In astronomy, star names, in contrast to
star designation In astronomy, stars have a variety of different stellar designations and names, including Star catalogue, catalogue designations, current and historical proper names, and foreign language names.
Only a tiny minority of known stars have named stars, ...
s, are proper names of
star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
s that have emerged from usage in pre-modern astronomical traditions. Lists of these names appear in the following articles:
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List of Arabic star names
This is a list of Arabic star names. In Western astronomy, most of the accepted star names are Arabic, a few are Greek and some are of unknown origin. Typically only bright stars have names.
History of Arabic star names
Very old star names origi ...
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List of proper names of stars
These names of stars that have either been approved by the International Astronomical Union or which have been in somewhat recent use. IAU approval comes mostly from its Working Group on Star Names, which has been publishing a "List of IAU-approve ...
: traditional proper names in modern usage around astronomy
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by constellation
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in alphabetical order
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Stars named after people
Over the past few centuries, a small number of stars have been named after individual people. It is common in astronomy for objects to be given names, in accordance with accepted astronomical naming conventions. Most stars have not been given Prope ...
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Traditional Chinese star names
Chinese star names ( Chinese: , ''xīng míng'') are named according to ancient Chinese astronomy and astrology. The sky is divided into star mansions (, ''xīng xiù'', also translated as "lodges") and asterisms (, ''xīng guān''). The system of ...
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Names
A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A persona ...