Over the past few centuries, a small number of stars have been named for individuals. It is common in astronomy for objects to be given names, in accordance with accepted astronomical naming conventions. However, most stars are not given proper names, relying on either long-standing traditional names (usually from the Arabic), or catalogue numbers. The Pleiades star cluster A star is any massive gaseous body in outer space. ... In ancient Greece and other early civilizations, astronomy consisted largely of astrometry, measuring positions of stars and planets in the sky. ... In ancient times, only the Sun and Moon, a few hundred stars and the most easily visible planets had names. ... A proper name [is] a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about writes John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic (1. ... Arabic (العربية al-arabiyyah, or less formally arabi) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ...

Nomenclature

The naming of astronomical bodies is controlled by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which normally only names features on planetary surfaces after people, and then lays down strict standards for this naming - craters on Mercury, for example, are named for "famous deceased artists, musicians, painters and authors". However, the right of choosing names for asteroids is given to the discover, pending IAU approval. This tends to produce an idiosyncratic collection of names - whilst many are named for mythological figures, or prominent astronomers, many more are named for popular musicians, obscure historical figures, or personal friends of the discoverer. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) unites national astronomical societies from around the world. ... This is a list of named craters on Mercury. ... An asteroid is a small, solid object in our Solar System, orbiting the Sun. ...

The IAU does not name stars, and have no intention of so doing; proper names are rarely if ever used by professional astronomers, and so there is no need for them to. Whilst many private companies will offer the "right" to name a star, for a fee, they have no legal standing to, and can offer no guarantee of the name being noted.

Leaving aside these attempts, the stars named for individuals fall broadly into two groups. The first group, mostly older stars, are those named openly for an individual connected with them in some way. The second, somewhat more obscurely, are those named for an individual but without explicitly making this clear.

Openly named stars

There are a small group of stars whose common names honour individuals. Many of these were highly significant in some way when discovered, usually through having a very high proper motion. The proper motion of a star is the motion of the position of the star in the sky (the change in direction in which we see it, as opposed to the radial velocity) after eliminating the improper motions of the stars, which affect their measured coordinates but are not real...

• Cor Caroli (α Canum Venaticorum), although only 3rd magnitude, is the brightest star in the modern constellation Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). Cor Caroli, which is Latin for "Heart of Charles", was named in honor of King Charles II of England.
• Barnard's Star, probably the most famous of these, is a red dwarf named for E. E. Barnard, who discovered it in 1916.
• Luyten's Star, another red dwarf, is named for Willem Jacob Luyten, its discoverer.
• Van Maanen's Star is a white dwarf, discovered in 1917 by Adriaan Van Maanen.
• Kapteyn's Star, a subdwarf, was discovered in 1897 by Jacobus Kapteyn.
• R Leporis is a long-period variable star, sometimes known as Hind's Crimson Star after the discoverer John Russell Hind. It is one of the reddest stars visible.
• Krzeminski's Star is a blue supergiant, part of the pulsar Centaurus X-3, discovered by the Polish astronomer Wojciech Krzeminski in 1974.
• Teegarden's Star is the most recent example, a red dwarf discovered by NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Tracking program in 2003, and named for Bonnard Teegarden, a NASA astrophysicist.
• SN 1604, a supernova, was known as Kepler's star when first observed, after Johannes Kepler - he had not discovered it, but studied it extensively.
• Likewise, SN 1572 was known as Tycho's star, after Tycho Brahe, though he did not have priority of discovery.
• Wolf 1055 AB is also known as Van Biesbroeck's star after George Van Biesbroeck, who in 1940 detected the faint red dwarf as a companion of the larger, brighter Wolf 1055 A; the system together is Gliese 752.

