How come we name all the Planets moons except our Earths?

Answer 1

Galileo named the four moons he discovered in 1610 Jupiter I, II, III and IV and the names Io, Europa, Callisto (three nymphs) and Ganymede (a handsome youth) all seduced by Jupiter (Zeus) were only finally agreed on and in universal use, over two hundred years later.

Not quite true that we have named all 162 planetary moons in the Solar System, yet, It can take quite a while after discovery to do so, and several were only discovered in the last 2 or 3 years e,g, Innuit names (breaking with the tradition of using Roman and Greek ones) have only recently been awarded to some outer Jovian moons but ...

Of the 23 new Jovian moons discovered in 2003, fifteen remain unbaptised (in increasing distance from Jupiter, they are: 14 S/2000 J 11, 16 S/2003 J 12, 18 S/2003 J 3, 19 S/2003 J 18, 25 S/2003 J 16, 32 S/2003 J 17, 36 S/2003 J 19, 38 S/2003 J 15, 39 S/2003 J 10, 40 S/2003 J 23, 51 S/2003 J 4, 56 S/2003 J 9, 57 S/2003 J 5, 61 S/2003 J 14 and furthest away and very far out, 63 S/2003 J 2),

There are in addition something like 80 moons of minor planets (asteroids and KBOs) and whilst some have names, some don't, they just have designations.

eg the asteroid 87 Sylvia has two moons called Romulus and Remus but the KBO (136108) 2003 EL61 also has two satellites but neither the KBO nor its moons has an official IAU name yet (though the nickname Santa is in use, for the KBO and the nickname Rudolph for its larger moon).

We are even more niggardly about extra-solar names, Constellations have them but only the brightest stars have them, and no extra-solar planets have them (though the nickname Bellerophon is used for 51 Pagasi b, the first planet orbiting a Main Sequence star to be discovered) and we don't even know of any extra-solar moons yet, let alone be naming them.

The Sun has various names in various cultures, usually that of a god in the mythology of that culture, eg Ra in Egypt or Huichtilopochtli in the Aztec language,

Sol was the name or personification of the Sun (in Latin, but is not common in general English language usage, although the related adjective solar is more common (solar system, solar panel). Helios was the Sun's name in Greek from which we have derived the name helium for element no 2. and helios is the root word in perihelion, aphelion, heliocentric. And as an alternative to Helios, Apollo.

And as has been said above, Luna was the Roman goddess of the moon, Luna, had a temple on the Aventine Hill. It was built in the 6th century BC, but was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome during Nero's reign. There was also a temple dedicated to Luna Noctiluca ("Luna that shines by night") on the Palatine Hill. There were festivals in honor of Luna on March 31, August 24 and August 28.

And it was Selene in Greek (hence selenium for element no. 34, discovered in 1817 by Jöns Jakob Berzelius and also the girl's forename, Selena). In Greek mythology, Selene (Σελήνη) was an archaic lunar deity and the daughter of the titans Hyperion and Theia.

Like most moon deities, Selene plays a fairly large role in her pantheon. However, Selene was eventually largely supplanted by Artemis, and Luna by Diana. In addition the Greeks also characterised Hecate, Phoebe and Rhea as Moon Goddesses.

So that is seven names for the Moon in Latin and Greek alone, one for each day of the week (imagine a week consisting entirely of Mondays!) of which Luna is the best-known, giving us "loony", lunacy, lunatic and the adjective lunar (cf. solar) as in lunar month.

And now, as Moonty Python might say.... for something completely similar: here are 89 more names for deities (mostly female) associated with the Moon: I had only heard of Shiva and Brunhild before I stumbled on this list, so hope this is interesting.

