Sir William Herschel, who discovered the planet, wanted to call it the Georgium Sidis (the Georgian Planet), after King George III who was his patron. The name never really took off with the astronomical community. Most called it Herschel, or Herschel's planet. Later, another German astronomer, Johann Elert Bode, proposed the name Uranus. The idea was that since Saturn was the father of Jupiter, the next planet in line should be named after the father of Saturn. An especially nice choice, since Uranus was god of the heavens. The Latin name for Uranus was Caelus (sometime spelled Coelus), husband to and son of Tellus (Gaia). So why aren't we calling the planet Caelus? Truthfully, it's probably for the same reason we aren't calling it Georgium Sidis. The name that people actually use is the one that stays with it--and Uranus got the popular vote. There is another possibility, though. The muse of astronomy is called Urania (sometimes Orania). So it's also possible that the astronomically inclined decided to use the Greek name in honor of their patron muse.

Because Uranus was the most important Greek god, close to gaia of the earth, so that would be the logical god to use.

Astronomer Jérôme Lalande proposed the planet be named Herschel in honour of its discoverer.[31] Bode, however, opted for Uranus, the Latinized version of the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos. Bode argued that just as Saturn was the father of Jupiter, the new planet should be named after the father of Saturn.[28][32][33] The earliest citation of the name Uranus in an official publication is in 1823, a year after Herschel's death.[34][35] The name Georgium Sidus or "the Georgian" was still used infrequently (by the British alone) for some time thereafter; the final holdout was HM Nautical Almanac Office, which did not switch to Uranus until 1850.[32] The preferred pronunciation of the name Uranus among astronomers is [ˈjÊŠÉ™rÉ™nÉ™s], with the first syllable stressed and a short a (Å«rănÅ­s);[36] this is more classically correct than the alternate [jʊˈɹeɪ.nÉ™s], with stress on the second syllable and a "long a" (Å«rānÅ­s), which is often used in the English-speaking world. Uranus is the only planet whose name is derived from a figure from Greek mythology rather than Roman mythology. (The Roman equivalent would have been Caelus.) The adjective of Uranus is "Uranian". The element uranium, discovered in 1789, was named in its honour by its discoverer, Martin Klaproth.[37] Its astronomical symbol is Astronomical symbol for Uranus. It is a hybrid of the symbols for Mars and the Sun because Uranus was the Sky in Greek mythology, which was thought to be dominated by the combined powers of the Sun and Mars.[38] Its astrological symbol is , suggested by Lalande in 1784. In a letter to Herschel, Lalande described it as "un globe surmonté par la première lettre de votre nom" ("a globe surmounted by the first letter of your name").[31] In the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese languages, the planet's name is literally translated as the sky king star (天王星).[39][40] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus Herschel first called the new planet the Georgian Star, after King George III, and that name was used by the Nautical Almanac until as late as 1850. The name Uranus was proposed by Johann Bode when the planet was discovered, on the basis that Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus constituted a sequence of generations in mythology. It did not catch on with British astronomers until John Adams persuaded the Nautical Almanac to change, while British astrologers continued to call it by the name of its discoverer for many years. The Greek name Ouranos refers to the sky. In one account, all the gods were said to be descended from the earth and sky, Gaia and Ouranos, a myth found in many parts of the world. Ouranos was too much of an abstraction to have much in the way of mythology, other than the story of his castration and deposition by his son Kronos (Saturn). Robert Chandler ('Uranus and Prometheus', Astrological Journal, vol. 38, no. 1) has pointed out that the myth is actually shown in the discovery chart: Saturn opposing Uranus with the aid of Mars (surgery). Unlike the modern friends of the asteroids, earlier astrologers did not rely on the mythological associations of the name to determine the nature of Uranus. When John Varley and John Corfield did that at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was by observing its effects in nativities. http://www.skyscript.co.uk/uranus.html

