What is the Name our Moon?
 

What is the name of our moon? I mean we call it the moon, but does it have a name? Other planets that have moons are all named. Why is our moon not named, or simply just named moon?

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

I think it is just "the Moon."

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

scientifically, Luna. i think.

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

I think it is sometimes referred to, as Narf said, Luna.

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That would be like naming your cat, CAT

I have heard the Luna name before, but I thought it was in referance to Luner Suface. So I guess one possible name is Luner.

What a dumb name that is! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

it's not stupid, it's lazy.

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

Luna was the Roman goddess of the moon, so the name is appropriate if it is the official name. That would also mean that a term such as "lunar surface" would be a reference to the surface of our moon and not the surface of any moon.

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Are you sure Fyron, there maybe another name for the Moon.

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

Isn't calling all natural satalites "moons" kind of like calling all photo copy machins Zerox machines? I though the name of our natural satellite was The Moon.

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That would be like naming your cat, CAT
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">As the great moral philosopher Gallagher said, why bother to name an animal that won't come when you call it? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

It is Luna. Calling our moon "The Moon" is the same thing as calling our sun, Sol, "The Sun". It's not technically incorrect, but it's not actually scientifically specific. The identity of the moon in question depends on the context. As long as we are all on earth, "The Moon" will do, but if you ever go to Jupiter, asking for a cab ride to "The Moon" will probably get you a response, "Which moon buddy?" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

It's like saying, "Let's go to The Mall." As long as everybody knows which shoppong mall you are talking about, you don't have to be more specific, but that's not really it's name.

"Lunar surface" simply means the surface of Luna. Calling the surface of other moons the lunar surface is not technically correct, although I have no doubt some will do it when we get to the point where we are dealing with the surfaces of other moons.

[ January 27, 2004, 11:21: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

Actually you´re overly english-centrical guys. Our moon is simply called "The Moon".

"Luna" is the slavic (slovenian, croatian, serbian, polish, chech, slovak, russian, bulgarian etc. etc) (probably originates from latin or greek) word for Moon. So even if you say our "Moon" is named "Luna" that can only make sense if you are an english speaking person.
We call for instance Deimos a "Luna" of Mars.
To us its the same if you call it "Moon" or Luna.

And callion our sun "Sol" would be equaly funny as your english word "Sun" is just a translation of the roman/latin word "Sol" (or "Sonce" in most slavic Languages)

[ January 27, 2004, 11:32: Message edited by: JurijD ]

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Or your snarf, SNARF.

Whatever the official or scientific names, in sci-fi where our moon is colonised it is very often referred to as Luna, and the sun as Sol. When reality eventually catches up with sci-fi, I very strongly suspect that those names will become the official ones. The evolution of language before our very eyes...

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

Good points, Geo, and I agree. Still it doesn't change the fact that Luna just means Moon in Latin. So, while calling it Luna is indeed scientificly correct, you are still calling it moon.

I vote for Bob. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

BTW, one thing I always found interesting is the fact that in latin Languages the Moon is female and the Sun is male. In germanic Languages it is the other way around.

What's your view on this? (and how about some more examples from other Languages and parts of the world)

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Actually, in doing a little research I cannot find anywhere that gives an official scientific designation to our moon. Which seems kind of odd to me, since scientist guys are always going around naming stuff. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

So perhaps I was mistaken and there is no officially accepted name. In that case Bob is as good as anything else.

Feel free to call me ignorant, just don't call me "english-centric". http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

That's just silly. Everyone knows that Earth 2 is named Bob, so we can't name the Moon the same. How about Bill?

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hey, John Wayne could name his dog DOG. If it was good enough for the Duke, it's good enough for me.

I plan to have a dog with the name STAY. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ January 27, 2004, 13:35: Message edited by: Cheeze ]

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

One interesting little fact about hte moon and/or luna, is that the word lunatic comes from people who were acting strange during a full moon. I think this was during the 1600's or 1700's, and it might have been in England. I don't recall all of the circumstances now, but since the word lunatic came from the moon, I guess it would provide proof that the offical name back then was Luna.

