Why is Earth's moon still named just "The Moon" (and our sun still named "The Sun")

Eclectic Dreck

New member
Sep 3, 2008
6,662
0
0
Simply because "The Sun" was the first star observed that was known to be a star and the Moon was the first moon to be observed. Any other moon, no matter how large, requires assistance to observe for example.

Though it should be noted that during this time of year you can go out after dark (assuming you live in the northern hemisphere) and look to the east. You should see what appears to be an unusually bright star. If you then take a cheap pair of binoculars, you might note that the star, unlike all the other stars, gets a bit bigger (rather than just brighter) and if you look really closely, you might even note a number of tiny dim points of light around it. If you then go back and observe over the course of a few days you'd note that those points of light move with respect to the big one. If you actually do this, congratulations as you've observed one or more of the Galilean moon of Jupiter!
 

Vuliev

Senior Member
Jul 19, 2011
573
0
21
They were probabl--

The Artificially Prolonged said:
They where probably named by the ancestors of the Crackdown team naming division.
Dammit, beat me to it. But yes, their actual names are Luna and Sol, respectively; people are just lazy/know which star or moon is being referred to.
 

pilouuuu

New member
Aug 18, 2009
701
0
0
TorqueConverter said:
lol wut?

We call our Star the sun and our satellite the moon. All stars are not suns and all natural satellites are not moons.
This! Thread doesn't make sense. It would be better to ask why we call other satellites moons. Does anyone call other star suns? That would make even less sense. If that's the case then let's call other planets earths... Duh!
 

Olas

Hello!
Dec 24, 2011
3,226
0
0
TorqueConverter said:
lol wut?

We call our Star the sun and our satellite the moon. All stars are not suns and all natural satellites are not moons.
Actually all natural satellites are moons, the terms are synonymous. Natural satellite is just the more scientific sounding term but both are perfectly acceptable and mean the same thing. Have you really never heard someone say "the moons of Jupiter" or anything to that effect?

And all stars that are the center of a solar system are defined as "suns". Some stars aren't suns, you're right, but many are. If it has planets it's a sun.

I'm astounded how many don't know this.

Heronblade said:
sol and luna are generally the accepted "names" for those particular bodies. Granted, those are just the latin versions of moon and sun, but they suffice.
Vuliev said:
But yes, their actual names are Luna and Sol, respectively; people are just lazy/know which star or moon is being referred to.
Unfortunately you're wrong. I used to think Sol was the actual name of our sun, and Luna for moon, but apparently not. Only in Star Trek and other similar science fiction universes are they referred to as such. Obviously those are the first candidates if we were to ever give them a more unique name, but ultimately it's not much better because those are still just the words "sun" and "moon" in a different (albeit dead) language.


DarkRyter said:
OlasDAlmighty said:
I'm sure I'm probably the 5 trillionth person.
I think you may be a few order of magnitudes too high.
Well, obviously I wasn't being literal.

Not G. Ivingname said:
Because they are our sun and our moon.

There are many like it, but this one is ours.

Literally, that is the entire reason.
And I have no problem referring to them as such, just like how I call my mom "mom". But mom still isn't her name, and I don't think sun and moon should be their actual names either.
 

DudeistBelieve

TellEmSteveDave.com
Sep 9, 2010
4,771
1
0
Asita said:
Well to be fair, there are already fairly well established alternatives.

Sun: Sol
Moon: Luna
Earth: Terra (and, less popularly, "Gaia")
this.

I imagine we use the less formal names just out of remnants of by-gone religions and all that.

Also seems kinda pointless to give our moon a specific name. We only have one. It's not like I'm going to say "hey go look at the moon" and you'll get confused.
 

Canadamus Prime

Robot in Disguise
Jun 17, 2009
14,334
0
0
The Sun actually goes by the name of Sol and the Moon actually goes by the name of Luna, but few people actually use those names.
 

thedoclc

New member
Jun 24, 2008
445
0
0
Observations of the stars have been around since prehistory. The reason the sun has received a different name from the other stars in every language I can think of is because when the languages were forming, the sun and the other stars were NOT recognized as belonging to a class of objects with other members.

Divorce yourself from all your current knowledge and from modern technology. Think like a pre-modern human. Sol and Luna look to be unique objects compared to whatever else can be seen in the sky. Additionally, the behavior of these two objects has a profound influence on everything you do. Hence, they are important and unique - and thus good candidates for a unique name. They're important enough to confuse for gods in many pre-modern cultures. To my knowledge, no one ever built a temple to Rigel and killed a rival for worshiping Betelgeuse instead.

