# Milky Way? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2001, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milky-way/71629 "2001-07-07T20:51:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JCorre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3da27b/32.png) [@JCorre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JCorre)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2001, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milky-way/71629/1 "2001-07-07T20:51:15Z")
It seems like a golden opportunity was lost by whoever named our galaxy. Personally, I think ‘The Milky Way’ is a terrible name for a galaxy. How did the Andromeda galaxy get its cool name while ours was stuck with a name that most people associate with a candy bar (the candy bar even sucks)? So my question is who named the Milky Way and was there a reason for this name? Is it called the Milky Way in foreign countries as well? ---
**Author:** ![Chrisfs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@Chrisfs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chrisfs)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2001, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milky-way/71629/2 "2001-07-07T21:11:58Z")
The Milky way was named due to the bright ‘milky white’ area that appears through the middle. Who named it ? I’m not sure, it was one of those long ago things, like who named the constellations. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2001, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milky-way/71629/3 "2001-07-07T21:14:09Z")
Can’t give you anything to back this up, but I’ve always understood it to be because most of the stars in our galaxy appear to us in a band or path(way) across the sky that, because of the immense number of them, looks sort of cloudy(milky). ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2001, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milky-way/71629/4 "2001-07-07T21:21:27Z")
I’m sorry if this comes across as snotty, but do they not have [encyclopedias](http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=119849) where y’all are? ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2001, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milky-way/71629/5 "2001-07-07T21:36:42Z")
You might consider checking a few facts before you form an opinion. [http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm](http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm) > [@](#): > > Main Entry: gal·axy > Pronunciation: 'ga-l&k-sE > Function: noun > Inflected Form(s): plural -ax·ies > Etymology: Middle English galaxie, galaxias, from Late Latin galaxias, from Greek, from galakt-, gala milk; akin to Latin lac milk [http://www.geocities.com/hestia624/olympians-hera.html](http://www.geocities.com/hestia624/olympians-hera.html) > [@](#): > > Most of the stories about Hera are about her jealousy of Zeus’ many affairs and illegitimate children. Her time seemed to be spent tormenting her husband’s lovers and sometimes the children as well. Heracles, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, was the one who annoyed her the most, and she tormented him his entire mortal life. She was tricked into nursing him as an infant. When she discovered that he was Zeus’ illegitimate son, she pulled him away, and the milk still flowing from her breast created the Milky Way. So it was the ancient Greeks who referred to it as the Milky Way, which in Greek would be something close to “galaxy”. Blame them. The phrase “the Milky Way galaxy” is redundant if you go strictly by the etymology of the word “galaxy”. Of course, in accepted usage, it isn’t redundant. Before astronomers discovered that what they saw as spiral nebulas were really galaxies, they also sometimes referred to the Milky Way as “the Galaxy”. The Andromeda galaxy is called that because it’s in the constellation Andromeda. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2001, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milky-way/71629/6 "2001-07-07T21:48:13Z")
The concept behind the name is pretty old. As [this page](http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit4/milky.html) explains, “Milky Way” is a translation of the Latin _Via Lactea_, which comes in turn from the Greek _Galaxias kuklos_, “milky band” (or “milky circle”). Since “galaxy” comes from the Greek phrase, “Milky Way Galaxy” is kind of redundant–The “Milky Way Milky Thing”. The Andromeda Galaxy is named after the constellation it appears to be in; since we’re inside the Milky Way Galaxy, it pretty much appears to be in _all_ the constellations, although as [this page](http://www.ccnet.com/~galaxy/mwfaq.html) notes, the “milky way” itself (that is, the luminous band visible in the night sky, or visible outside of the 'burbs, at any rate) is only found in certain constellations. In general, the stuff that’s really familiar doesn’t get the cool names. Take “the Planet Earth”, for instance. Planet “Earth” is hardly better than just saying “We live on ‘the ground’”. _Other_ planets get the cool names, like Mars or Trantor or Tatooine. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2001, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/milky-way/71629/7 "2001-07-07T21:50:09Z")
Of course, the word _galaxy_ is, in fact, a reference to the Milky Way (from the Greek _gala_, milk). So once a constellation had already been named Andromeda by the ancient Greeks, it was the modern astronomers who realized that the cluster of whirling stars that was seen in that constellation was, in fact, of the same sort as those in which we found ourselves (not being able to see the galaxy for the stars, as it were). I don’t happen to find the name “The Milky Way” to be particularly uncool. Get out away from the lights of the cities and see the _real_ Milky Way. In the otherwise dark sky, punctured by hundreds of tiny lights, there is a very visibly “pathway” of soft, creamy light that wanders across the sky, most of its tiny stars seeming to blend together. It is certainly as good a name as being named after some pretty fluff whose mom brought down a curse on a whole kingdom by bragging on one’s beauty. (And the candy bar is quite good, too.)