This name accurately reflects the nature of plankton, as they are organisms that drift with ocean currents and lack the ability to swim against them.

While "planktos" itself is the original Greek term, the word "plankton" was actually coined by Victor Hensen, a German biologist, in the late 19th century. He was studying the abundance of organisms in the North Sea and needed a term to describe the vast array of microscopic life drifting within the water.