If you’re new, Part 1 and Part 2 are here to read.
I finally got around making this topic, and while the names listed in this post may be considered ordinary, their namesakes are anything but. I will try to keep this as short as possible, since there are plenty of names and I don’t wish to branch this series into another post.
There you are:
- Anne/Annie - F - “grace”
A pioneer in the field of hot blue stars, [name_u]Anne[/name_u] [name_f]Barbara[/name_f] Underhill perfected sophisticated calculation techniques to better understand their atmospheres. [name_f]Annie[/name_f], on the other hand, graces this list twice. Once with Jump [name_m]Cannon[/name_m], and another with S. D Maunder. Known as the “census taker of the sky,” [name_f]Annie[/name_f] Jump [name_m]Cannon[/name_m] was a brilliant astronomer that revolutionized the way scientists classify stars. [name_f]Annie[/name_f] S. D Maunder was an Irish-British astronomer, who recorded the first evidence of the movement of sunspot emergence from the poles toward the equator over the sun’s 11-year cycle.
- [name_f]Antonia[/name_f] - F - “praiseworthy”
[name_f]Antonia[/name_f] [name_u]Maury[/name_u] was an American astronomer who was the first to detect and calculate the orbit of a spectroscopic binary. She published an important early catalog of stellar spectra using her own system of stellar classification, which was later adopted by the IAU.
- Aryabhata - M - “astronomer”
Aryabhata is often termed as the ‘Father of Mathematics & Astronomy’. Topics include prediction of solar and lunar eclipses and an explicit statement that the apparent westward motion of the stars is due to the spherical Earth’s rotation about its axis. Aryabhata also correctly ascribed the luminosity of the moon and planets to reflected sunlight.
- [name_f]Caroline[/name_f] - F - “free woman”
In 1786 [name_f]Caroline[/name_f] had become the first woman to discover a comet, finding seven more in the years between up to 1797, and she also discovered three nebulae. In 1787 she was granted a salary of £50 by the [name_m]King[/name_m] to act as her brother’s assistant. [name_f]Caroline[/name_f] worked hard in her own right, and in 1798 she published the ‘Index to Flamsteed’s Observations of the Fixed Stars’, a list of corrections and 560 additional stars.
- Cassini - M - “small dwelling place”
[name_m]Giovanni[/name_m] Dominico Cassini, also known as Jean-Dominique Cassini, was an Italian mathematician, engineer and astronomer. He is reputed for a number of scientific discoveries and projects, including the first observations of Saturn’s moons. For this reason, the Cassini spacecraft that was sent to study [name_u]Saturn[/name_u] and its complex system of rings and moons till 2017 was named named after him.
- [name_f]Caterina[/name_f] - F - “pure”
[name_f]Caterina[/name_f] Scarpellini, was an Italian astronomer who discovered a comet and as a meteorologist she established a station in [name_u]Rome[/name_u] in the 1850s. One of the craters on [name_f]Venus[/name_f] is named after her.
- [name_f]Cecilia[/name_f] - F - “blind”
After [name_f]Cecilia[/name_f] Payne-Gaposchkin, a British-born American astronomer. [name_m]Payne[/name_m] showed how to decode the complicated spectra of starlight in order to learn the relative amounts of the chemical elements in the stars. In 1960 the distinguished astronomer [name_m]Otto[/name_m] Struve referred to this work as “the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy.
- [name_m]Claudius[/name_m] - M - “lame”
[name_m]Claudius[/name_m] [name_m]Ptolemy[/name_m] was a 2nd century Greek mathematician, astronomer and geographer famous for his controversial geocentric theory of the universe, which would form the basis of our understanding of the motions of stars and planets for over than a thousand years.
- [name_u]Clyde[/name_u] - M - “river”
[name_u]Clyde[/name_u] [name_u]William[/name_u] Tombaugh was an American astronomer. He discovered [name_m]Pluto[/name_m] in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the [name_m]Kuiper[/name_m] belt. At the time of discovery, [name_m]Pluto[/name_m] was considered a planet but was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. Bonus: the name [name_m]Pluto[/name_m] was suggested by 11 year old [name_f]Venetia[/name_f] [name_m]Burney[/name_m].
