Why do moons around other planets have names but our moon is just simply called the moon?

Question

The dwarf planet Pluto has a moon called Charon. Why doesn't the Earth's moon have a name? Should we have a name our moon contest?

Answer 1

Technically, our moon's name is "Luna."

Which is, in my opinion, an awesome name.

Answer 2

The Greeks called it Selene, from which the Latins got Luna (they dropped the first syllable). However, astronomers rarely use anything other than Moon (with a capital M).

One day, I jokingly proposed that since our sun is called Sun and our moon is called Moon, then our own planet should be called Planet.

Names of planets come from Greek mythology, although we have adopted the Latinized version of the names of the Greek gods for which they were named:
Helios = Appolo (Sun-god)
Hermes = Mercury
Aphrodite = Venus
Gaia = Terra
Selene = Luna
Ares = Mars
Zeus = Jupiter
Chronos = Saturn

Names of satellites were taken from Greek mythology (except for the satellites of Uranus, taken from English litterature).

We got stuck with "Moon", which gives us "month" (the period taken for the Moon to go through its phases).

If we were to "rename" the Moon, I think we should follow tradition (the Latinized name of the associated Greek goddess) and use Luna.

Answer 3

Because for centuries people did not know that other planets had moons. It was heretical to suggest that anything could revolve around a planet other than the Earth. A famous Italian astronomer called Gallileo discovered moons orbiting Jupiter, but when the Catholic Church found out they had him put under house arrest for the rest of his life.
So our "moon" is simply known as "The Moon", just as the sun is known as "The Sun" even though it is simply and average star amongst billions.

Answer 4

If you speak English, our moon is called the Moon - with a capital M. If you are a Latin speaker, you would call it Luna. If Greek you would call it Selenos. If you spoke any of the other four or five thousand languages on this planet you would have your own name for it, every language has a word for it.

In English, though, it is the Moon - and a lovely name it is.

Answer 5

If the 'moon' you are referring to is the "planet's natural satellite", then, the 'moon''s name is already moon. Before, it was usually referred to as Luna or Selene. But, today, it's basically called the moon so if you think about it, it actually has a name.

Answer 6

The same happens in spanish, where moon is called Luna and sometimes we call lunas (moons) to the satellites of planets.
The reason is that historically we knew just only one satellite, our own moon, until the times of the use of the telescope by Galileo Galilei, in 1919. Then he discovered four bodies turning around Jupiter, so the first idea was to call them moons, as they were for Jupiter what our Moon is for us.
So the technical term is satellite (natural, not artificial, of course), but the term moon is equally correct.
I apologize for my bad english.

Answer 7

One day early in the lift of planet Earth, the object in the sky, before it was called Moon was coming up on the horizon and a Cow was silloited by the brightness of the object in the sky and the Cow went Moo, Moo, so man called the object in the sky Moon, and the Cow seemly jumped over the Moon.

Answer 8

Well, because it was the only moon we knew of until just a few hundred years ago.

But it does have a name: "it is occasionally called Luna (Latin: moon) to distinguish it from the generic term "moon" (referring to any of the various natural satellites of other planets)"

Answer 9

Before other satellites were identified, the Earth's was called the Moon in English.

As others were discovered around the solar system, they were characterized in English with the now generic term "moon".

Answer 10

Our moon is called the moon because up until modern times there was only one known moon anywhere. So it didn't need a name apart from the Moon. Newcomers have had to have names to distinguish them from the original Moon.

Answer 11

The official name our our natural satellite, in English, is the Moon (with a capital M). The word moon (small m) used as a simile to describe other satellites is OK in literature, but the official astronomical word is "satellite". If you are writing a story (or even if you are talking astronomy) you can use, for example, "the moons of Jupiter". But if you are writing an official scientific paper, you should stick to "the satellites of Jupiter". The Greek name was Selene (from which we have words like "selenographic") and the Latin name was Luna (we get "lunar"). In the Middle Ages, when all scientists were writing in Latin to avoid translation problems, they used the Latin names of planets (including Terra, Luna, Sol). Most of the other planetary names stuck, like Jupiter (from Iuppiter) and Saturn (from Saturnus), but in English we went back to the older names for Earth (= the place where we grow our food), Moon and Sun. Cruithne is not a second moon of Earth. Not even with the word moon used as a simile. Cruithne is a "periodic inclusion planetoid". Although it sounds more interesting to call it "Earth's second satellite", it is NOT a satellite (it does not meed the definition). At best, one could use the expression "quasi-satellite". It is a planetoid (in orbit around the Sun) whose orbital period around the Sun is tied to Earth's. At very regular intervals, it comes close to us and the gravitational interference ensures that this ballet will continue. There are also other planetoids that come even "closer" than Cruithne to become "satellites" of Earth. They orbit the Sun but when they come close enough to Earth, they follow a spiral path, with the axis of the spiral matching the solar orbit of the Earth-Moon system. The spiral lasts for a while, then the planetoid moves away (from Earth) and resumes its normal orbit around the Sun. None of them are "moons", nor are they satellites.