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It has to do with the gender of the gods associated with the sun and moon in Roman/Greek and Norse mythologies. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">My JH english teacher had a dog, named "Spot". Yeah, pretty unoriginal, except he used to call out whenever he let it out of the house, "Out, out, damned Spot!" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

{this is not a joke.}

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

In spanish, the name for the Moon is "Luna", and also, the name for the Sun is "Sol". When we talk about other Planet's satellites, we name them "lunas" too... same thing but talking about others suns.

Then, if you ask me, think the true names in English are simply Moon and Sun.

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

I say Lord Chane has it about right. Likewise, the Greeks called the moon goddess "Selene". I'm sure there are other names in other Languages that I'm not aware of, but it seems safe to assume that early names for the moon in any language referred to our moon, and not just any satellite. Naturally, our moon was the only such body known in prehistoric times.

edit: It's discoverer is sometimes referred to as Pithecanthropus, which I think refers to the first human being.

[ January 27, 2004, 16:52: Message edited by: Cipher7071 ]

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

The answer is: The Moon

The source is: HERE

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Actually, according to this source, the name is: Moon

There is no capitalized "the" in the name.

Greybeard http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Actually, according to this source, the name is: Moon

There is no capitalized "the" in the name.

Greybeard http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Wrong ! according to thi source, the name is: the Moon http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

beeep...beeep...beeep...

Anglo-centric alarm! Anglo-centric alarm!

Moe, Larry, the cheese!! Moe, Larry, the cheese!! Whooop whooop whoooop!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

you are all wrong! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif the real name is: der Mond

... or Bob http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The response from spoon is: Bite Me!

(I always want to capitalize the first word after a colon. It is wrong, I know, but sometimes you have to give into your grammatical weaknesses or else you end up like Greybeard).

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

Hey, what about the Earth? its Earth and dont give me that Gia stuff...

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

The Earth is Terra. That's where all those Terrans come from.

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

and what little life and grasp of precedence we may have had slowly dribble's away...

on the other hand, to much seriousness makes for boredom, boredom lead's to irratation, irratation lead's to anger, anger leads to hate and next thing you know your wearing a life-support mask because your face got major damage. and a cape, because you just have to be dramatic.

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

Since the purpose of assigning names is to communicate and since most people you are likely to use the words the Moon or Luna with will know what you are talking about it comes down to
"A rose called by any other...."

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Unfortunatly the source offers no support for his claim, other then the statement that the IAU designates it thus. But looking at the IAU website I can find no confirmation of this fact. I suppose they have some books somewhere, but nothing on their website I can find.

I have found several other websites purporting to be authorities who adhere to the Moon as the name, but the general attitude seems to be it's a stupid question for people to be asking an astronomer and we are all wasting their time. It's almost as if they don't know the name, and so they try to make us all feel stupid for asking. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

What do you mean what's the name of the Moon? It's the Moon you idiot. Now go away, I have some star clusters to categorize.

I have this feeling someday we are going regret not having an actual name for it.

Some where in a cantina in a galaxy far far away...
Those human are so dumb.
How dumb are they?
Humans are so dumb, that millions of years of sentience and the best name they could come up with for their moon is: Moon!

I say Bob is a good name. Better yet, what about Bob Luna?

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

I suggest (in honor of SEIV) that we re-name the moon (or the Moon, or Luna, whatever) to "Sol IIIA".................

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes!!!

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Except for this bit here: This Bit Here

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

Personally, I think astronomers are a step behind sci-fi writers on this one. Sol, Earth or Terra, and Luna are acceptable proper names. Having more than one name for the same thing is passable, too, especially with multiple Languages and cultures.

However, "the solar system" and "the moon" are just generic terms, and naturally refer to a particular one when the speaker happens to be in a solar system, or when on a planet with one moon, and not talking about space travel at the time. They don't cut it for proper names, though. Basic logic failure there. Yes, when defining a language based on how it's used, naturally those will pass that test. Kind of like a medieval peasant talking about "the river" because he never leaves his home village and never sees another village. Or someone talking about "the cat" meaning their cat.

