IAU Names Chronology
Contents
A Chronology of IAU Name Changes
The following is a list compiled from the approval dates shown in the IAU Planetary Gazetteer.
Until recently, changes to the IAU Nomenclature were theoretically supposed to be adopted by vote at the General Assembly meetings of the IAU, typically held every three years. In practice, few, if any, such votes were held, but most of the names (and name changes) were published or announced in the IAU Transactions. In the following list, names listed in square brackets are old names that were dropped, while the remainder are new names that were published, according to the Gazetteer, in that year.
This list is far from comprehensive, for the on-line Gazetteer does not include many lettered crater names, and Greek lettered peaks and Roman-numeraled rilles that were included in the original nomenclature of 1935 but later changed or dropped. Similarly, many other changes are not well documented in the on-line Gazetteer, particularly for years prior to the 1990's. Finally, the single-line format of the Gazetteer introduces certain anomalies, such as creating the impression that the name Walther was adopted in 1935, when in reality the current name was the result of a spelling change approved in 2000. See the Notes at the end of this list for more details.
A better and more reliable source is generally the IAU Transactions themselves, in which (until recently) the changes were supposed to be announced before being considered official. Where possible, the approval dates should be checked against the lists appearing in the scanned copies.
The current current policy is that the IAU's WGPSN is empowered to publish names directly in the on-line IAU Planetary Gazetteer, and they become official if no objection is received by the IAU Division III President within three months. Such changes may or may not be later published in the Transactions.
1935
(1935 refers to the publication date of the first definitive list of IAU-approved lunar names, Named Lunar Formations. Work on that project was announced and endorsed at a number of General Assembly meetings, with a list of 507 approved primary names being published as early as 1928)
Abenezra
Abulfeda
Agatharchides
Agrippa
Airy
Albategnius
Alexander
Alfraganus
Alhazen
Aliacensis
Almanon
Alpetragius
Alphonsus
Anaxagoras
Anaximander
Anaximenes
Andel
Angström
Ansgarius
Apianus
Apollonius
Arago
Aratus
Archimedes
Archytas
Argelander
Ariadaeus
Aristarchus
Aristillus
Aristoteles
Arnold
Arzachel
Asclepi
Atlas
Autolycus
Auwers
Azophi
Babbage
Baco
Baillaud
Bailly
Baily
Ball
Barocius
Barrow
Bayer
Beaumont
Beer
Behaim
Bellot
Berosus
Berzelius
Bessarion
Bessel
Bettinus
Bianchini
Biela
Billy
Biot
Birmingham
Birt
Blagg
Blancanus
Blanchinus
Bode
Boguslawsky
Bohnenberger
