Browse by style

Celestial Middle Names

80 middle names taken from the actual sky — named stars, constellations, moons and astronomers — each one identified, plus the handful of sky words that work as names.

Almost every usable star name in English arrived through Arabic. Medieval Arab astronomers catalogued the sky, their star lists were translated into Latin in Spain and Sicily, and the names came out the other side slightly mangled but intact: Vega from al-waqi, the falling eagle; Altair from al-ta'ir, the flying one; Rigel from rijl, the foot — it marks Orion's left foot; Deneb from dhanab, the tail of the swan. That history is why these names sound coherent together and why they scan so well: two syllables, front stress, ending on a consonant. Constellation names came by the other road, out of Greek and Latin, and they run longer and softer — Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Carina, Lyra. The moons split the same way. Titan, Rhea, Phoebe, Io and Calypso orbit Saturn or Jupiter and are Greek; Titania, Miranda, Ariel and Cressida orbit Uranus and are Shakespeare's, because that is the naming convention astronomers chose for that planet.

One name on this list needs a footnote before you use it. Nova is Latin for "new," which is what parents usually have in mind, but in astronomy a nova is not a new star at all — it is a thermonuclear explosion on the surface of a white dwarf that flares for weeks and fades, and a supernova is the death of a massive star. The name is lovely and enormously popular and none of that has to matter; it is simply better to hear it from a name page than from an eleven-year-old with an astronomy book. Two smaller notes in the same spirit: Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky and the Dog Star of Canis Major, but for a generation of readers it is also a Harry Potter character, as are Bellatrix, Draco and Regulus, all of which are genuine star names first. Pairing-wise this style behaves predictably. The Arabic star names are compact and consonant-final, so they take vowel-heavy first names well — Isla Vega, Mira for a short surname, Theo Altair. The Greek constellations are four and five beats and need a one-syllable first name and a short surname, or the whole thing sprawls: Jack Cassiopeia works, Sebastian Cassiopeia does not.

Top picks, annotated

Here is what the lists below actually are, because a celestial name is only worth having if you can say what it names. Named stars: Alcor and Mizar (the famous naked-eye pair in the Big Dipper's handle), Alula and Talitha (also in Ursa Major), Alphard in Hydra, Antares in Scorpius, Arcturus in Bootes, Bellatrix in Orion, Deneb in Cygnus, Hadar in Centaurus, Izar in Bootes, Mira in Cetus, Nashira in Capricornus, Pollux and Castor in Gemini, Procyon in Canis Minor, Regulus in Leo, Zaniah in Virgo and Zosma in Leo. Constellations: Andromeda, Aquila, Aries, Carina, Cepheus, Cygnus, Draco, Leo, Phoenix and Vela. Star clusters: Alcyone and Pleione, two of the Pleiades, with Atlas as their father in the myth and a Pleiad star in his own right. Moons: Ariel, Calypso, Cressida, Elara, Io, Larissa, Miranda, Phoebe, Rhea, Thalassa, Titan and Titania. Astronomers: Galileo, Herschel, Kepler, Ptolemy, Sagan and Tycho. And the sky words, in several languages: Astra, Astraea, Caelum, Celestine, Cosmo, Cynthia (a Greek epithet for the moon), Danica (Slavic for the morning star), Elio, Estelle, Estrella, Hale, Halley, Hesper (the evening star), Luna, Maia, Nash, Sol, Stella, Vesper and Zenith.

For girls

For boys

Pairing rule: pick one object, not a sky. Luna Stella, Nova Celeste and Orion Sirius each name the same idea twice, and the second one cancels the first. If both parents want a star, use two middle names and separate them with something plain — Aurora Jane Vega reads far better than Aurora Vega does.

Keep browsing

Adjacent styles: mythology middle names, where the constellations get their stories, nature for the earth-bound version of this instinct, unique for the same distinctiveness without the astronomy, and modern, where Nova and Luna properly belong. The Greek and Latin sky words are drawn out further under Greek origin names. Then see how to choose a middle name, or return to all 22 styles.