PvK

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

I prefer Solar System as a proper name refering to our system orbitting Sol, and stellar system as the generic form. But I guess I don't get the final say. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

It's ironic I think that astronomers, the people most abundantly aware how insignificant our little place in the cosmos is, cling to such "terra-centric" nomenclature. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

And Earth -isn't- a generic name? Terra and Sol are actually pretty genetic too, they just don't seem so since they were borrowed from other Languages..

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes!!! </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">seconded!

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No, actually I am not being english-centrical. How can you say I am being english-centrical when what I am providing is not the english word? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Although if I had been provding the english word for the name of the moon it would be understandable since my post was in english. It's not being "english-centric" of me to make Posts and not provide the translation for every possible language on earth. If the person reading my post cannot read english, they probably aren't reading this forum, or they have some tool available to them to do the translation. The fact that Luna and Sol are latin words is only because most scientific terms are latin words. The reason scientists use latin words for things is so they can talk to other scientists and be understood without being accused of using "english-centric" terminology.

As I said, "The Moon" is not the proper name for our moon, regardless of what language you are speaking. It is not technically incorrect, but it is not scientifically specific. Luna is the correct scientific nomenclature for our moon. It would be as similer to if people on the forum refered to you a "The Slovenian". It would not be technically incorrect, but it's not your name. And if there are others from Slovenia on the forum, we might not know who people are refering to. When you refer to the moon as "The Moon" everybody knows which moon you are talking to, because everyone hearing you is from earth. At least we think. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif But that doesn't make it it's name.

A roža is a rose, JurijD. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ January 27, 2004, 12:53: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">yep, you are right on this one.

Luna and Sol is simply the Latin names for Moon and Sun.

Perhaps we need another name for the moon: How about Bob?

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No. Bob is the name of a shipset. A grand shipset. The grandest shipset. It shall never be the name of a simple moon such as the moon. It won't be naming the moon bob; at least not while I'm around. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

As for the moon, we can always call it Daal. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ January 28, 2004, 01:11: Message edited by: TerranC ]

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

Actually, more people use Luna than Moon.
Luna is the name in Spanish, Italian, Russian, Ukranian and many more Languages. All togeter, South America and Eastern Europe population exceed English language natives.

Of course, when humanity becomes one nice democracy, we will use the Chinese name. Anybody knows it ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">huh???

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">huh??? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Daal. 달. The Korean name for the moon. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

Note TerranC's location, or rather former location... South Korea. A quick google reveals that Daal is indeed the Korean word for 'Moon'. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Searching around a bit I've found too many names for the Moon in Chinese to be certain which one is the right one. It's called by lots of poetic names, like the name of the Moon Goddess, Chang E, or 'Toad Hall', Chan Gong, because of a folk-legend about it being a place where toads live. Apparently the 'generic' name is Yue but I'm just not certain. And anyway, Chinese uses the same small group of syllables (20 or so) to represent several thousand characters so in truth the name of the Moon in Chinese is a character which we cannot reproduce here without some special code. Does this BB system support Chinese? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

Talk about a hot topic. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

The way I always thought of it, english speakers would refer to our moon as 'Luna' and our sun as 'Sol' to reinforce that the reference is to our particular moon or sun, rather than some other moon or sun. The whole capitalization thing doesn't quite work with verbal communication http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Ok, so 'Luna' and 'Sol' are really the Latin words for moon and sun (and thus, since Latin is the root of several Languages, they are also the same in various other Languages). So what? The point is, it is a way to specifically designate our particular satellite and star. A bit of redundancy won't kill you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: What is the Name our Moon?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">'and thankfully, the first detonater had rusted out.'

'mumble, mumble.'

'so why am i in the trauma ward? well, it had a second detonater.'

well, redundancy nearly killed that fictional character.