- NEW!
by Im Alec has abandoned this account on October 15th, 2009
No - our moon is the original Moon. Before Galileo, nobody knew about any other moons, so there was only one Moon (or Luna in Latin etc.) What has happened is that the name of the one (and originally, only) moon has been taken as the label for a whole class of similar objects.
by Marguerite on October 15th, 2009
The moon has a name----Luna(Roman name) and Selene(Greek name) See pictures:
http://images.google.com/images?q=Selene&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADBS_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=KjfXStruHsGA8Qb7p-nhCA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCMQsAQwAw
by ~AmberTheCuriousOne~ on October 15th, 2009
It does have a name, its Luna, the sun has one too, Sol
by Whitehair on October 15th, 2009
I don't think we have to name the moon, the old Greeks did that already in their mythology. They called the moon Selene, she was the daughter of Hyperion and Thei, sister of Helios the sun and of Eos the dawn.
The word moon is just fine. It sounds mysterious, eventhough the mystery about it is almost reveiled to the last crater or mare on it.....
by Djinn on October 19th, 2009
Chaoliu Dashi. I remember translating a chinese kung-fu classic that spoke about the moon as Chaoliu Dashi or Great master of the tides. It stuck with me. +2
by Sid on October 15th, 2009
Keith.
by Ubiquitous Name on October 15th, 2009
Personally, I'd name it Pluto. Although, ironically, it still wouldn't technically be a planet.
by Prunesquallor on October 15th, 2009
I believe another name for the moon is 'Selene'.
by Sandman on October 19th, 2009
The nox was lit by lux of Luna
And 'twas a nox most opporuna
To catch a possum or a coona.
by Sandman on October 19th, 2009
She has two perfectly good names; Selene and Luna. She's called "the" moon because she's the only one that WE have. Anyway, "moon" originally meant month, when our calendars were moon-based and there were 13 months in a year. (28x13=364) is the reason that all the old time contracts were shown as "a year and a day." It brought the lunar and solar years together again.
by Prunesquallor on October 15th, 2009
In the same way that Luna is a name for the Roman Goddess of the Moon, so Selene is the Greek Moon Goddess, and I believe the moon is sometimes called by that name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selene
by Suby the Coat on October 15th, 2009
'Moon' means Earth's moon.
If you want to call it by another name I suggest 'Chandra'.
Thats the Sanskrit name for the moon.
You could pick a name from any other language of your choice too but only let us all know, to avoid confusion.
by Ron C on October 15th, 2009
I thought THE was it's name.
by malevolentbutticklis on October 15th, 2009
新北京
by Brian on October 15th, 2009
Since the moon orbits the Earth I would name it Roy Orbitson.
AFAIK there aren't any other celestial objects named Roy, so Roy should suffice for now. ;)
by Moley the contrary female dragon on October 15th, 2009
I would choose Argent. (silver ) as that is how it appears. It is said to represent the moon anyway.+6.
by Sage Chexie at your service on October 15th, 2009
"Colbert".. it would make for good tv. plus colbert got robbed of his title before. poor guy. http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/15/colbert.nasa/index.html
by canoeguide on September 23rd, 2010
Do the phrases Lunar eclipse, Lunar excursion module, Lunar probe (and many more) suggest anything to you?
by Maureate on April 2nd, 2010
I'll name it Moonalisa because it is mysterious and beautiful, like Monalisa :-)
by Stevie on October 23rd, 2009
I'm going to treat this as an almost "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" question and try to answer it off the top of my head. I think the moon is technically considered a satellite and not in the technological sense, obviously. This would make the name of our moon "the moon." However, people have attributed names to describe similar items. Band-Aid for instance, has been used to describe almost any type of adhesive bandage. Or Xerox as a verb to describe making copies even if it's not on a copy machine made by Xerox. This would mean that technically "Phobos" and "Deimos" are satellites, but with our tendency to refer to other things by a name it's easy to see how people would call them moons, especially if they experience the same phases as our moon does. +3 for making me ponder.
by pouncey on October 19th, 2009
Our moon is called moon duh.
by Sandman on October 19th, 2009
OK, here's a TFT for you:
Don't you find it odd that the planet with its Roman name has two satellites with Greek names?
by Sir yhvhash on October 15th, 2009
I think our moon has had a million names in different cultures and times. "Moon" is itself the name. It's generic description would be satelite. We liken other planet satelites to ours with this nomenclature, but that usage began at home so to speak.