Bonpland
Borda
Boscovich
Bouguer
Boussingault
Brayley
Breislak
Brenner
Briggs
Brisbane
Brown
Bruce
Buch
Bullialdus
Burckhardt
Bürg
Burnham
Büsching
Byrgius
C. Herschel
C. Mayer
Cabeus
Calippus
Campanus
Capella
Capuanus
Cardanus
Carlini
Carpenter
Carrington
Casatus
Cassini
Catharina
Cauchy
Cavalerius
Cavendish
Cayley
Celsius
Censorinus
Cepheus
Chacornac
Challis
Chevallier
Chladni
Cichus
Clairaut
Clausius
Clavius
Cleomedes
Cleostratus
Colombo
Condorcet
Conon
Cook
Copernicus
Crozier
Crüger
Curtius
Cusanus
Cuvier
Cyrillus
Cysatus
da Vinci
Daguerre
Damoiseau
Daniell
Darney
D'Arrest
Darwin
Davy
Dawes
de Gasparis
De La Rue
De Morgan
De Vico
Debes
Dechen
Delambre
Delaunay
Delisle
Delmotte
Deluc
Dembowski
Democritus
Demonax
Descartes
Deseilligny
Dionysius
Diophantus
Dollond
Donati
Doppelmayer
Dove
Draper
Drebbel
Dunthorne
Egede
Eichstadt
Eimmart
Elger
Encke
Endymion
Epigenes
Epimenides
Eratosthenes
Euclides
Euctemon
Eudoxus
Euler
Fabricius
Faraday
Fauth
Faye
Fermat
Fernelius
Feuillée
Firmicus
Flammarion
Flamsteed
Fontana
Fontenelle
Foucault
Fourier
Fra Mauro
Fracastorius
Franklin
Franz
Fraunhofer
Furnerius
G. Bond
Galilaei
Galle
Gambart
Gärtner
Gassendi
Gaudibert
Gauricus
Gauss
Gay-Lussac
Geber
Geminus
Gemma Frisius
Gerard
Gioja
Glaisher
Goclenius
Godin
Goldschmidt
Goodacre
Gould
Grimaldi
Grove
Gruemberger
Gruithuisen
Guericke
Gutenberg
Gyldén
Hagecius
Hahn
Haidinger
Hainzel
Hall
Halley
Hanno
Hansen
Hansteen
Harding
Harpalus
Hase
Hecataeus
Heinsius
Heis
Helicon
Hell
Helmholtz
Heraclitus
Hercules
Herigonius
Hermann
Herodotus
Herschel
Hesiodus
Hevelius
Hind
Hippalus
Hipparchus
Holden
Hommel
Hooke
Horrebow
Horrocks
Hortensius
Huggins
Humboldt
Hyginus
Hypatia
Ideler
Inghirami
Isidorus
J. Herschel
Jacobi
Jansen
Janssen
Julius Caesar
Kaiser
Kane
Kant
Kepler
Kies
Kinau
Kirch
Kircher
Kirchhoff
Klaproth
Klein
König
Krafft
Krieger
Krusenstern
Kunowsky
La Caille
La Condamine
La Pérouse
Lacroix
Lacus Mortis
Lacus Somniorum
Lade
Lagalla
Lagrange
Lalande
Lambert
Lamèch
Lamont
Langrenus
Lansberg
Lassell
Lavoisier
Le Gentil
Le Monnier
Le Verrier
Lee
Legendre
Lehmann
Lepaute
Letronne
Lexell
Licetus
Lichtenberg
Lick
Liebig
Lilius
Lindenau
Linné
Lippershey
Littrow
Lockyer
Loewy
Lohrmann
Lohse
Longomontanus
Louville
Lubbock
Lubiniezky
Luther
Lyell
Maclaurin
Macrobius
Mädler
Magelhaens
Maginus
Main
Mairan
Malapert
Mallet
Manilius
Manners
Manzinus
Maraldi
Mare Anguis
Mare Australe
Mare Crisium
Mare Fecunditatis
Mare Frigoris
Mare Humboldtianum
Mare Humorum
Mare Imbrium
Mare Marginis
Mare Nectaris
Mare Nubium
Mare Serenitatis
Mare Smythii
Mare Spumans
Mare Tranquillitatis
Mare Undarum
Mare Vaporum
Marinus
Marius
Marth
Maskelyne
Mason
Maupertuis
Maurolycus
Maury
McClure
Mee
Menelaus
Mercator
Mercurius
Mersenius
Messala
Messier
Metius
Meton
Milichius
Miller
Mitchell
Moigno