- [name_f]Dorothea[/name_f] - F - “gift of god”
[name_f]Dorothea[/name_f] Klumpke [name_m]Roberts[/name_m] was the first woman to earn an advanced degree in astronomy—a feat she accomplished in 1893, at the University of [name_u]Paris[/name_u], with a dissertation about the rings of [name_u]Saturn[/name_u]. She was also the first woman to observe the [name_m]Leonid[/name_m] meteor storm.
- [name_m]Edmond[/name_m] - M - “wealthy protection”
After [name_m]Edmond[/name_m] [name_u]Halley[/name_u], [name_f]English[/name_f] astronomer and mathematician who was the first to calculate the orbit of a comet later named after him. He is also noted for his role in the publication of [name_m]Isaac[/name_m] Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. He was the second Astronomer [name_u]Royal[/name_u] after [name_u]John[/name_u] Flamsteed.
- [name_m]Edwin[/name_m] - M - “wealthy friend”
After [name_m]Edwin[/name_m] [name_m]Hubble[/name_m]. [name_m]Hubble[/name_m] studied what was then known as the [name_f]Andromeda[/name_f] [name_u]Nebula[/name_u], an object that for centuries appeared as an elongated cloud of light. In 1923, he resolved individual stars in this “nebula.” By 1929, [name_m]Hubble[/name_m] had completely reimagined our place in the universe; not only was it home to millions of other galaxies, but the universe itself was expanding as well. The [name_m]Hubble[/name_m] Space Telescope was named for him. [name_m]Edwin[/name_m] was also the birth name of astronaut [name_m]Buzz[/name_m] Aldrin.
- Ejnar - M - “warrior”
Ejnar Hertzsprung was a [name_m]Danish[/name_m] astronomer who classified types of stars by relating their colour to their absolute brightness —an accomplishment of fundamental importance to modern astronomy.
- [name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] - F - “emerald”
[name_f]Esmeralda[/name_f] [name_f]Herminia[/name_f] Mallada is a Uruguayan astronomer and professor who, for her contributions to that scientific discipline, has been honored with the designation of her name to an asteroid (16277 Mallada).
- [name_m]Galileo[/name_m] - M - “of Galilee”
[name_m]Galileo[/name_m] Galilei was a natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who made fundamental contributions to the sciences of motion, astronomy, and strength of materials and to the development of the scientific method. He also made revolutionary telescopic discoveries, including the four largest moons of [name_u]Jupiter[/name_u].
- [name_f]Henrietta[/name_f] - F - “estate ruler”
[name_f]Henrietta[/name_f] [name_u]Swan[/name_u] Leavitt was an American astronomer known for her discovery of the relationship between period and luminosity in Cepheid variables, pulsating stars that vary regularly in brightness in periods ranging from a few days to several months.
- [name_f]Hypatia[/name_f] - F - “supreme”
[name_f]Hypatia[/name_f] of [name_f]Alexandria[/name_f] was a mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who is the earliest female mathematician of whose life and work reasonably detailed knowledge exists. She was, in her time, the world’s leading mathematician and astronomer, the only woman for whom such claim can be made.
- [name_f]Kalpana[/name_f] - F - “imagination”
[name_f]Kalpana[/name_f] Chawla was an Indian-born American astronaut and aerospace engineer who was the first woman of [name_f]Indian[/name_f] origin to go to space.
- [name_f]Mae[/name_f] - F - “pearl”
[name_f]Mae[/name_f] [name_u]Jemison[/name_u] I’d an American engineer, physician and former NASA astronaut. She went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle [name_m]Endeavour[/name_m] in 1992 and became the first African American woman in space. She is also a trained medical doctor.
- Merieme - F - “beloved”
Merieme Chadid is a Morrocan-French astronomer, explorer and astrophysicist. She leads international polar scientific programs and has been committed to installing a major astronomical observatory at the heart of [name_f]Antarctica[/name_f].
