We can do better than that

How about using one of the fantasy/sci-fi name-generator programs? The names are random and pronounceable.

Oops, Jim meets perry

Hmm, forget greek or roman, It's just SciFi:

Vulcan and Romulus are the home planets of Vulcanians and Romulans, as we all know essentially the same race. And Peristera is a planet from the SF-novelles 'Perr Rhodan'. Rerry Rhodan is a very, very long running series of booklets (don't know, maybe a 100 pages each) being each week or so, stemming from Germany.

Heinrich

More ideas

As astronomers discover more planetary systems, I can see this problem becoming more acute. How long before eleven lonely rocks are named after the Oxford United squad?

Yes indeed.

I don't really see what all the fuss is about, mythology and wikipedia go well together, if not in the same breath, at least hand in hand.

And probably not the first to say this, or the last, seeing as we're into naming the planets after Greek Islands, what about Lesbos. After all as Wlad points out, he feels Uranus to be "problematic", why not cut to the chase and just use humuorous names, Lesbos would be just fine, if the planet had any moons, they could be classed as Lesbossians naturally, of course many would associate wrongly with Lesbians, in the same manner they associate with Uranus.

Better still....

And in commemoration of its place in IT history

Name them after the planets in Elite!

And the first of them shall be "Lave".

Stupid names

"How about a solar system with planets called Tatooine, Alderaan, Dagobah and Naboo?"

What a ridiculous idea. How would my GPS StarNav know WHICH Tatooine I wanted to travel to? Your absurdly made up one or the real one on the fringes of the Galactic Empire?

The names are supposed to HELP, not hinder.

Let's keep things straight

I am all in favor of using fictional universes for sources of names (practical problems of finite names and a much bigger finite number of plantes). However, if you're going to use Tatooine, Dantooine, et. al. for celestial bodies, shouldn't those actually be the names of stars? That would require mythologies to be restricted to individual galaxies instead of solar systems, but that makes more sense anyway. Paticularly if the galaxy is far, far away.

P.S. I second the suggestion of "Lave"

Names...pfft...

We should just give them a number until we confirm they are barren with no intelligent life. Then we should go there and once landed, name it.

That will delay the whole name problem for a few centuries at least.

J.

@How about the Christian mythology?

Au contraire, Mr Blackshaw - there might be only one Big G, but the Book is stuffed with mythical beings that NEVER ACTUALLY EXISTED* - Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah, Ham, Sham, Spam (my memory gets a little fuzzy after that...)

* No they DIDN'T. DIDN'T. DIDN'T. DIDN'T. DIDN'T. DIDN'T. DID. DIDN'T with bells on.

Names already being drawn from outside Greek/Roman myths

Shame on you all. You call yourselves geeks and yet no-one has mentioned that Rama from the Arthur C Clarke novels is drawn from Hindu mythology?

@Ed Blackshaw

Trouble is, naming an extra-solar planet Jehovah would probably result in astonomers being stoned to death somewhere...

(normal) People, rise!!

Are we so reflexively shamed by our own personal nomenclature that we are willing to yield the celestial namespace to the ancient, the fictional, and the computo-fabricated?!?!

What harm is there in christening planets Gareth, Robert, and Dannielle? Imagine a time when we can reflect our growing familiarity with a celestial object in a manner that is at once both natural and familiar to us all:

"Scientists of the ESA's Gareth Exploration Program estimate that a mission to Gareth - or "Stinky Gaz", as it is known by its closest friends, will cost approximately $3bn..."

..which, of course, automatically expands the namespace as room is made to accommodate, for example, Gareth, Gary, Gaz, Gazza, Fat Gazza, Wee Gazza, Gazza The Hut and so on and so forth.

And, of course, how beneficial will it be to loose ourselves from the demonical toga-grammar of the ancients? It is well known that words like "Pleiades" cannot be accurately pronounced while wearing underpants. No. Once we embrace the modern languages, more pronounceable names like "John", "Juan Carlo De La Fuente Burro", "Xiao Lin Pa Fo", and "*click* *click* *cluck* *tut* *smile* *click* *tut*" become the norm and the heavens at last become the domain of the common man.

As for the homages, Heinlein gave us a word for understanding things that, itself, needs to be explained every time we use it in normal society, Asimov gave us rules for automata that rely on ethical constructs that even we have difficulty consistently explaining, Adams gave us a view of the universe that is remarkably similar to a high street just after closing time, and Pratchett helped us find a way to laugh at those Tolkien freaks that dress like orcs in the park on Sunday afternoons. Is that not enough? Must we name every orbiting cloud of debris Zaphod? Must we?

This brings me, at last, to the gamerz, nerds, and computer freaks. Your place in this world is in a dark box, lit only by the cold phosphorescent glow of a computer terminal. You have no right to be looking out, much less up. Until we can find a way to plumb you directly into the network, please stay in your box and try not to get Cheetoh dust into everything. When we have named everything, you can MD5 the list and memorise the hash for recital at the "parties" you get invited to. It may help you breed or it may help you reconcile a life full of not breeding. Thats ok. We want you to be "happy".

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