<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Hi Joel, I think the problem is that the Roman-Greco names are running out. Not only the planets, but their moons, main belt asteroids, etc. Already there is some duplicity, I.e the Jupiter moon Europa & main belt asteroid 52 Europa, & the volcanic Jupiter moon Io & main belt asteroid 82 Io, largest moon in the solar system Ganymede & funnily enough the largest Amor asteroid 1036 Ganymed (note the missing e), etc.What I think we should & must exclude are the names of brain dead celebs.Andrew Brown. <br />Posted by 3488</DIV></p><p>Hi Andrew,</p><p>There are tens of Greco-Roman god names free. The greco-roman pantheon was full of minor deities. If Mike Brown was to celebrate his daughter's long expected birth, he could have picked "Orbona" for instance. Europa and Ganymed[e] mismatches were just due to the very long time for the acceptance of the naming of moons (until mid 20th century!!), which has favored these mishaps. The point is that the IAU imposed creation deities for non-plutino KBOs, which limits the choice. </p><p>Even if they wanted to go outside the classical pantheon, at least they could have picked a more serious and shorter name, like they did with Sedna. Almost all oceanian gods have names which would have suited better (Hina, Lono, Kane...). They had to pick the only one which had a phoney sounding. Only to get a reference to Easter (very indirect). And here we do not speak of a pebble but a large object in the top 20 of the Solar System. With a surface area equivalent to the one of Australia or Brazil. </p><p>Did you test Makemake on your friends and relatives? I did. The result was as appalling as I feared: a sense of ridicule, lack of seriousness and the feeling that these objects are considered unimportant by scientists (otherwise sure they would't have picked such a ridiculous name, would they?). The point is double:</p><p>* it doesn't sound like a classical planet name</p><p>* the repetition in "Makemake" triggers amusement to say the least. (Whatwhat?)</p><p>When you say to laymen, no, it's not a joke, the Solar System has now eight planets plus four dwarf planets, Ceres, Pluto, Eris and... Makemake, they stop laughing. And nod the head horizontally wondering to what bunch of jocks their taxpayer's money is going.</p><p>If the aim was to annihilate any credibility of astronomers it's a success. What went into Mike Brown's head? and in the IAU's? I really hope EL61 will escape the massacre. I'm concerned though. Especially for the moons.</p><p>Best regards.</p>