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

[Olas]

Edit: And for the record, no, their names aren't "Sol" and "Luna". That's just in Star Trek and Mass Effect and probably a few other Sci-fi universes, not RL.

They ARE. Those were the original Latin names they were given "Sol" and "Luna" and are currently the most accepted proper names in the world of science and Astronomy.

Look, I'm sorry but are speaking Latin right now? Maybe you think that this is like with species names where the Latin based name is the scientific one. It's not. Sol is no more it's officially recognized name than the words Soleil, Sonne, or Helios.

If you can show me some examples of people in the field of astronomy officially recognizing Sol as it's name then I'll concede. But everything I've found on the subject has reputed that. I included a few links I found in the OP too that I'm basing this conclusion on.

 

[Olas]

I'm guessing it's because there's only one of them. One moon orbiting Earth, one star at the center of the system.

If there were two moons, we probably wouldn't call them "the moon". Maybe "the moons" rather. They are day to day things that we always see. I don't call my computer "Excelsior", I call it "the computer". The car. The table. The fork. The speakers. The lamp. The sun. The moon. So on, so forth.

That's because people don't typically name household objects. We do however name moons and stars. Titan, Ganymede, Europa, Phobos, Alpha Centauri, Betelgeuse. We give them names.

Would you name your child "The Son" or "The Daughter", just because you don't intend to have a second one?

You're being obtuse. Yes, if there was only one child of a certain gender on the planet, birthed by exactly one father, then people would call him "the son" and her "the daughter". What's more concerning is why you're equating the sun and the moon with people.

It's just an analogy, I'm not equating them.
And there isn't just one sun in the universe, or one moon, there's many. So a world with only one child of each gender isn't a reasonable comparison. It would be a world with Quadrillions of children from both genders.

 

[Dr. Doomsduck]

I don't think the names 'Sol' and 'Luna' are significantly different from 'Sun' and 'Moon'. Both are accepted terms for those floaty things in the sky in their own language. The same goes for 'zon', 'maan', 'soleil', 'lune' and every other variation you can think of. So, I don't really see the problem with calling them that, as nearly everything has a different name in different languages. My own given name doesn't really exist in English and can both translate to Meryll or Blackbird.

The systematic designation for Phobos is Mars 1, so if you're more comfortable with calling the moon 'Earth 1' or 'S/-250000 E 1', be my guest but quite frankly, I think that as long as the words 'natural sattelite' and 'star' exist for an overarching designation, the names 'moon' and 'sun' are quite correct.

 

[Unsilenced]

It's just an analogy, I'm not equating them.
And there isn't just one sun in the universe, or one moon, there's many. So a world with only one child of each gender isn't a reasonable comparison. It would be a world with Quadrillions of children from both genders.

But there is. "The Sun" is the name of the star at the center of the Solar System. Using "sun" to refer to to the star or stars at the center of a different planetary system is incorrect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun

 

[AngelOfBlueRoses]

I'm guessing it's because there's only one of them. One moon orbiting Earth, one star at the center of the system.

If there were two moons, we probably wouldn't call them "the moon". Maybe "the moons" rather. They are day to day things that we always see. I don't call my computer "Excelsior", I call it "the computer". The car. The table. The fork. The speakers. The lamp. The sun. The moon. So on, so forth.

That's because people don't typically name household objects. We do however name moons and stars. Titan, Ganymede, Europa, Phobos, Alpha Centauri, Betelgeuse. We give them names.

Would you name your child "The Son" or "The Daughter", just because you don't intend to have a second one?

You're being obtuse. Yes, if there was only one child of a certain gender on the planet, birthed by exactly one father, then people would call him "the son" and her "the daughter". What's more concerning is why you're equating the sun and the moon with people.

It's just an analogy, I'm not equating them.
And there isn't just one sun in the universe, or one moon, there's many. So a world with only one child of each gender isn't a reasonable comparison. It would be a world with Quadrillions of children from both genders.

Actually, there IS only one Sun in the universe and that is The Sun, or Sol as some people in this thread are calling it. There's only one Sun, which is a star. Everything else isn't considered a 'Sun,' but a star.

OUR star is the only Sun.