As soon as you remember that when our languages were forming, we had no science texts or telescopes, the issue becomes trivial. It survives because the context makes it obvious what you mean today. To state the obvious: if I say, "Man, the sun was beating down on me at the beach," or "The moon is full tonight," you're not wondering if I'm referring to Sirius or Io, respectively. You know what I mean. Saying, "Man, Sol was beating down on me," in casual conversation makes you sound pretentious.
 

Syzygy23

New member
Sep 20, 2010
824
0
0
Luna determines tidal fluxuations on Earth, making it the only moon relevant to our lives. It's not just ANY moon, it's THE moon!
 

Salad Is Murder

New member
Oct 27, 2007
520
0
0
canadamus_prime said:
The Sun actually goes by the name of Sol and the Moon actually goes by the name of Luna, but few people actually use those names.
Actually, the sun goes by William. I think you should probably do a little more research before you run around on the internet, misinforming people; please don't be so irresponsible, think before you type...even if it's just a little.

Syzygy23 said:
Luna determines tidal fluxuations on Earth, making it the only moon relevant to our lives. It's not just ANY moon, it's THE moon!
That's no moon, it's a tidal station!
 

Smeggs

New member
Oct 21, 2008
1,253
0
0
Why do we call it "The Moon"?

Seriously?

Because it's the first one we knew existed. It's the moon of our planet. That's like asking why we call it, "The White House" and not a white house. It's The Moon of Earth. It's ours. It is the only one that really matters to us as a species, unless Titan suddenly decided to break orbit and come flying at us for no reason, it is the only one that effects our planet.
 

Fusionxl

New member
Oct 25, 2009
274
0
0
The Moon is called Luna, Earth is Terra and the Sun is Sol. You are more than welcome to call them by their real names if the English versions bother you that much.
 

lacktheknack

Je suis joined jewels.
Jan 19, 2009
19,316
0
0
Because it's the only one of each that really effects us.

If it really pisses you off, then start calling them Sol and Luna, then consider seeing a psychiatrist.
 

Owen Robertson

New member
Jul 26, 2011
545
0
0
Luna is the technical name for it, but "the Moon" is the vernacular. Imagine JFK's speech with "Luna" interchanged for "the Moon". Doesn't have the same ring to it.
 

kommando367

New member
Oct 9, 2008
1,956
0
0
Because our planet's moon is the moon we are most familiar with and our solar system's sun is the sun we are most familiar with.
 

Yopaz

Sarcastic overlord
Jun 3, 2009
6,092
0
0
lacktheknack said:
Because it's the only one of each that really effects us.

If it really pisses you off, then start calling them Sol and Luna, then consider seeing a psychiatrist.
Pretty much what I was going to say, but with a really snappy insult at the end. Well played sir, well played.

To add some to this myself this is quite simple. When we talk about something that means something without going into specifics we usually don't do so. When I say I just got home from school I don't have to mention what school even though there are a lot of options of schools I could have stopped by. The moon, or Luna, is the only one of Earth's, or Terra's two moons we can see so we don't need to specify which moon you're talking about. As for the sun, or sol, that's the star that gives life to the entire planet. It's not like we can mistake it for a different star.

Now there are options to calling it the Earth, the moon and the sun and honestly even if those were our only options I can't see a reason why it should bother you.
 

Dimitriov

The end is nigh.
May 24, 2010
1,215
0
0
OlasDAlmighty said:
I'm sure I'm probably the 5 trillionth person on the escapist who's complained about this before, but damn it I don't care, this bugs me too damn much.

Every other planet in our solar system has moons with actual names derived from roman and greek mythology. Ours is just "The Moon", and that's not just what most people call it, that's it's actual official name according to science. The Sun ([a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333776/Spanish-woman-Angeles-Duran-claims-owns-sun--plans-start-charging-ALL-users.html"]which is apparently owned by spanish woman[/a]) has the same weird dilemma.
What will alien races think when they come to earth and find out we named our sun and moon "The Sun" and "The Moon".

Our name for the planet being "earth" isn't much better when you consider that they might just as well have called it planet Dirt. But I digress.

So my questions are:

Does this bother you as much as it bothers me?

Do you think we'll change this ever, and if so when?

What should we change it's name to?
See the real problem isn't that we named our planet's single natural satellite the "moon" or our system's primary the "sun" (see what I did there?). No, the real problem is that we started using those names, the unique names our ancestors gave those objects, to refer to other stars and satellites...

THAT is the dumb part, and it happened much more recently than what you are asking about :D
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
8,407
0
0
when the names were made, we didnt knew any other moons or suns.

See the real problem isn't that we named our planet's single natural satellite the "moon" or our system's primary the "sun" (see what I did there?). No, the real problem is that we started using those names, the unique names our ancestors gave those objects, to refer to other stars and satellites...
while i do call other satelites moons too, but i never call stars "suns". stars are stars.