In addition, a lot of stars have catalogue names which contain the name of their discoverer - for example, Wolf 359, discovered by Max Wolf. These are not strictly named for that person, although it may seem that way, but merely given a star designation in that catalogue. Cor Caroli or Alpha Canes Venatici is the brightest star in the northern constellation Canes Venatici. ... Canes Venatici (Latin for hunting dogs) is a small northern constellation that was introduced by Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century. ... Charles II (29 May 1630–6 February 1685) was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 30 January 1649 (de jure) or 29 May 1660 (de facto) until his death. ... Barnards star is a star in the constellation Ophiuchus which is notable for having the largest proper motion (10. ... Red Dwarf is a British science fiction comedy, created and originally written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. ... Edward Emerson Barnard (December 16, 1857 – February 6, 1923) was an American astronomer. ... 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... Luytens Star (GJ 273 Recons) is a red dwarf at a distance of around 12. ... Willem Jacob Luyten (March 7, 1899 – November 21, 1994) was a Dutch-American astronomer. ... Van Maanens Star is a white dwarf, the second such star discovered and the closest one to the Sun after Sirius B. It is also known as van Maanen 2, G 001-027, GCTP 160. ... White dwarf Sirius-B in x-rays A white dwarf is an astronomical object which is produced when a low to medium mass star dies. ... 1917 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Adriaan Van Maanen (March 31, 1884 – January 26, 1946) was a Dutch-American astronomer. ... Kapteyns Star (also known as GJ 191, HD 33793 or CD -45 1841) is a class M0 subdwarf discovered by Jacobus Kapteyn in 1897. ... A subdwarf star, sometimes denoted by sd, is luminosity class VI under the Yerkes spectral classification system. ... 1897 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn, (January 19, 1851 – June 18, 1922) was a Dutch astronomer, best known for his extensive studies of the Milky Way and as the first discoverer of evidence for galactic rotation. ... Hinds Crimson Star, also known as R Leporis, is a well-known variable star, in the constellation Lepus, near the border with Eridanus. ... Most stars are of nearly constant luminosity. ... John Russell Hind (May 12, 1823 – December 23, 1895) was a British astronomer. ... Krzeminskis Star is a 20. ... A supergiant is a very large type of star which is ~10 to 50 solar masses on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. ... Composite Optical/X-ray image of the Crab Nebula pulsar, showing surrounding nebular gases stirred by the pulsars magnetic field and radiation. ... It is believed that Cen X-3 is a pulsating X-ray source (X-ray pulsar) with a period of 4. ... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... Teegardens Star, also known as SO025300. ... The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was established in 1958, is the agency responsible for the public space program of the United States of America. ... Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) is a program run by NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory to discover near-Earth objects. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Supernova 1604, also known as Keplers Supernova or Keplers Star, was a supernova in the Milky Way, in the constellation Ophiuchus. ... Johannes Kepler (December 27, 1571 – November 15, 1630), a key figure in the scientific revolution, was a German astronomer, mathematician and astrologer. ... SN 1572 or Tychos Nova was a supernova in the constellation Cassiopeia, one of the few supernovae visible by the naked eye. ... Tycho Brahe (December 14, 1546 Knudstrup, Denmark – October 24, 1601 Prague, Bohemia (now Czech Republic)) was a Danish nobleman, well known as an astronomer/astrologer (the two were not yet distinct) and alchemist. ... George A. Van Biesbroeck (or Georges-Achille Van Biesbroeck) (January 21, 1880 – February 23, 1974) was a Belgian-American astronomer. ... The position of Wolf 359 in the Leo constellation; the star is not visible to the naked eye. ... Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (June 21, 1863 – October 3, 1932) was a German astronomer. ... The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to stars (and other celestial bodies). ...

(Note that Pandora's Star and Ratner's Star are the names of novels, not actual stars) Pandoras Star is a science fiction novel by Peter F. Hamilton, first chapter in The Commonwealth Saga. ... Ratners Star is a novel by Don DeLillo. ...

Covertly named stars

However, some names have been given unofficially, and worked their way into star catalogues and thus to "formal" acceptance.

The earliest noted example was Sualocin and Rotanev (α and β Delphini), two stars which appeared in the Palermo star catalogue of 1814. They were eventually identified as a reversed form of Nicolaus Venator, the Latinised name of Nicolò Cacciatore, assistant to the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi. It is not clear which of the two named the stars. Sualocin (α Delphini) and Rotanev (β Delphini) are names of stars, the result of an enduring practical joke played by the Italian astronomer Nicolò Cacciatore, assistant to Giuseppe Piazzi, who reversed the letters in the Latin version of his own name (Nicolaus Venator). The two mysterious names Sualocin and Rotanev... Sualocin (α Delphini) and Rotanev (β Delphini) are names of stars, the result of an enduring practical joke played by the Italian astronomer Nicolò Cacciatore, assistant to Giuseppe Piazzi, who reversed the letters in the Latin version of his own name (Nicolaus Venator). The two mysterious names Sualocin and Rotanev... 1814 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Giuseppe Piazzi - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

More recently, during the Apollo program, it was common for astronauts to be trained in celestial navigation, using a list of naked-eye stars from which to take bearings. As a practical joke, Gus Grissom gave names to three stars on this list - Navi (ε Cassiopeiae), Dnoces (ι Ursae Majoris), and Regor (γ Velorum). The names stuck, and were used through the rest of the program. Unknown to Grissom, these stars already had traditional names; however, those were not generally used, allowing the three other names to make their way into other records. Today, they are generally considered disused - some sources listing them as "traditional". Description Role: Earth and Lunar Orbit Crew: 3; CDR, CM pilot, LM pilot Dimensions Height: 36. ... Celestial navigation is a position fixing technique that was the first system devised to help sailors locate themselves on a featureless ocean. ... Gus Grissom in his Mercury spacesuit Virgil Ivan Gus Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was a U.S. Air Force pilot who became one of the first American astronauts. ... Gamma Velorum is a star in the constellation Vela. ...

The three names are references to the three Apollo 1 crew - Apollo One is the name given to the Apollo/Saturn 204 (AS-204) spacecraft after it was destroyed by fire during a training exercise on January 27, 1967, at Pad 34 atop a Saturn IB rocket. ...

• Navi is Ivan spelled backwards, the middle name of Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom.
• Dnoces is Second spelled backwards, alluding to Edward Higgins White, II.
• Regor is Roger spelled backwards, the first name of Roger Bruce Chaffee.

It is possible, though unlikely, that more "traditional" names are in fact hidden names such as these, not yet identified. However, etymologies for most star names are not currently known. Gus Grissom in his Mercury spacesuit Virgil Ivan Gus Grissom (April 3, 1926 – January 27, 1967) was a U.S. Air Force pilot who became one of the first American astronauts. ... Edward White Edward Higgins White, II (November 14, 1930 - January 27, 1967) was an American astronaut. ... Roger Chaffee Roger Bruce Chaffee (February 15, 1935 - January 27, 1967) was a U.S. Navy pilot who became an American astronaut in the Apollo program. ... Etymology is the study of the origins of words. ...