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List of proper names of stars

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These names of stars that have either been approved by the International Astronomical Union or which have been in somewhat recent use. IAU approval comes mostly from its Working Group on Star Names, which has been publishing a "List of IAU-approved Star Names" since 2016. As of June 2025, the list included a total of 505 proper names of stars.[1]

Background

Of the roughly 10,000 stars visible to the naked eye, only a few hundred have been given proper names in the history of astronomy.[a] Traditional astronomy tends to group stars into constellations or asterisms and give proper names to those, not to individual stars.

Many star names are, in origin, descriptive of the part in the constellation they are found in; thus Phecda, a corruption of Arabic فخذ الدب (fakhdh ad-dubb, 'thigh of the bear'). Only a handful of the brightest stars have individual proper names not depending on their asterism; so Sirius ('the scorcher'), Antares ('rival of Ares', i.e., red-hued like Mars), Canopus (of uncertain origin), Alphard ('the solitary one'), Regulus ('kinglet'); and arguably Aldebaran ('the follower' [of the Pleiades]) and Procyon ('preceding the dog' [Sirius]). The same holds for Chinese star names, where most stars are enumerated within their asterisms, with a handful of exceptions such as 織女 ('weaving girl') (Vega).

In addition to the limited number of traditional star names, there were some coined in modern times, e.g. "Avior" for Epsilon Carinae (1930), and a number of stars named after people (mostly in the 20th century).

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IAU catalog

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Main article: IAU Working Group on Star Names

In 2016, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN)[2] to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin, dated July 2016,[3] included a table of 125 stars comprising the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN (on 30 June and 20 July 2016) together with names of stars adopted by the IAU Executive Committee Working Group on the Public Naming of Planets and Planetary Satellites during the 2015 NameExoWorlds campaign[4] and recognized by the WGSN. Further batches of names were approved on 21 August, 12 September, 5 October, and 6 November 2016. These were listed in a table of 102 stars included in the WGSN's second bulletin, dated November 2016.[5] The next additions were done on 1 February 2017 (13 new star names), 30 June 2017 (29), 5 September 2017 (41), 17 November 2017 (3), 1 June 2018 (17), and on 10 August 2018 (6). All 336 names are included in the current List of IAU-approved Star Names.[6]

In 2019, the IAU organised its IAU 100 NameExoWorlds campaign to name exoplanets and their host stars. The approved names of 112 exoplanets and their host stars were published on 17 December 2019, with an additional pair of names (for the star HAT-P-21 and its planet) approved on 1 March 2020.[7][8] An additional two star names were approved on 4 April 2022.[6] In June 2023, an additional 20 names were approved in the NameExoWorlds 2022 campaign, bringing the total to 471 named stars.[9]

Since 2024, newly approved names have appeared on the exopla.net website maintainted by the WGSN. As of June 2025, 34 new star names have been approved, bringing the total to 505.[1]

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List

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In the table below, unless indicated by a "†", the "modern proper name" is the name approved by the WGSN and entered in the List of IAU-approved Star Names[6] or otherwise approved by the IAU. The WGSN decided to attribute proper names to individual stars rather than entire multiple-star systems.[10] Names marked with a "†" have not been approved by the IAU.

For such names relating to members of multiple-star systems, and where a component letter (from, e.g., the Washington Double Star Catalog) is not explicitly listed, the WGSN says that the name should be understood to be attributed to the visually brightest component.[5] In the "Historical names/comments" column, "NameExoWorlds [year]" denotes that the name was approved by the IAU as a consequence of that year's NameExoWorlds campaign.

More information Constellation, Designation ...
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Footnotes

  1. NASA compiled a "technical memorandum" collecting a total of 537 named stars in 1971.
  2. Few of these names have established pronunciations in English, and care needs to be taken when interpreting often contradictory sources. For example, as Kunitzsch and Smart explain in their introduction, they sometimes blend Arabic and English pronunciations in novel ways that Latinized Arabic star names were not traditionally pronounced, such as transcribing a as if it were u, or making ante-penultimate vowels long because they were long in Arabic when a literary English pronunciation would make them short. (In some cases, the result is not a possible combination of sounds in English.) Webster's dictionary, Rumrill and Davis may attempt to render the original Arabic pronunciation using English sounds as approximations, and not distinguish that pseudo-Arabic pronunciation from an English pronunciation that people actually use. (Kunitzsch and the OED do try to distinguish these two cases.) Where sources disagree on Latinized Arabic names, the form closest to the traditional English pronunciation of Latin is followed, with the assumption that the usually unmarked Latin vowel length is as faithful to Arabic as it is to Greek.
  3. Allen (1899) sees the name as originating from a misunderstanding of the words ab ireo in the description of Cygnus from Almagest.[19]: 196 
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References

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