- [name_u]Neil[/name_u] - M - “champion”
[name_u]Neil[/name_u] [name_m]Armstrong[/name_m] was a NASA astronaut and aeronautical engineer. He famously became the first person to walk on the moon on [name_u]July[/name_u] 20, 1969 during [name_m]Apollo[/name_m] 11. [name_m]Armstrong[/name_m] also flew on NASA’s [name_u]Gemini[/name_u] 8 mission in 1966.
- [name_m]Newton[/name_m] - M - “new town”
[name_m]Newton[/name_m] was kne of the first to make a reflecting telescope. However, his most profound contribution to science is the formulation of three Laws of Motion, described in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687, which also lays the foundation for the principle of universal gravitation. First name [name_m]Isaac[/name_m] is also shared by famous sci-fi writer [name_m]Isaac[/name_m] Asimov.
- Nüzhet - F - “virtue”
Nüzhet Gökdoğan was a Turkish astronomer, mathematician and academic. She was Turkey’s first national representative at the IAU and has been credited as Turkey’s first female astronomer.
- [name_u]Penrose[/name_u] - U - “top of the heath”
[name_m]Roger[/name_m] [name_u]Penrose[/name_u] has conducted outstanding research in pure mathematics and theoretical physics. He is popularly known for his work on singularities, such as black holes, which he proved can arise from the gravitational collapse of massive, dying stars.
- [name_m]Roman[/name_m] - M - “from Rome”
[name_f]Nancy[/name_f] [name_f]Grace[/name_f] [name_m]Roman[/name_m] was an American astronomer who made important contributions to stellar classification and motions. The first female executive at NASA, [name_m]Roman[/name_m] served as NASA’s first [name_m]Chief[/name_m] of [name_m]Astronomy[/name_m]. The [name_f]Nancy[/name_f] [name_f]Grace[/name_f] [name_m]Roman[/name_m] Space Telescope, formerly the Wide [name_m]Field[/name_m] InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST), is a NASA observatory designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics.
- [name_u]Rowan[/name_u] - U - “red-haired”
After [name_u]William[/name_u] [name_u]Rowan[/name_u] [name_m]Hamilton[/name_m], an [name_u]Irish[/name_u] mathematician, astronomer and physicist who contributed to the development of optics, dynamics, and algebra—in particular, discovering the algebra of quaternions. His work proved significant for the development of quantum mechanics.
- [name_f]Vera[/name_f] - F - “faith”
[name_f]Vera[/name_f] [name_u]Florence[/name_u] [name_u]Cooper[/name_u] [name_m]Rubin[/name_m] was an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates. She uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted and observed angular motion of galaxies by studying galactic rotation curves.
- [name_u]William[/name_u] - M - “resolute protection”
[name_u]William[/name_u] has many astronomers to its credit, including but not limited to [name_m]Herschel[/name_m], Lassell, K. [name_m]Hartmann[/name_m] as well as is the middle name of [name_m]Stephen[/name_m] Hawking, [name_u]Clyde[/name_u] Tombaugh and the likes
- [name_f]Williamina[/name_f] - F - “resolute protection”
[name_f]Williamina[/name_f] [name_m]Paton[/name_m] [name_m]Stevens[/name_m] [name_m]Fleming[/name_m] was a Scottish astronomer. During her career, she helped develop a common designation system for stars and catalogued thousands of stars and other astronomical phenomena. [name_m]Fleming[/name_m] is especially noted for her discovery of the Horsehead [name_u]Nebula[/name_u] in 1888.
- [name_u]Yuri[/name_u] - M - “farmer”
On [name_f]April[/name_f] 12, 1961 [name_u]Yuri[/name_u] Gagarin became the first human to orbit [name_f]Earth[/name_f]. Gagarin’s spacecraft, Vostok 1, circled [name_f]Earth[/name_f] at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour.
We’ve reached the end! With three posts in this series, I think I have covered most astronomical names and brought some new ones to light. Which ones are your favourites? Are there any that I left out? Thank you for reading 