Moltke
Monge
Mons Ampère
Mons Argaeus
Mons Hadley
Mons Hadley Delta
Mons La Hire
Mons Pico
Mons Piton
Mons Rümker
Mont Blanc
Montanari
Montes Alpes
Montes Taurus
Montes Teneriffe
Moretus
Mösting
Mouchez
Müller
Murchison
Mutus
Nasireddin
Nasmyth
Naumann
Neander
Nearch
Neison
Neper
Neumayer
Newcomb
Newton
Nicolai
Nicollet
Nöggerath
Nonius
Oceanus Procellarum
Oenopides
Oersted
Oken
Olbers
Opelt
Oppolzer
Orontius
Palisa
Palitzsch
Pallas
Palmieri
Palus Epidemiarum
Palus Putredinis
Palus Somni
Parrot
Parry
Peirce
Peirescius
Pentland
Petavius
Petermann
Peters
Phillips
Philolaus
Phocylides
Piazzi
Piazzi Smyth
Picard
Piccolomini
Pickering
Pictet
Pitatus
Pitiscus
Plana
Plato
Playfair
Plinius
Plutarch
Poisson
Polybius
Pons
Pontanus
Pontécoulant
Posidonius
Prinz
Proclus
Proctor
Promontorium Agarum
Promontorium Agassiz
Promontorium Deville
Promontorium Fresnel
Promontorium Heraclides
Promontorium Kelvin
Promontorium Laplace
Protagoras
Ptolemaeus
Puiseux
Purbach
Pythagoras
Pytheas
Rabbi Levi
Ramsden
Réaumur
Regiomontanus
Regnault
Reichenbach
Reimarus
Reiner
Reiner Gamma
Reinhold
Repsold
Rhaeticus
Rheita
Riccioli
Riccius
Ritchey
Ritter
Robinson
Rocca
Römer
Rosenberger
Ross
Rosse
Rost
Rothmann
Rutherfurd
Sabine
Sacrobosco
Santbech
Sasserides
Saunder
Saussure
Scheiner
Schiaparelli
Schickard
Schiller
Schmidt
Schomberger
Schröter
Schubert
Schumacher
Schwabe
Scoresby
Secchi
Seeliger
Segner
Seleucus
Sharp
Sheepshanks
Short
Shuckburgh
Silberschlag
Simpelius
Sinas
Sinus Aestuum
Sinus Iridum
Sinus Medii
Sinus Roris
Sirsalis
Snellius
Sömmering
Sosigenes
South
Spallanzani
Spörer
Stadius
Steinheil
Stevinus
Stiborius
Stöfler
Strabo
Street
Suess
Sulpicius Gallus
T. Mayer
Tacitus
Tacquet
Tannerus
Taruntius
Taylor
Tempel
Thales
Theaetetus
Thebit
Theon Junior
Theon Senior
Theophilus
Timaeus
Timocharis
Tisserand
Torricelli
Tralles
Triesnecker
Trouvelot
Turner
Tycho
Ukert
Vasco da Gama
Vega
Vendelinus
Vieta
Vitello
Vitruvius
Vlacq
Vogel
W. Bond
Wallace
Walther
Wargentin
Watt
Webb
Weigel
Weinek
Weiss
Werner
Whewell
Wichmann
Wilhelm
Williams
Wilson
Wöhler
Wolf
Wollaston
Wrottesley
Wurzelbauer
Xenophanes
Yerkes
Young
Zach
Zagut
Zeno
Zöllner
Zucchius
Zupus
As noted in the introduction, a much larger number of IAU-approved Greek-lettered peak and Roman-numeraled rille designations were also introduced in Named Lunar Formations, but they were never entered into the computer database from which the present list was drawn.
1948
(from IAU Transactions VII)
Deslandres
1961
(from IAU Transactions XIB)
- For biographical information about the new farside names added in 1961 see Menzel, 1971; Sec. 6
- For corrected positions see Menzel, 1971; Sec. 5
Auzout
Edison
Galvani
Giordano Bruno
Hausen
Henry Frères
Jules Verne
Kästner
Lomonosov
Maclear
Maestlin
Marco Polo
Mare Ingenii
Mare Moscoviense