+5
by TheJoker on October 15th, 2009
I'd call it Dillan..... it just looks like a Dillan to me :)
by His Lordship... has left on October 15th, 2009
It does have a name "THE MOON." Because we have only one why would we have to call it anything else but what it is. Here it is a one of a kind.
I do realize this is a fun question. So.... How about Keith?
by Unicorn Man on June 29th, 2011
There's a moon in the sky...
...it's called the moon...
Gotta love the B52s :)
by Sloonybartfast on February 20th, 2011
"The Moon" is its English name. There was only one of them known, hence the definite article.
The generic term really ought to be "natural satellite". Thus there is only one "Moon", that being Earth's natural satellite, Mars has two natural satellites, Jupiter 63, Saturn several thousand (mostly within the rings), Uranus 27, Neptune 13 and Pluto three.
Why does the moon go through phases?
by Answerbag Staff on February 9th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
If the Moon was once part of the Earth is it an example of what goes up will not necessarily come down?
by -O-uknow on December 25th, 2011
| 2 people like this
What colors are on the moon?
by Bornabrit on December 30th, 2011
| 6 people like this
Would you like to hang out on the moon's cresent with me tonight???
by ❤Crith Angew Mindfweak❤ on November 9th, 2011
| 5 people like this
Where are all the high def pictures of the moon?
by Max Power on December 26th, 2011
| 2 people like this
You're reading The planet Mars has two tiny moons, "Phobos" and "Deimos." The Earth has only one moon, but our moon has NO NAME. Why not? If you could name our Moon, what name would you assign to it? And why would you choose the name that you gave to it?
Your favorite Q&A site is on Facebook! Become a fan to connect with the ever-growing community of Answerbaggers, share your thoughts and find out what Answerbag's up to next!
Comments
So, you are saying that the name of the Moon, is "Moon?"
.
Respectfully, that's like having a dog named, "Dawg."
.
Ni disrespect, of course, but I don't accept that.
.
+6 for your thoughts, which I respect and appreciate you posting.
by Anonymous on October 15th, 2009
No - you have reversed the order of events. We had one thing in the sky, called Moon. Somebody nicked the name of the one-an-only Moon for other similar things. Similar things happened in the past. A guy named Caesar got to the top of the Roman Empire. His successors took the name Caesar as a title instead of a name, and later people followed them (Kaiser, Tsar). But it doesn't mean the original guy wasn't called Caesar (which mains "Hairy"). In you analogy, more like everybody calling elephants jumbos after the first elephant to be shown in London.
by Im Alec has abandoned this account on October 15th, 2009
Your logic is formidable, and I thank you for displaying it.
.
Join Mensa; you probably could easily qualify.
.
http://www.us.mensa.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Join
by Anonymous on October 15th, 2009
This is a common phenomenon of language: whatever shows up first becomes The Thing, and then later we may notice other things in the same category, which deserve part of the name. But language has inertia... once people start calling it The Moon, that becomes the convention and subsequent arguments about logical inconsistency aren't usually powerful enough to change the convention.
by HasntBeen on October 15th, 2009
A very good point, very well stated.
by Anonymous on October 15th, 2009
Yep... Do you say where's the tissue, or where's the Kleenex? Where's the cotten swab, or where's the Q-Tips? ;-)
by BigDaddyBS on October 19th, 2009
Kleenex® & Q-Tips®
.
I'm so non-generic, I scare myself.
by Anonymous on October 19th, 2009
LOL! ;-)
by BigDaddyBS on October 19th, 2009
Kleenex, Q-Tips, Band-Aid, Scotch Tape, Cellophane. They've all become generic.
by Sandman on October 20th, 2009
Yep. They sure have, and there are more...
I just can't think of them at the moment. LOL ;-)
by BigDaddyBS on October 20th, 2009
Aspirin
Escalator
Frisbee
Dry Ice
Lego
Xerox
Linoleum
But Scottowel didn't make it, nor did Frigidaire, although Hoover is generic in some parts of the world.
And Spam is close to being generic.
And how about Orange Julius?
by Sandman on October 20th, 2009
"Fridge" is generic.
by Anonymous on October 20th, 2009
Yes I suppose it is. I've thought of that as an element of refrigerator, rather than Frigidaire.
My younger daughter came up with "friginator" not long ago.
by Sandman on October 20th, 2009