Should the moon have a name?

[C1ay]

Mars has Phobos and Deimos.

 

Jupiter has Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea, Thebe, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Leda, Himalia, Lysithea, Elara, Ananke, Carme, Pasiphae, Sinope and more.

 

Saturn has Pan, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Telesto, Calypso, Dione, Helene, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, Phoebe and more.

 

Uranus has Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, and Trinculo.

 

Neptune has Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, Triton and Nereid.

 

And even Pluto has Charon, S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2 yet....

 

Earth has only "the moon". Should we at least give it a name?

[Zilali]

Barry

[CraigD]

... Earth has only "the moon". Should we at least give it a name?

It already has a few good Greek goddess names, with good Greek goddess histories & family trees – Selene, Cynthia, & maybe Artemis, though one could argue that all 3 names are referring to the same goddess. She’s still a perfectly good goddess. Appropriately enough, she and Helios, god of the Sun, are sister and brother, and titans, the big, old, pre-Olympian type of gods. Their Latinized names are Luna (or maybe Diana) and Sol, the usual astronomical names for the 2 bodies.

[Racoon]

I had no idea of all the moon's names across our solar system Clay! :xparty:

I should memorize that list.

 

Isn't Moon a name in and of itself? "Moon". the Moon ?

Cuz' English can be tricky with wordings, and double meanings.

 

Great mention by the by....

The same could be said of "Sun". we call it Sun, but shouldn't we name it like the star it really is??

[Queso]

the moon intertwines her transmission within us all

once deceiphered;

Orbsycli

is the name

she truly desires.

[Boerseun]

The sun's name is Sol, as far as I know, and we've been referring to the moon as 'Luna' for a while now. "Solar" and "Lunar" exploration, etc.

 

But I prefer George.

[Queso]

Have any of you ever talked to the moon?

 

you WILL receive a transmission not in the form of language.

[Boerseun]

Have any of you ever talked to the moon?

The chems, Orby, the chems!

 

Gotta lay off the chems!

 

:lol::lol: :eek: :) :xparty: :D :lol: :eek: :)

[Queso]

oh boerseun, yes our lifestyles definitely clash in contrast

but seriously now

the moon is a very symbolic and spiritual object.

hell, it shows everything under true light, shows us what things really are!

havnt you seen all of the supermarkets dead in the night?

everybody ran inside to sleep,

and everything is still.

 

with that said, i believe the moons energy can be harnessed in thought.

and O it may feel like we are connecting, me and luna

but im just standing in the wade pool

feeling her breathe back and forth against the coast

 

Mr. Boerseun, most of my antics are metaphorical.

made with imagination FOR the imagination.

 

I do not TRULY speak to the moon,

only on full moon nights.

I have my rituals, as im sure you have yours.

 

Back on track+

im in tune with the universe!

i buzz and hum just like everything else

if i believe i can feel the moon

i can.

 

Everytime i look up at her i imagine something different.

 

The metaphorical transmission receieved bounces around my poet corridors

until i end up HERE

to spit jazz

all over the moon thread.

 

Name it orbsycli

NOT AFTER ME

but because Orbsycli was intended for patience

[C1ay]

The sun's name is Sol, as far as I know, and we've been referring to the moon as 'Luna' for a while now. "Solar" and "Lunar" exploration, etc.

 

But I prefer George.

Ah yes, but we still simply refer to it as "the moon". It seems so bland for the neighbor our lives depend on.

[Eclogite]

I wondered about the origin of the English word moon. Here is what Wiktionary had to say:

From Middle English moone < Old English móna < Proto-Indo-European *mē-² (to measure)

 

You might wish to look at the link: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Moon

 

It includes the name of the moon in a couple of dozen langauges, including Hungarian (hold ) and Welsh (lleuad, lloer).

[C1ay]

It includes the name of the moon in a couple of dozen langauges, including Hungarian (hold ) and Welsh (lleuad, lloer).

The name of the moon or the word for moon in those languages? I would actually think if Luna is the actual name of the moon then the dictionary would list it as a definition.

[Tormod]

Ah yes, but we still simply refer to it as "the moon". It seems so bland for the neighbor our lives depend on.

 

Actually, in Norwegian it is the only moon that is used as with the definite term - ie, we say "månen" which means "the moon". So to me at least it DOES have a name. We don't say "the Phobos" for example. :xparty:

[Eclogite]

The name of the moon or the word for moon in those languages? I would actually think if Luna is the actual name of the moon then the dictionary would list it as a definition.

I think your original premise was flawed, C1ay, in thinking moon is not a name. Our ancestors gazed up into the skies and named that Mistress of the Night in a thousand languages. For nearly all of humanity's time on Earth, and for the greater part of our recorded history, there was only one moon. Then Galileo stepped on the path that has led us to the list you provided in your opening post.

But what were these other attendant bodies to be called? The obvious choice was to call them moon's also, and so they lost, what Tormod has pointed out our moon retains. The definite article.

Moon is its name to me. (Though in intimate moments, when it is just the two of us, I call her Selene.)

[Boerseun]

Actually, in Norwegian it is the only moon that is used as with the definite term - ie, we say "månen" which means "the moon". So to me at least it DOES have a name. We don't say "the Phobos" for example. :)

Interesting...

 

In Afrikaans, the moon is known as "maan" - Afrikaans and Norwegian has the same Germanic roots, and this just goes to illustrate the fact.

 

The thing is, any satellite orbiting a body can be described as a "maan", or a "moon", in English. But we gave it the name "moon" before we realised what it was. And, subsequently all bodies in orbit got the name of "a moon" before we officially named them.

 

Which leaves us in a bit of a situation now - is "moon" a description for "our" moon, or for any body in orbit?

 

And, we can go all hoo-hah about the name "Luna", but where did it come from, and are we only using the name to differentiate between "our" moon, and those orbiting other planets?

 

I'll stick with "George"...

[TheFaithfulStone]

I find this thread strangely moving. The Sun, the Moon. I guess I'm picturing primitive aliens somewhere else in the galaxy looking up at the sky and thinking similar thoughts.

 

Even though there are a whole lot of different words for The Moon, or the Sun, it seems to have a special place in all languages - it's one "true" name as it were - It may have different cultural signifigance to all of us, but it's probably one of the few things were there is a literal translation for it in every human language. The Moon.

 

I like to imagine this trend expanding beyond our little planet. (Although maybe not to binary systems, or planets with no Moons.) But everywhere, there would be this irreducible concept - The Moon. The Sun. The Sky.

 

Humbling thought.

 

TFS

[GAHD]

I vote we call it 'CheeseFace'. Luna is soo eighteenhundreds.