# What is your favorite star name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 25, 2019, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195 "2019-08-25T01:29:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195/41 "2019-08-26T03:25:37Z")
Vela - the Argo’s sails, Andromeda, and from way back Orion. ---
**Author:** ![Encinitas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Encinitas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Encinitas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195/42 "2019-08-26T06:47:52Z")
Sol ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195/43 "2019-08-26T07:48:05Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > More specifically, a lot of them start with “al-”, the Arabic definite article. Aldebaran, for example, is from al-dabaraan, “The Follower”. Arcturus, on the other hand, isn’t from Arabic, but from ancient Greek. > > Oddly, Albireo appears to be derived from successive translation and copying errors. Al-bireo isn’t Arabic; at some point, during the convolutions of translating and copying between Greek, Arabic, and Latin, the star’s name was contorted into the Latin phrase “ab ireo”, which someone took as a copyist’s error for an Arabic name, and they “corrected” it to al-bireo, or Albireo. Alcyone is another al- star whose name does not come from Arabic. It’s a name from Greek mythology. Antares also isn’t from Arabic. It’s the “anti-Ares”, i.e. opponent or rival to Mars. At least in color, that is; both are very reddish. While many star names come from Arabic, there still a fair number from Latin and Greek. Polaris, for example, is from Latin. But interestingly, that name is relatively recent, only being named that about 5 or 6 hundred years ago. Because of precession of the equinoxes, that’s when it started to get close (about 5 degrees or so) to the pole. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195/44 "2019-08-26T09:14:35Z")
Not starting with “al-” doesn’t mean it _isn’t_ Arabic, either: for instance Denebola(sad), the Lion’s Tail, Rigel (al-Jabbar), the Giant’s Foot, (an-nasr al-waqi’) Vega, the Landing Eagle, Betelgeuse, etc. In each of those cases the “al” is on the second word, or has been corrupted. Cf our friend (Ra’s) Al-gol. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195/45 "2019-08-26T09:48:40Z")
I wouldn’t want to step on the critters who live around Fang in the Scorpius constellation. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195/46 "2019-08-26T12:00:41Z")
Barnard’s Star It’s the most homely-sounding star. (I know IRL it’s not really anyplace you’d want to settle) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195/47 "2019-08-26T13:51:29Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > My favorite is Sirius. Seriously. One astronomer insists a certain star is the North Star, but another one insists it’s the Dog Star. The first one looks through the telescope and says “Surely you can’t be Sirius.” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195/48 "2019-08-26T14:16:52Z")
**Mira** It sounds better than _omicron Ceti_, the star’s earlier name. It means “wonderful”. It’s also interesting because it is, as star names go, pretty recent. It was given in 1639, and not originally as a name for the star. The name comes because Mira was, officially, the first variable star to be discovered. I have gone on record severely doubting that, but more below. Mira was noticed to be missing by David Fabricius, a Dutch Lutheran clergyman, on August 13, 1596. Repeated observations showed that the star got progressively brighter and then dimmer over an 11 month cycle. Jan Heweliusza of Gdansk, Poland, writing under his latin _cognomen_ of Johannes Hevelius, published a full account of the star’s behavior in a book called _Historiola della Mira Stellae_ (“A Little History of the Wonderful Star”) in 1639. (Over 40 years later – evidently these things take time.) I’ve argued in my book that knowledge of the variability of Mira and Algol, as well as _delta Cephei_ and _gamma Cassiopeia_ must have been present in the ancient world, because these naked-eye visible variable stars are all in constellations associated with the myth of Perseus. In fact (counting Algol as head of Medusa), they’re all in villains opposing Perseus. I’m happy to see that, since my book _Medusa_ was published, archaeoastronomers have come to think so, too. Interesting side note – in his novel _Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ_, Lew Wallace has Sheik Ilderim name one of his horses “Mira”, after the star. This is a neat trick, considering that the star wouldn’t bear that name until over 1600 years later. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195/49 "2019-08-26T21:30:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Mira** > > It sounds better than _omicron Ceti_, the star’s earlier name. It means “wonderful”. > > It’s also interesting because it is, as star names go, pretty recent. It was given in 1639, and not originally as a name for the star. In the same vein, we have [La Superba](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Superba), named in the 19th century. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195/50 "2019-08-26T22:15:54Z")
I worked at a computer facility that had all of their computers named for stars. I worked on Mira. ---
**Author:** ![Moris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moris/32/2846_2.png) [@Moris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moris)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195/51 "2019-08-27T18:32:55Z")
I love some of the old folk names like _Éarendel_. I suppose Tolkien liked them too. ---
**Author:** ![Rough\_Draft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rough\_Draft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rough_Draft)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2019, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195/52 "2019-08-27T18:56:48Z")
Triangulum Australe! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-star-name/839195.md?page=2)