Aboriginal mythology: Daramulum.
Ainu mythology: Chup-Kamui.
Akkadian mythology: Enzu Sin.
Arabian mythology: Illat Hilal Hubal Sin Ta'lab Wadd.
Aztec mythology: Coyolxauhqui Metztli Tecciztecatl.
Babylonian mythology: Sin.
Basque mythology: Ilazki
Cahuilla mythology: Menily
Canaanite mythology: Jarih Nikkal
Celtic mythology: Góntia Lair báln
Chibcha mythology: Chia Chie
Dahomean mythology: Gleti.
Elamite mythology: Napir.
Egyptian mythology: Chons Thoth.
Etruscan mythology: Losna
Hattic mythology: Kaskuh.
Hindu mythology: Anumati Chandra (Indu) Nandi
Prajapati Ramachandra Shiva Soma.
Hurrian mythology: Kusuh.
Incan mythology: Coniraya Ka-Ata-Killa Mama Quilla.
Indonesian mythology: Dewi Shri Silewe Nazarate.
Inuit mythology: Alignak Igaluk Tarquiup Inua.
Japanese mythology: Marishi-Ten Tsuku-yomi.
Kachin mythology: Shitta
Latvian mythology: Meness
Mandjindja mythology: Kidili
Maya mythology: Ahau-Kin Ixbalanque Ixchel Itzamna.
Mochican mythology: Si.
Navaho mythology: Yoołgai asdząąn.
Norse mythology: Brunhild Mani.
Orokolo mythology: Papare
Palmarene mythology: Aglibol.
Pawnee mythology: Pah.
Persian mythology: Mah Mao.
Philippine mythology: Mayari.
Phoenician mythology: Nikkal.
Phrygian mythology: Men.
Polynesian mythology: Avatea Fati Ina Hina-Kega Hina-Uri Lona Mahina Marama Sina Ul
Pygmy mythology: Arebati
Semitic mythology: Terah.
Seran mythology: Dapie.
Slavic mythology: Myesyats.
Sumerian mythology: Nanna Ningal.
Sumu mythology: Udó
Thracian mythology: Bendis.
Tupinamba mythology: Ari.
Ugaritic mythology: Nikkal.
Urartian mythology: Selardi Vodun Kalfu.

In Chinese mythology Chang'e or Heng O. The moon does not represent any deity in Chinese culture. The moon is a palace where immortals and fairies live. A bit more imaginative than being made of green cheese!

Answer 2

To answer the question directly, we did name the moon. We named the moon, the sun and the earth. (notice in each case the word is preceded by the article "the" and the noun in not capitalized.) The moon's name is Luna. The sun's name is Sol and the earth's name is Terra. We don't use these names in common language because of established tradition. Earth, sun and moon are relative nouns. This means that when you use the terms earth, sun, or moon, you are generally referring to the most local star, planet or moon.

Answer 3

Until telescopes were invented, we couldn't see the moons of any other planets. So, our moon was THE moon. When we discovered that other planets also had moons we needed to name the new ones.

Answer 4

The moon (or luna) is a natural satellite. We call it the moon (or luna) and therefore we have named it. The other planets' 'moons' are not actually moons, they are natural satellite, we call them moons because when we are children we are told they are moons because we don't know what satellites are then. Calling them moons is just saying that they are to their planets what the moon is to our planet.

Answer 5

You are a little backwards. The name of Earth's only natural satellite is "Moon" or "Luna" because it is ours, the word "moon" became synonymous with the satellites around other planets, It is actually inproper to say "Jupiter's moon, Europa" it should be "Jupiter's satellite, Europa".

Answer 6

its the same reason we name all of the stars except for earth's

it has to do with the history of the words in the language

it is just like a little kid learns names for all the other mother's in the neighborhood but not his

the kid learned the term "mom" (or whatever he calls her) early in life before he knew that other things like "mom" existed

that makes her THE mom, but eventually he learn's there are other mom's and learns to call them Mrs Smith, etc, in order to be able to refer to them

he still calls his mom, "mom"

the "moons" of other planets are only called "moons" because we realized they were essentially the same kind of heavenly body as THE moon was, so they are called moons

the word moon in earthly languages exclusively referred to earth's moon for most of human history

recently of course we have found other "moons" so naturally we name them so we can refer to them

we still have THE moon

Answer 7

Good question!
at least we could use capital letters, like The Moon, to show its a special moon and not just any old moon.
Some of the other moons and constellations have such romantic, evocative names, don't they? I always like the sound of Andromeda. What would you call our Moon?

Answer 8

A proper use of an apostrophe would have made that question easier to understand. We call it The Moon, as opposed to a moon.

Answer 9

Earth is the name mentioned in the bible I think in genesis. We as humans could only see "moving Stars" from Earth hence naming them after Roman gods.... Also we don't see our planet as a moving star seen we are on it....

Answer 10

Our moon does have a name, it's Luna. We just tend not to use it.