately, when) the team's name comes from as well. The "original" Guardians of the Galaxy come from 1000 years in the future, but those comics were published decades ago (in the late 1960s an early 1970s, then again in the early 1990s). That team traveled into the past (creating alternate timelines, as one does) and influenced the current team to take the name. So the current Guardians of the Galaxy took the name from a team that existed before them and 1000 years after them. Adding to the confusion, at least one character (Vance Astro, aka Major Victory) was a member of both teams, so it's not entirely clear whether or not the two teams influenced each other to take the same name, which would be a paradox.

Answer 2

I have wondered about this myself, particularly since Ronan hasn't actually been terribly interested in these (to him) trivial characters, minor obstructions to his grand planetary revenge scheme. Nor does it make sense, since he's addressing the terrified denizens of Xandar when he uses the name, that he's referring to Starlord & Co., since why would he assume they'd know who he's talking about? Truthfully, they aren't protecting the galaxy, they're just trying to protect Xandar.

I think he's trash-talking the Nova Corps. They were the ones who killed his father, and his father before him, and etc. They're the ones who managed to get the treaty he so despises, and galaxy-guarding is the kind of thing he'd associate them with, however ironically. They have that goody-goody aspect to them.

He's telling the Xandarians that they are going to die because Nova Corps pissed him off with their cheap heroics, standing up to the might of the Kree Empire, and like that. He's not talking about the motley band of outlaws he just gave a thrashing to at all. He's not even thinking about them. His obsession is 100% with destroying Xandar to get back at Nova.

But in a few minutes, following the dance-off, he'll have that name flung back at him before he dies, and it will be associated with said ruffians by all Xandarians, who were just confused as hell by what was happening, and naturally assumed he meant the weirdos who blasted their nemesis to atoms.

It's a bit like when a British officer wrote Yankee Doodle to make fun of what he saw as the ludicrous ill-disciplined American soldiers he'd fought with in New York, only to have soldiers of the Continental Army make it their unofficial theme song. But in this case, Ronan was not even referring to the people the name ended up being stuck to. And they don't actually guard the galaxy until the second film (and the galaxy is only in danger because of Peter's Celestial heritage).

Anyway, if somebody sees James Gunn at a convention or something, ask him.