1) "With the exception of Earth, all of the planets in our solar system have names from Greek or Roman mythology. This tradition was continued when Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were discovered in more modern times. Mercury is the god of commerce, travel and thievery in Roman mythology. The planet probably received this name because it moves so quickly across the sky. Venus is the Roman goddess of love and beauty. The planet is aptly named since it makes a beautiful sight in the sky, with only the Sun and the Moon being brighter. Earth is the only planet whose English name does not derive from Greek/Roman mythology. The name derives from Old English and Germanic. There are, of course, many other names for our planet in other languages. Mars is the Roman god of War. The planet probably got this name due to its red color. Jupiter was the King of the Gods in Roman mythology, making the name a good choice for what is by far the largest planet in our solar system. Saturn is the Roman god of agriculture. Uranus is the ancient Greek deity of the Heavens, the earliest supreme god. Neptune, was the Roman god of the Sea. Given the beautiful blue color of this planet, the name is an excellent choice! Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld in Roman mythology. Perhaps the planet received this name because it's so far from the Sun that it is in perpetual darkness. " Source and further information: http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question48.html 2) Note that Uranus is not named after a Greek god either, but after the Latinized version of a Greek god. The Greek god was called "Ouranos": "The names for the planets in the Western world are derived from the naming practices of the Romans, which ultimately derive from those of the Greeks and the Babylonians. In ancient Greece, the two great luminaries the Sun and the Moon were called Helios and Selene; the farthest planet was called Phainon, the shiner; followed by Phaethon, "bright"; the red planet was known as Pyroeis, the "fiery"; the brightest was known as Phosphoros, the light bringer; and the fleeting final planet was called Stilbon, the gleamer. The Greeks also made each planet sacred to one of their pantheon of gods, the Olympians: Helios and Selene were the names of both planets and gods; Phainon was sacred to Kronos, the Titan who fathered the Olympians; Phaethon was sacred to Zeús, Kronos's son who deposed him as king; Pyroeis was given to Ares, son of Zeus and god of war; Phosphorus was ruled by Aphrodite, the goddess of love; and Hermes, messenger of the gods and god of learning and wit, ruled over Stilbon. The Greek practice of grafting of their gods' names onto the planets was almost certainly borrowed from the Babylonians. The Babylonians named Phosphorus after their goddess of love, Ishtar; Pyroeis after their god of war, Nergal, Stilbon after their god of wisdom Nabu, and Phaethon after their chief god, Marduk. There are too many concordances between Greek and Babylonian naming conventions for them to have arisen separately. The translation was not perfect. For instance, the Babylonian Nergal was a god of war, and thus the Greeks identified him with Ares. However, unlike Ares, Nergal was also god of pestilence and the underworld. Today, most people in the western world know the planets by names derived from the Olympian pantheon of gods. While modern Greeks still use their ancient names for the planets, other European languages, because of the influence of the Roman Empire and, later, the Catholic Church, use the Roman (or Latin) names rather than the Greek ones. The Romans, who, like the Greeks, were Indo-Europeans, shared with them a common pantheon under different names but lacked the rich narrative traditions that Greek poetic culture had given their gods. During the later period of the Roman Republic, Roman writers borrowed much of the Greek narratives and applied them to their own pantheon, to the point where they became virtually indistinguishable. When the Romans studied Greek astronomy, they gave the planets their own gods' names: Mercurius (for Hermes), Venus (Aphrodite), Mars (Ares), Iuppiter (Zeus) and Saturnus (Kronos). When subsequent planets were discovered in the 18th and 19th centuries, the naming practice was retained: Uranus (Ouranos) and NeptÅ«nus (Poseidon). Some Romans, following a belief possibly originating in Mesopotamia but developed in Hellenistic Egypt, believed that the seven gods after whom the planets were named took hourly shifts in looking after affairs on Earth. The order of shifts went Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon (from the farthest to the closest planet). Therefore, the first day was started by Saturn (1st hour), second day by Sun (25th hour), followed by Moon (49th hour), Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus. Since each day was named by the god that started it, this is also the order of the days of the week in the Roman calendar – and still preserved many modern languages. Sunday, Monday, and Saturday are straightforward translations of these Roman names. In English the other days were renamed after Tiw, (Tuesday) Wóden (Wednesday), Thunor (Thursday), and Fríge (Friday), the Anglo-Saxon gods considered similar or equivalent to Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus respectively." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet#Mythology 3) "Bode, however, opted for Uranus, the Latinized version of the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos. Bode argued that just as Saturn was the father of Jupiter, the new planet should be named after the father of Saturn." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus#Naming Remark that: - at that time, it was not assume that further planet could be discovered in the solar system - we have a patrilinear serie from Uranus to Mars (not only Jupiter): Uranus >>> Saturn >>> Jupiter >>> Mars 4) It would not have been so easy to go further with this patrilinear serie because the most common myth is that Gaia was the mother (and wife) of Ouranos: "Hesiod's Theogony (116ff) tells how, after Chaos, arose broad-breasted Gaia the everlasting foundation of the gods of Olympus. She brought forth Uranus, the starry sky, her equal, to cover her, the hills, and the fruitless deep of the Sea, Pontus, "without sweet union of love," out of her own self through parthenogenesis. But afterwards, as Hesiod tells it, she lay with her son, Uranus, and bore the World-Ocean Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and the Titans Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, and Phoebe of the golden crown, and lovely Tethys. "After them was born Cronus the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire."" [Cronus Latinized: Saturn] Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_%28mythology%29 "Most Greeks considered Uranus to be primordial (protogenos), and gave him no parentage. Under the influence of the philosophers Cicero, in De Natura Deorum ("The Nature of the Gods"), claims that he was the offspring of the ancient gods Aether and Hemera, Air and Day. According to the Orphic Hymns, Ouranos was the son of the personification of night, Nyx." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus_%28mythology%29 Gaia and Nyx were goddesses, and this would have been against the patrilineality. So the only other possibility would have been Aether. Anyway, they decided to keep the Latin names and use more well known gods for the rest: " In Roman mythology, Neptune was the god of the sea, identified with the Greek Poseidon. The demand for a mythological name seemed to be in keeping with the nomenclature of the other planets, all of which, except for Uranus and Earth, were named for Roman gods." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune#Naming

Because what would grade school have been like without all those Uranus jokes? Hey, that reminds me... What do toilet paper and The Enterprise have in common? They both circle around Uranus in search of Klingons.

he he uranus is cool, the ruler of Aquarians...sorry scientists/and astrology non-believers. I love my rulling planet!!!