How do the planets get their names?

Question

Ex: How did Mercury get its name and why? Thats how the question is posed for each planet.

Answer 1

The planets' names come from the names of Roman gods.

Mercury: the winged Roman god of travel; so named because the planet moves so swiftly. Mercury's Greek counterpart was Hermes.

Venus: The goddess of love and beauty. Venus is the brightest planet from Earth and often appears brilliant and jewel-like in our morning or evening skies. The Greek version of Venus was Aphrodite.

Earth: The name Earth comes from an Indo-European word: "er". It has mutated into many different words in various languages, but it always refers to the ground we stand on. Remember that the ancients did not believe the Earth was a planet like the ones that wandered amongst the stars at night.

Moon: I know the Moon isn't a planet, but it did play prominently in stories told by ancient civilizations. Every civilization has had its own name for the Moon as well. The word Moon itself comes from Anglo-Saxon.

Mars: The Roman god of war. The planet's red color apparently inspired the ancient Romans to think of blood. The Greek god of war was called Ares. TRIVIA: A brilliant red star in Scorpious is called Antares, a name that means "like Ares" or "like Mars".

Jupiter: The ruler of all gods. In Greek, his name was Zeus. Neither the ancient Greeks nor the Romans could have had any idea that the planet they named after the king of gods was in fact the most massive planet in our solar system.

Saturn: Cronos (the Greek version of Saturn) was the god of farming and the father of Zeus (Jupiter).

Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto weren't known to the ancients. When they were discovered in 1781, 1846, and 1930, respectively, they were given the names of Roman and Greek gods out of a sense of tradition.

Uranus: The Greek god of the sky. All of Uranus's moons are named for characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

Neptune: The Roman god of the sea, known as Poseidon to the Greeks.

Pluto: The Roman god of the underworld. His Greek counterpart is Hades.

Answer 2

You should be able to find info at Wikipedia on each planet including the history of the name. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (the planets we can see with our unaided eyes) were named before humans understood the solar system. Mercury was the greek god, a speedy messenger. Mercury moves very quickly (when it can be seen at all) because it is close to the sun.

I hope this helps.

Answer 3

Planet X

Answer 4

Most of the planets got their names from the Romans, they named the´planets after their gods.
Mercury, the messenger
Venus, the goddess of love and beauty
Mars, the god of war
Jupiter, the God King, like Zeus for the Greeks
Saturn, the god of time
but in their time they had discovered only 5

Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel
Neptune by Leverrier
Pluto, by Clyde Tombaught in 1930

Answer 5

They were named after Greek and Roman gods.
For instance, in Roman mythology, the god 'Mercury' was a messenger, named thus because of his speed.
The name of the planet 'Mercury' was associated to the same name by its swift movement around the Sun.

Answer 6

Normally the planets were thought of by the Greeks and Romans as Gods.

They named the planets the same name as their gods and thus started the beginning of astrology.

Greek - Hermes , Roman - Mercury

Answer 7

all of the planets were named after greek or roman gods, which are basically the same but with different names. the only exception is earth.

mercury - Greek god of trade. same as Hermes, messenger of gods.

Venus - Roman goddess of love. same as greek god Aphrodite

Mars - Roman god of war. same as greek god Ares

Jupiter - Roman king of gods, same as Zeus in greek mythology.

Saturn - Roman god of agriculture.

Uranus - Greek father of all gods, husband of Gaia.

Neptune - Roman god of the sea. same as poseidon in greek mythology.

Pluto (no longer a planet, but wutever) - Roman god of the underworld. same as greek god hades.

as you can see, most came from roman gods, i think i counted 2 from greece.

Answer 8

Astrology, myths, greeks!

Answer 9

greek mythological gods
everyone knows that
you can find that info anywhere

Answer 10

who finds it names it ^_^