Maxwell
Mons Bradley
Mons Huygens
Mons Wolff
Montes Apenninus
Montes Carpatus
Montes Caucasus
Montes Cordillera
Montes Haemus
Montes Harbinger
Montes Jura
Montes Pyrenaeus
Montes Recti
Montes Riphaeus
Montes Spitzbergen
Pingré
Promontorium Archerusia
Promontorium Taenarium
Rima Ariadaeus
Rima Hyginus
Rupes Altai
Rupes Recta
Seneca
Tsiolkovskiy
Ulugh Beigh
Vallis Alpes
Vallis Rheita
Vallis Schröteri
Wilkins
1964
(from IAU Transactions XIIB)
- For biographical information about the new names added in 1964 see Menzel, 1971; Sec. 7
[[[Rima%20Schr%C3%B6ter|Rima Schröter]]]
Abel
Amundsen
Aston
Baade
Balboa
Balmer
Banachiewicz
Barnard
Bel'kovich
Bohr
Boltzmann
Boole
Boss
Brianchon
Bunsen
Byrd
Cannon
Cremona
Dalton
De Sitter
Desargues
Drygalski
Dubyago
Eddington
Einstein
Gibbs
Gilbert
Gill
Goddard
Hale
Hamilton
Hartwig
Hayn
Hedin
Hermite
Hubble
Jansky
Jeans
Kapteyn
Krasnov
Lamarck
Lamé
Langley
Lyapunov
Lyot
Mare Cognitum
Mare Orientale
Markov
Montes Rook
Moseley
Nansen
Pascal
Peary
Poncelet
Rayleigh
Riemann
Rima Agatharchides
Rima Archytas
Rima Billy
Rima Birt
Rima Bradley
Rima Calippus
Rima Cardanus
Rima Cauchy
Rima Cleomedes
Rima Conon
Rima Flammarion
Rima Furnerius
Rima G. Bond
Rima Gärtner
Rima Gay-Lussac
Rima Hadley
Rima Hansteen
Rima Hesiodus
Rima Jansen
Rima Marius
Rima Messier
Rima Oppolzer
Rima Réaumur
Rima Schröter
Rima Sharp
Rimae Alphonsus
Rimae Apollonius
Rimae Archimedes
Rimae Aristarchus
Rimae Arzachel
Rimae Atlas
Rimae Bode
Rimae Boscovich
Rimae Bürg
Rimae Chacornac
Rimae Daniell
Rimae Darwin
Rimae de Gasparis
Rimae Doppelmayer
Rimae Fresnel
Rimae Gassendi
Rimae Goclenius
Rimae Grimaldi
Rimae Gutenberg
Rimae Herigonius
Rimae Hevelius
Rimae Hippalus
Rimae Hypatia
Rimae Janssen
Rimae Littrow
Rimae Maclear
Rimae Opelt
Rimae Palmieri
Rimae Parry
Rimae Petavius
Rimae Pitatus
Rimae Plato
Rimae Plinius
Rimae Posidonius
Rimae Prinz
Rimae Ramsden
Rimae Ritter
Rimae Römer
Rimae Sirsalis
Rimae Sosigenes
Rimae Sulpicius Gallus
Rimae Theaetetus
Rimae Triesnecker
Röntgen
Rupes Cauchy
Rupes Kelvin
Rupes Liebig
Russell
Schlüter
Scott
Shaler
Stokes
Struve
Sylvester
Vallis Baade
Vallis Inghirami
Vallis Palitzsch
Vallis Snellius
Volta
Wright
In addition to the formally announced name changes listed here, the IAU approved certain mapping activities of the LPL (the System of Lunar Craters, etc.) and the DMA (the LAC map series). These redefined many of the feature name assignments made in Named Lunar Formations, especially of rilles and lettered craters, as well as adding and deleting others.
1970
(1970 refers to IAU Transactions XIVB, but the definitive list of approved names was not published until 1971. For explanation of names added in 1970 -- mostly on the Moon's farside -- and for biographical information about the persons honored see Menzel, 1971.)
