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Moon Name

By Peter Lloyd

In 1609 when Galileo spied four satellites orbiting Jupiter, he called them moons. Until then, there was only one moon as far as we humans were concerned. Now we’re stuck with the name moon, which is really not a name. It’s a descriptor, a category.

If I called you the King of Rock and Roll or the Queen of Soul, either descriptor could be considered a name or at least a title. But if I referred to you as the person or the human, you wouldn’t feel very much like an individual. We’ve known for so long that our moon is one of many, so why haven’t we given her a name?

photoTrue, Selene is the Greek goddess associated with our moon. Therefore selenology refers to moon science, more specifically to moon geology. Between the Greeks and the Romans, our moon has been called Diana, Hecate, Luna, and Cynthia. But we, who call ourselves civilized, call the moon Selene or Cynthia about as often as we call the earth Gaia. At least there’s only one earth.

Some more refined cultures have given our moon a variety of names. American Indians and others around the world have dubbed her monthly. Here’s just a potpourri of monthly moon names from the Celts, Chinese, American colonists, Medieval English, pagans, and the people of New Guinea:
Bitter Moon, Blood Moon, Bony Moon, Chaste Moon, Chrysanthemum Moon, Cooking Moon, Dispute Moon, Dog Day’s Moon, Dragon Moon, Hungry Ghost Moon, Kindly Moon, Lightening Moon, Little Famine Moon, Long Night Moon, Milk Moon, Moon of Claiming, Moon of Horses, Moon of the Raccoon, Moon When Eyes Are Sore from Bright Snow, Moon When Horns Are Broken Off, Moon When Quilling and Beading is Done, Moon When The Calves Grow Hair, Moon When Trees Pop, Mulberry Moon, Open Sea Moon, Peony Moon, Rainbow Fish Moon, Ripe Corn Moon, Sassafras Moon, Singing Moon, Sleepy Moon, Trapper’s Moon, Women’s Moon.
And what have we done to honor our moon? We make the word a verb for exposing one’s buttocks as a prank or disrespectful gesture.

photo of scarecrow mooningOnly the most cultivated among us, our songwriters, have graced our moon with loving monikers—Harvest Moon, Blue Moon, Jealous Moon, Paper Moon, Missouri Moon, Sugar Moon, Mister Moon, Cajun Moon, and Blue Moon of Kentucky. Singers have extoled Moon River and Moonlight in Vermont. They’ve called us to Moondance and begged, Fly Me to the Moon. But still, no name.

On the other hand, you could claim that not having a name sets her apart. We do say, the moon, as in the sun and the earth. But in all my searching, I found only one pioneer in moon naming.

In 1981 Jan Ensley of Anaheim, California, named our lone satellite Diane in honor of his “much adored girlfriend.” According to the report, she was impressed, but got away.

Meanwhile our moon continues to slowly drift away from the earth. So if we’re going to name her, as I think we should, we don’t exactly have an eternity.

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.

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