All the other planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Pluto are named after Roman gods. So why is Uranus named after a Greek god and not the Roman equivalent Caelus?
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The Romans usually used the name Uranus for the Greek Ouranos. Similarly they called Apollon Apollo, and the god of the underworld Pluto after the Greek Plouton (a common title of Hades), and Bacchus after Bakkhos (a Greek title of Dionysus).
There was no Roman equivalent of Uranus. Caelus is the literal translation, “sky” in Latin, but was rarely used for the figure of myth. Caelus was never a true Roman god, just a translation used by Roman prose writers like Cicero and Hyginus. The Roman poets prefer Uranus.
In Italian Renaissance and Baroque era European literature and art the Roman names of the gods were always used, and they always name Uranus as the father of Saturn. The planet was named following this convention when discovered in the late 1700’s.
Its worth noting that the ancient Greek names for the five visible planets predate the Roman ones. They are aster Aphrodision (=Venus), aster Areios (=Mars), aster Hermaios (=Mercury), aster Dios (=Jupiter), aster Kronios (=Saturn).
See :http://www.theoi.com/Titan/AstraPlaneta….
(and the associated pages, one for each of the planets).
Uranus was discovered by William Herschel; he wanted to name it after King George III as “George’s Star”.
Jerome Lalande wanted to name it Herschel after its discoverer.
It was Johann Bode who decided to call it Uranus, with the argument that just as Saturn was the father of Jupiter, the next planet should be Saturn’s father.
Uranus IS the Latin form of Ouranos, which is the Greek form of the god’s name.
It was only later that Caelus became associated with Uranus, and the Romans never worshiped him or seemed very interested at all.
Naming
Maskelyne asked Herschel to “do the astronomical world the faver to give a name to your planet, which is entirely your own, & which we are so much obliged to you for the discovery of.” In response to Maskelyne’s request, Herschel decided to name the object Georgium Sidus (George’s Star), or the “Georgian Planet” in honour of his new patron, King George III.He explained this decision in a letter to Joseph Bank:
“ In the fabulous ages of ancient times the appellations of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were given to the Planets, as being the names of their principal heroes and divinities. In the present more philosophical era it would hardly be allowable to have recourse to the same method and call it Juno, Pallas, Apollo or Minerva, for a name to our new heavenly body. The first consideration of any particular event, or remarkable incident, seems to be its chronology: if in any future age it should be asked, when this last-found Planet was discovered? It would be a very satisfactory answer to say, ‘In the reign of King George the Third. ”
Astronomer Jérôme Lalande proposed the planet be named Herschel in honour of its discoverer. 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. The earliest citation of the name Uranus in an official publication is in 1823, a year after Herschel’s death. 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.
The preferred pronunciation of the name Uranus among astronomers is [ˈjʊərənəs], with the first syllable stressed and a short a (ūrănŭs);[36] this is more classically correct than the alternate [jʊˈɹeɪ.nəs], with stress on the second syllable and a “long a” (ūrānŭs), 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.
Because Uranus is special! lol
Greek came first Romans stole from Greeks
my bike is in uranus! haha…there’s a place called uranus…just ask Johnny Knoxville