 

[Olas]

But there is. "The Sun" is the name of the star at the center of the Solar System. Using "sun" to refer to to the star or stars at the center of a different planetary system is incorrect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun

Actually, there IS only one sun in the universe and that is The Sun, or Sol as some people in this thread are calling it. There's only one sun, which is a star. Everything else isn't considered a 'sun,' but a star.

OUR star is the only sun.

World English Dictionary
sun (sʌn)

? n
1. the star at the centre of our solar system. It is a gaseous body having a highly compressed core, in which energy is generated by thermonuclear reactions (at about 15 million kelvins), surrounded by less dense radiative and convective zones serving to transport the energy to the surface (the photosphere ). The atmospheric layers (the chromosphere and corona ) are normally invisible except during a total eclipse. Mass and diameter: 333 000 and 109 times that of earth respectively; mean distance from earth: 149.6 million km (1 astronomical unit)Related: solar
2. any star around which a planetary system revolves
3. the sun as it appears at a particular time or place: the winter sun
4. the radiant energy, esp heat and light, received from the sun; sunshine
5. a person or thing considered as a source of radiant warmth, glory, etc
6. a pictorial representation of the sun, often depicted with a human face
7. poetic a year or a day
8. poetic a climate
9. archaic sunrise or sunset (esp in the phrase from sun to sun )
10. catch the sun to become slightly sunburnt
11. place in the sun a prominent or favourable position
12. nautical shoot the sun , take the sun to measure the altitude of the sun in order to determine latitude
13. touch of the sun slight sunstroke
14. under the sun , beneath the sun on earth; at all: nobody under the sun eats more than you do

I wish more people on this thread would do their homework.

snip

I'm sorry, I guess I was thrown off by the fact that everyone and their dog calls their behavior "Solar" and "Lunar" activity.

So, am I to conclude that you don't have any examples of actual scientific sources confirming Sol and Luna are their names?

 

[AngelOfBlueRoses]

But there is. "The Sun" is the name of the star at the center of the Solar System. Using "sun" to refer to to the star or stars at the center of a different planetary system is incorrect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun

Actually, there IS only one sun in the universe and that is The Sun, or Sol as some people in this thread are calling it. There's only one sun, which is a star. Everything else isn't considered a 'sun,' but a star.

OUR star is the only sun.

World English Dictionary
sun (sʌn)

? n
1. the star at the centre of our solar system. It is a gaseous body having a highly compressed core, in which energy is generated by thermonuclear reactions (at about 15 million kelvins), surrounded by less dense radiative and convective zones serving to transport the energy to the surface (the photosphere ). The atmospheric layers (the chromosphere and corona ) are normally invisible except during a total eclipse. Mass and diameter: 333 000 and 109 times that of earth respectively; mean distance from earth: 149.6 million km (1 astronomical unit)Related: solar
2. any star around which a planetary system revolves
3. the sun as it appears at a particular time or place: the winter sun
4. the radiant energy, esp heat and light, received from the sun; sunshine
5. a person or thing considered as a source of radiant warmth, glory, etc
6. a pictorial representation of the sun, often depicted with a human face
7. poetic a year or a day
8. poetic a climate
9. archaic sunrise or sunset (esp in the phrase from sun to sun )
10. catch the sun to become slightly sunburnt
11. place in the sun a prominent or favourable position
12. nautical shoot the sun , take the sun to measure the altitude of the sun in order to determine latitude
13. touch of the sun slight sunstroke
14. under the sun , beneath the sun on earth; at all: nobody under the sun eats more than you do

I wish more people on this thread would do their homework.

It's when they pull out the dictionary that you know they're really grasping at straws and are being dense for the sake of being dense.

 

[SpAc3man]

Edit: And for the record, no, their names aren't "Sol" and "Luna". That's just in Star Trek and Mass Effect and probably a few other Sci-fi universes, not RL.

I would have to disagree. Sol and Luna are the unique latin names for our sun and moon. Hence the Solar System. All other planetary systems are named after their star with the planets being given the name of their sun/star along with an number. The Solar system is the planetary system of Sol. Therefore our sun's unique name is Sol.

 

[Pinkamena]

It would be cool if peopel actually started to call sun Helios and moon Lune/Luna. Pretty names!

 

[Zipa]

The moon is called Luna as fa as I know which translates to moon. The sun is called sol which translates to star. Those were the original Latin names so year people saying Star Trek / mass effect made that up at just wrong.