Abbe
Abul Wáfa
Adams
Aitken
Al-Biruni
Alden
Aldrin
Alekhin
Alter
Amici
Anders
Anderson
Antoniadi
Apollo
Appleton
Armstrong
Arrhenius
Artamonov
Artem'ev
Avicenna
Avogadro
Babcock
Backlund
Baldet
Barbier
Barringer
Bartels
Becvár
Becquerel
Beijerinck
Bell
Bellinsgauzen (Bellingshausen)
Belopol'skiy
Belyaev
Bergstrand
Berkner
Berlage
Bhabha
Birkeland
Birkhoff
Bjerknes
Blazhko
Bobone
Bolyai
Borman
Bose
Boyle
Bragg
Brashear
Bredikhin
Bridgman
Brouwer
Brunner
Buffon
Buisson
Butlerov
Buys-Ballot
Cabannes
Cajori
Campbell
Cannizzaro
Cantor
Carnot
Carver
Cassegrain
Catalán
Chaffee
Chamberlin
Champollion
Chandler
Chang Heng
Chant
Chaplygin
Chapman
Chappell
Charlier
Chaucer
Chauvenet
Chebyshev
Chernyshev
Chrétien
Clark
Coblentz
Cockcroft
Collins
Compton
Comrie
Comstock
Congreve
Cooper
Coriolis
Coulomb
Crocco
Crommelin
Crookes
Curie
Cyrano
Daedalus
d'Alembert
Danjon
Dante
Das
Davisson
Dawson
De Forest
De Roy
De Vries
Debye
Dellinger
Delporte
Denning
Deutsch
Dewar
Dirichlet
Donner
Doppler
Douglass
Dreyer
Drude
Dryden
Dufay
Dugan
Dunér
Dyson
Dziewulski
Ehrlich
Eijkman
Einthoven
Ellerman
Ellison
Elvey
Emden
Engel'gardt (Engelhardt)
Eötvös
Erro
Esnault-Pelterie
Espin
Evans
Evdokimov
Evershed
Fabry
Fechner
Fényi
Feoktistov
Fermi
Fersman
Firsov
Fitzgerald
Fizeau
Fleming
Focas
Foster
Fowler
Freundlich
Fridman (Friedmann)
Froelich
Frost
Gadomski
Gagarin
Galois
Gamow
Ganskiy (Hansky)
Ganswindt
Garavito
Gavrilov
Geiger
Gerasimovich
Gernsback
Ginzel
Glazenap
Golitsyn
Golovin
Grachev
Graff
Green
Gregory
Grigg
Grissom
Grotrian
Gullstrand
Gum
Guthnick
Guyot
H. G. Wells
Hagen
Haret
Harriot
Hartmann
Harvey
Hatanaka
Hayford
Healy
Heaviside
Helberg
Henderson
Hendrix
Henry
Henyey
Hertz
Hertzsprung
Hess
Heymans
Hilbert
Hippocrates
Hirayama
Hoffmeister
Hogg
Hohmann
Holetschek
Houzeau
Hutton
Ibn Yunus
Icarus
Idel'son
Ingalls
Innes
Ioffe
Izsak
Jackson
Jenner
Joliot
Joule
Kamerlingh Onnes
Karpinskiy
Kearons
Keeler
Kekulé
Khvol'son
Kibal'chich
Kidinnu
Kimura
King
Kirkwood
Kleymenov
Klute
Koch
Kohlschütter
Kolhörster
Komarov
Kondratyuk
Konstantinov
Kopff
Korolev
Kostinskiy
Kovalevskaya
Koval'skiy
Kramers
Krasovskiy
Krylov
Kugler
Kulik
Kuo Shou Ching
Kurchatov
Lacchini
Lacus Aestatis
Lacus Autumni
Lacus Veris
Lamb
Lampland
Landau
Lane
Langemak
Langevin
Langmuir
Larmor
Laue
Lauritsen
Leavitt
Lebedev
Lebedinskiy
Leeuwenhoek
Leibnitz
Lemaître
Lents (Lenz)
Leonov
Leucippus
Leuschner
Levi-Civita
Lewis
Ley
Lindblad
Litke (Lütke)
Lobachevskiy
Lodygin
Lorentz
Love
Lovelace
Lovell
Lowell
Lucretius
Lundmark
Lyman
Mach
Maksutov
Malyy
Mandel'shtam
Marci
Marconi
Mariotte
Maunder
McKellar
McLaughlin
McMath
McNally
Mechnikov
Mees
Meggers
Meitner
Mendel
Mendeleev
Merrill
Meshcherskiy
Mezentsev
Michelson
Milankovic
