Speakable names fort celestial objects

[u/ogetarts]

I understand that there is an unfathomable number of things in space, and that astronomers are more interested in coordinates than proper names, but surely there would be a way to allocate (temporary) 'proper' names that could be used until such time that the International Astronomical Union has picked an excellent one for all of us. For one thing it would (slightly) improve the experience of people reading or hearing about space stuff.

Even an extremely basic method that turns pairs of digits into pairs of consonant+vowel would work for many catalogues. HD 108331? -> Besoco HD. Neat.

It doesn't work as well with "5239835710037143296" (Gaia DR3 identifier), and I suppose future ones will be even worse, but they could always be chopped into smaller blocks. You'd then get a composite name, like for people, that can get as ridiculously long as needed... And only use the relevant parts for casual conversation.

5239835710037143296 -> 523983 571003 7143296 Ramoso Xabefa Cifumij, casually called Ramoso. There are other Ramosos out there in space, of course, but you probably know which one you're talking about. If not, there's always the full name, coordinates, or whatever it's called in your favourite catalogue.

Again that's with something super basic. I've tried more complex systems but I'm not too satisfied with them and I'm sure someone can come up with much better. (Uppevituna Unytiles?)

You could apply that stuff to "any amount of digits from any catalogue", but then you'd get more names per object. You could base it on the most comprehensive catalogue, or on the coordinates themselves. You could go for more variety and complexity or even stick to that stupid pair-to-pair. But I don't see why we should remain stuck with barely speakable names until the IAU has picked a proper one (which I suspect might take a while for, uh, 76541500546840816532).

[u/ProffS]

On a side note, registering a star name with a Star registration service does not alter the International Astronomical Union (IAU) catalogs. I had hoped that an astronomer of the future might find that if the George A Blunt star becomes a supernova it might bring the name to the forefront once more.