Uranus and Neptune

[Omicron314]

Just a few things that have been bothering me for a while about the solar system's lonely ice giants.

1. Uranus was a Greek god whereas all the other planets were named after Roman gods. Why is this?

2. In Latin, when you call someone by name, you use something called the vocative case. So calling the god Neptunus by name would give you "Neptune". Wikipedia tell me Greek has a similar rule, yet Uranus appears to be in the nominative (standard form). Why? And if it's for no particular reason, could we just solve the whole "Uranus" issue by changing it to Urane?

Share your thoughts and, as always, any response is appreciated.

[lajoswinkler]

I don't know what's up with the rules. I know what the vocative case is, my native language contains it, but I don't remember enough Latin from highschool to solve this problem.

One thing I'm sure, if you're uncomfortable with Uranus, use Urectum.

In some languages, the planet is simply called Uran, and because the "UR" pun works in English only, the joke has been almost unknown before the recent times.

[Kerbin Dallas Multipass]

Neptune is english for Neptunus just like Jupiter for Iuppiter or Mercury for Mercurius. It has nothing to do with vocative case. In german its Neptun, Jupiter, Merkur.

[SargeRho]

As for Uranus jokes... It's not pronounced "Your Anus". It's pronounced UR'nus"

[dharak1]

Hmmm... Maybe the person who named it liked Greek gods better than Roman ones? I think Uranus was one of the planets with naming problems too so that might be part of it. I think they took names and had a vote kind of like the Canadian flag.

[DaveofDefeat]

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

I also don't know the rules, but Mars is also Roman and not Greek...

BTW, this wikipedia article doesn't seem to imply that there is an actual convention at all, but more of a customary practice.

[TheShadow1138]

I'm not sure why Uranus was named after the Greek mythological figure rather than using the Roman equivalent, but that particular figure was chosen for a specific reason. After Saturn was discovered it was named after the father of Jupiter (Zeus), who in Greek mythology is the Titan Cronus. Thus, when Uranus was discovered they chose to name it after the father of Saturn, which in Greek mythology is Uranus. The Roman equivalent of Uranus is Caelus. It may be that they simply didn't want to call the planet Caelus and chose to use the Greek equivalent. It is also interesting to note that in Greece, according to the Wikipedia articles on the planets, the planets go by their Greek equivalents: Hermes, Aphrodite, Gaia, Ares, Zeus, Cronus, Uranus, Poseidon, and Hades.