Millikan
Mills
Milne
Mineur
Minkowski
Minnaert
Mitra
Möbius
Mohorovicic
Moiseev
Montgolfier
Moore
Morozov
Morse
Moulton
Nagaoka
Nassau
Nernst
Neujmin
Nicholson
Niepce
Nijland
Nikolaev
Nishina
Nobel
Nöther (Noether)
Nusl
Numerov
Obruchev
O'Day
Ohm
Olcott
Omar Khayyam
Oppenheimer
Oresme
Orlov
Ostwald
Paneth
Pannekoek
Papaleksi
Paracelsus
Paraskevopoulos
Parenago
Parkhurst
Parsons
Paschen
Pasteur
Pauli
Pavlov
Pawsey
Pease
Perel'man
Perepelkin
Perkin
Perrine
Petrie
Petropavlovskiy
Petrov
Pettit
Petzval
Pirquet
Pizzetti
Planck
Planitia Descensus
Plummer
Pogson
Poincaré
Poinsot
Polzunov
Popov
Porter
Poynting
Prandtl
Priestley
Purkyne
Quetelet
Racah
Raimond
Ramsay
Rayet
Razumov
Ricco
Riedel
Rittenhouse
Ritz
Roberts
Robertson
Roche
Rowland
Rozhdestvenskiy
Rumford
Rydberg
Rynin
Saenger
Safarík
Saha
Sanford
Sarton
Scaliger
Schaeberle
Schjellerup
Schlesinger
Schliemann
Schneller
Schönfeld
Schorr
Schrödinger
Schuster
Schwarzschild
Seares
Sechenov
Segers
Seidel
Seyfert
Sharonov
Shatalov
Shayn
Shi Shen
Shternberg (Sternberg)
Siedentopf
Sierpinski
Sinus Lunicus
Sisakyan
Sklodowska
Slipher
Smoluchowski
Sniadecki
Sommerfeld
Spencer Jones
St. John
Stark
Statio Tranquillitatis
Stebbins
Stefan
Stein
Steklov
Steno
Stetson
Stoletov
Stoney
Störmer
Stratton
Strömgren
Subbotin
Sumner
Sundman
Swann
Szilard
Teisserenc
Ten Bruggencate
Tereshkova
Tesla
Thiel
Thiessen
Thomson
Tikhomirov
Tikhov
Tiling
Timiryazev
Titius
Titov
Trumpler
Tsander (Zander)
Tseraskiy (Ceraski)
Tsinger (Zinger)
Tsu Chung-Chi
Tyndall
Valier
Vallis Bouvard
Vallis Planck
Vallis Schrödinger
Van de Graaff
Van den Bergh
Van der Waals
Van Gent
Van Maanen
van Rhijn
Van Wijk
van't Hoff
Vashakidze
Vavilov
Vening Meinesz
Ventris
Vernadskiy
Vesalius
Vestine
Vetchinkin
Vil'ev
Volterra
Von der Pahlen
Von Kármán
Von Neumann
Von Zeipel
Voskresenskiy
Walker
Wan-Hoo (Van-Gu)
Waterman
Watson
Weber
Wegener
Wexler
Weyl
White
Wiechert
Wiener
Wilsing
Winkler
Winlock
Woltjer
Wood
Wyld
Yablochkov
Yamamoto
Zeeman
Zelinskiy
Zernike
Zhiritskiy
Zhukovskiy
1971
1973
(from IAU Transactions XVB)
Abbot
Al-Khwarizmi
Apennine Front
Artsimovich
Babakin
Baby Ray
Banting
Bear Mountain
Bench
Block
Bowen
Bowen-Apollo
Brackett
Bridge
Brontë
Cajal
Camelot
Cameron
Carmichael
Cinco
Clerke
Cochise
Cone
Crescent
Curtis
Daly
Daubrée
Dobrovol'skiy
Dorsum Gast
Doublet
Dune
Earthlight
Eckert
Elbow
Emory
End
Falcon
Family Mountain
Fesenkov
Flag
Flank
Fox
Franck
Freud
Galen
Gator
Haldane
Halfway
Halo
Head
Helmert
Hess-Apollo
Hill
Horatio
Hornsby
Houtermans
Humason
Huxley
Index
Joy
Katchalsky
Kiess
Kiva
Knox-Shaw
Kreiken
Lara
Last
Lawrence
Light Mantle
Liouville
Lucian
Ludwig
Mackin
McAdie
McDonald
Middle Crescent
Nansen-Apollo
Nielsen
North Complex
North Massif
North Ray
