Planetary names 101: how the IAU/USGS system works

When you type a name into Your name in the sky, we check whether it already exists in the official planetary nomenclature catalog (IAU/USGS). That catalog contains features on planetary bodies: craters, montes, valles, and many other classes.

What counts as an “official” planetary name?

Official names are curated through the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and published via USGS resources. The key idea is simple:

• A name is attached to a physical feature, not to a star.
• Names follow themes (for example: Venus often uses names of notable women; different bodies have different conventions).
• The same name may appear on multiple bodies (e.g., different craters with different coordinates).

How to read a feature record (in plain English)

A typical record includes:

• Feature type (e.g., crater, mons, vallis)
• Target body (Moon, Mars, Venus, etc.)
• Coordinates (latitude/longitude) — where the feature is located
• Origin of the name — who/what it honors and why
• Official source link — so you can verify it yourself

Why you can’t “buy” a star name here

There are commercial “name a star” products online. They are not part of scientific catalogs. This project uses public, official naming sources only.

Keyword focus: “planetary nomenclature search”, “IAU crater names”, “official planetary feature name”.

Tips to get better matches

• Try accent-insensitive spelling (Lucía → Lucia).
• Try variants (Julia → Julie).
• If there’s no exact match, we show the 5 closest names (fuzzy match) and tell you how similarity is computed.

Related reading

• Asteroids vs planetary features: /en/blog/asteroids-vs-features
• Orbit basics in 3 minutes: /en/blog/orbit-in-3-minutes