Comments on: Does the sun have a proper name?

By: Star Watcher

Star Watcher — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:43:38 +0000

As a side note to all forget what the International Astronomical Union says, throughout history different cultures call heavenly bodies different names…….. so in essence who cares who says what is official and what is not……………….call it what you want and dare to be different, it doesn’t change the fact of what it is; our closest star and the most important star to the people of this blue and white marble we call Earth.

By: Star Watcher

Star Watcher — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:31:01 +0000

I think they should just go with the name SOL or SOLARIS they both sound good, and besides other civilizations living out there have a name for it, just think of it like this; someone from the Alpha Centari system looks at our sun and gives it a name b/c to them our sun is just another star out there. Just as we look out and and see other stars and name them to have a point of reference when looking into outer space.

By: Deborah Byrd

Deborah Byrd — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 08:43:40 +0000

Good to know! :-)

By: Stu

Stu — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:57:20 +0000

The sun in Ireland is known to be called mc’cormick

By: Helen

Helen — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:48:04 +0000

Pfft, you all make my laugh. The sun’s name should obviously be Oswald.
First off, there’s a big O, indicating the general shape of the sun. Then there’s an S for ‘solar,’ ‘sun,’ ‘star,’ or simply ‘scorching.’ Then there’s Wald, which sounds a bit like the British pronunciation of ‘world,’ doesn’t it? There you have it. A spherical scorching world – describes it perfectly.
That’s not all! Oswald also means ‘god’ or ‘powerful’ (and so much more, like how the ‘wald’ came from ‘werald’ which means Earth. I forgot what Os means, but lets assume that it means Star so that Oswald can mean Star of the Earth :P) in Old English. There you go – you have Sol and Helios in there! And powerful… Well, the sun makes our world go round, no? *hahaha*
Earthlings can still be called Solarians. Remember, the S. Sure, it may be a tad bit confusing for extraterrestrials, but, hey, if they’re advanced enough to travel around the universe, they should be intelligent to pick up on it relatively quickly, right?
So, Oswald. Can’t you just imagine a song about it?
‘Oswald will come up tomorrow!’
Or, ‘Oswald will arrive tomorrow!’ or an alternative, ‘Oswald will arrive in the ‘morrow!’
And my favorite for the sheer irony, ‘Oswald will wake up tomorrow!’
And if you don’t feel like saying Oswald, you can always go with the nicks; Ozzie, Ozzy, Oz, Wald, Waldy, and OW.
(Haha, get it? Ow, I just got Oz-burned, or Ow just blinded me, or ‘My pal got too close. Ow vaporized his body.’
But if no one goes with Oswald, I would like Sol as a name just fine.
But Ow is better.

By: Guido

Guido — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:47:56 +0000

It’s Chad. I thought it that was common knowledge. The sun’s name is Chad.

By: Mike "Thunder God Mucho-Grandias''

Mike "Thunder God Mucho-Grandias'' — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 02:09:41 +0000

i was watching a Sci-Fi flick..and they i think they named their spacecraft after the Sun..they called it Solaris..?? i think?? if not..i like the sound of that..after all the Greek name..Solaris means.”like a Sun”..or was it?? latin for Sun..lol eighter way..Solarian Warlord has a nice ring to it..if i was a intergalatic warrior from the future i can hear myself introducing myself like so..{“I am the Thunder God Mucho-Grandias’ A hard-core Solarian-an intergalactic warlord from the small but mighty planet Earth!lol..and no..i do no drugs..lol

By: Russ Gaskin

Russ Gaskin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:43:36 +0000

Apparently, the recommendation from the IAU is to do initial caps on ANY type of astronomical object. It doesn’t imply that these are formal names for those objects. (“The IAU formally recommends that the initial letters of the names of individual astronomical objects should be printed as capitals (see the IAU Style Manual, Trans. Int. Astron. Union, volume 20B, 1989; Chapter 8, page S30 – PDF file); e.g., the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, etc.).

This thread has been going for several years now and seems to involve a number of people. I think WE should decide on a name for our Sun.

Sol and Helios are gods and “the Sol” is the same as “the Sun,” so I don’t think any of those work. It’s got to be a name that we would never precede a “the.”

I propose the name ‘Russ,” which I’ve always liked.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:19:41 +0000

Not sure if it counts for anything, but in many science fiction universes – where star names have practical meaning because of Mankind’s ability to travel to different star systems – the Sun’s name is given as Sol.

By: Deborah Byrd

Deborah Byrd — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:12:06 +0000

Hi Andrew, no one said anything about NASA, but you bring up a great point. Names for astronomical objects are made “official” by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Here’ more info about that: http://www.iau.org/public/naming/

Some have argued against the IAU’s naming policies since Pluto’s status was changed from “planet” to “dwarf planet.”

Deborah