 

[Coffeejack]

They were the first of each that we discovered. I guess.

 

[lacktheknack]

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.

I don't get it, why should he see a psychiatrist? I can call the sun Omellete of Sector 5/ Zyrithian if I want to. Does that mean I should immediately be subjected to mind homogenizing medication?

Loss of perspective, anger issues, insistent pettiness. He may want to get that looked at.

 

[FitScotGaymer]

Actually guys the whole Sol/Luna thing is a common misconception.

Neither have an "official" name along the lines of Alpha Centauri, or Sirius, or Polaris. But that isn't that uncommon - there are thousands of stars in our galactic neighbourhood and only a few hundred actually have names. Most are identified by symbols.

Sorry guys you might think you are right about the whole luna/sol thing but you aren't. Well you are in the strictest sense given that in latin Sol literally means The Sun and Luna literally means The Moon. But in the sense of official naming convention you aren't correct.

 

[Altorin]

Basically because those are the english words and you're speaking english. Other languages have their own names for those celestial bodies. It's not some conspiracy, the words are just what we developed in english using the english or western european view of the sun and the moon. We have similar differences in the word Earth, and sometimes in the names of the other planetary bodies but usually the names are fairly similar of those things.

 

[TheIronRuler]

We saw it first, we named it first. Do you think we knew of other moons or suns besides our own before we came up with names for these magical things?

 

[Olas]

It's when they pull out the dictionary that you know they're really grasping at straws and are being dense for the sake of being dense.

You're probably right about me being dense. And I'm sorry if I seemed rude there, but the fact is what you were saying was wrong.

And I'm pretty sure using a dictionary to show you what a word means isn't "grasping at straws". What else was I supposed to use, a thesaurus?. Dictionaries are wonderful little bundles of helpful knowledge, you should try using one some time.

And in case you think I found one dictionary that has that definition, here's The Oxford English Dictionary's definition of "sun":


sun Pronunciation: /sən/

noun
1 (the sun or the Sun) the star around which the earth orbits.
any star in the universe similar to the sun, with or without planets.
2 (usually the sun) the light or warmth received from the earth?s sun:
we sat outside in the sun

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/sun?region=us&q=sun

 

[bug_of_war]

Edit: And for the record, no, their names aren't "Sol" and "Luna". That's just in Star Trek and Mass Effect and probably a few other Sci-fi universes, not RL.

They ARE. Those were the original Latin names they were given "Sol" and "Luna" and are currently the most accepted proper names in the world of science and Astronomy.

Latin was not the first language developed. Sol and Luna are not names for the moon and sun, they literally mean sun and moon in Latin. That's like saying the proper term for Germany IS Germany. It's not, it's the english speaking worlds name for the country.

 

[AngelOfBlueRoses]

It's when they pull out the dictionary that you know they're really grasping at straws and are being dense for the sake of being dense.

You're probably right about me being dense. And I'm sorry if I seemed rude there, but the fact is what you were saying was wrong.

And I'm pretty sure using a dictionary to show you what a word means isn't "grasping at straws". What else was I supposed to use, a thesaurus?. Dictionaries are wonderful little bundles of helpful knowledge, you should try using one some time.

And in case you think I found one dictionary that has that definition, here's The Oxford English Dictionary's definition of "sun":


sun Pronunciation: /sən/

noun
1 (the sun or the Sun) the star around which the earth orbits.
any star in the universe similar to the sun, with or without planets.
2 (usually the sun) the light or warmth received from the earth?s sun:
we sat outside in the sun

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/sun?region=us&q=sun

And yet you're still being rude, so I highly doubt that you're sorry at all. "You should try using one some time." Really. I'm a lover of literature and write many short stories. The dictionary, and its brother the thesaurus, are the tools of my trade.

But while they are the tools of the trade of language, I do not place any validity upon it when it comes to the natures of science. Oh, sure. You'll get a fairly bare-boned description of something, but would I trust a dictionary to be a valid and reliable astronomical source? No, I would not, sir.

Edit: I suppose the point I'm trying to get at here is that no one seriously (and by that, I mean more than just a passing comment) considers other stars to be more than stars. They're stars. You call them stars. Only a pseudo-intellectual would refer to them as anything else in more than just a flippant way, and you're being needlessly pedantic.