Who Named Pluto
When astronomers discovered the ninth planet in our solar system in 1930, it remained without a name for several weeks. The celestial body was first spotted at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, by Clyde Tombaugh. While the discovery was groundbreaking, astronomers needed a fitting name for the new planet.
The honor of naming Pluto unexpectedly went to an 11-year-old English schoolgirl named Venetia Burney. On March 14, 1930, during breakfast in Oxford, Venetia suggested to her grandfather, Falconer Madan, a retired librarian from Oxford’s Bodleian Library, that the new planet should be called “Pluto.” She was fascinated by Roman and Greek mythology, and the name of the Roman god of the underworld seemed fitting for such a distant, cold, and dark world.
Madan was impressed by the suggestion and passed it along to his friend Herbert Hall Turner, a well-known astronomer. Turner then telegraphed the proposal to the Lowell Observatory in the United States. Among hundreds of suggestions received worldwide, “Pluto” stood out. It carried the initials “P.L.,” a subtle tribute to Percival Lowell, the founder of the observatory who had initiated the search for a new planet.
On May 1, 1930, the name Pluto was officially announced as the planet’s designation. Venetia received five pounds as a reward for her contribution, a modest sum at the time, but her place in astronomical history was forever secured.
For decades, Pluto was considered the ninth planet, until in 2006 the International Astronomical Union reclassified it as a “dwarf planet.” Despite this change, the story of its naming remains a charming reminder that even a child’s imagination can influence the history of science.