Nunn
Old Nameless
Palmetto
Patsaev
Peek
Plain
Plum
Powell
Ravine
Rhysling
Runge
Sarabhai
Scarp
Sculptured Hills
Shakespeare
Shapley
Sharp-Apollo
Sherlock
Shorty
Smoky Mountains
Snowman
South Cluster
South Massif
South Ray
Spook
Spot
Spur
Spurr
St. George
Steno-Apollo
Stone Mountain
Stubby
Surveyor
Tacchini
Taurus-Littrow Valley
Tebbutt
Terrace
Theophrastus
Tortilla Flat
Trap
Trident
Triplet
Väisälä
Van Serg
Very
Victory
Volkov
Watts
Weird
Wessex Cleft
West
Widmannstätten
Wreck
Yangel'
Zanstra
Zinner
1976
(from IAU Transactions XVIB)
[[[Eppinger|Eppinger]]]
[[[Sung-Mei|Sung-Mei]]]
Abetti
Acosta
Akis
Alan
Al-Bakri
Al-Marrakushi
Aloha
Ameghino
Ammonius
Amontons
Andronov
Ango
Ann
Annegrit
Anville
Arminski
Artemis
Asada
Atwood
Avery
Back
Balandin
Bancroft
Bawa
Beketov
Béla
Benedict
Bergman
Bilharz
Bingham
Black
Bobillier
Boethius
Bombelli
Borel
Bowditch
Brewster
Carlos
Cartan
Catena Abulfeda
Catena Artamonov
Catena Brigitte
Catena Davy
Catena Dziewulski
Catena Gregory
Catena Humboldt
Catena Krafft
Catena Kurchatov
Catena Mendeleev
Catena Pierre
Catena Sumner
Catena Sylvester
Catena Yuri
Caventou
Chang-Ngo
Charles
Ching-Te
Condon
Courtney
Crile
Ctesibius
Dag
Dale
D'Arsonval
Delia
Dorsa Aldrovandi
Dorsa Andrusov
Dorsa Argand
Dorsa Barlow
Dorsa Burnet
Dorsa Cato
Dorsa Dana
Dorsa Ewing
Dorsa Geikie
Dorsa Harker
Dorsa Lister
Dorsa Rubey
Dorsa Smirnov
Dorsa Sorby
Dorsa Stille
Dorsa Whiston
Dorsum Arduino
Dorsum Azara
Dorsum Bucher
Dorsum Buckland
Dorsum Cayeux
Dorsum Cloos
Dorsum Cushman
Dorsum Grabau
Dorsum Guettard
Dorsum Heim
Dorsum Higazy
Dorsum Nicol
Dorsum Niggli
Dorsum Oppel
Dorsum Owen
Dorsum Scilla
Dorsum Termier
Dorsum Thera
Dorsum Von Cotta
Dorsum Zirkel
Edith
Elmer
Esclangon
Fabbroni
Fahrenheit
Fairouz
Finsch
Fischer
Fredholm
Gardner
Geissler
Glauber
Golgi
Grave
Greaves
Harden
Harold
Heron (Hero)
Hume
Ian
Ibn Battuta
Ibn Firnas
Ibn-Rushd
Isaev
Isis
Ivan
Jehan
Jerik
José
Julienne
Karima
Kathleen
Kira
Kosberg
Krogh
Kuiper
Kundt
Lacus Bonitatis
Lacus Doloris
Lacus Excellentiae
Lacus Felicitatis
Lacus Gaudii
Lacus Hiemalis
Lacus Lenitatis
Lacus Luxuriae
Lacus Oblivionis
Lacus Odii
Lacus Solitudinis
Lacus Spei
Lacus Temporis
Lacus Timoris
Lander
Landsteiner
Leakey
Lebesgue
Lindbergh
MacMillan
Manuel
Mare Insularum
Mary
Mavis
Michael
Moissan
Monira
Mons André
Mons Ardeshir
Mons Dieter
Mons Dilip
Mons Ganau
Mons Gruithuisen Delta
Mons Gruithuisen Gamma
Mons Hansteen
Mons Herodotus
Mons Maraldi
Mons Moro
Mons Penck
Mons Vitruvius
Montes Agricola
Montes Archimedes
Montes Secchi
Morley
Naonobu
Natasha
Necho
Nobili
Norman
Osama
Osiris
Osman
Patricia
Petit
Plaskett
Pomortsev
Priscilla
Pupin
Raman
Rankine
Raspletin
Ravi
Respighi
Richards
Rima Carmen
Rima Cleopatra
Rima Marcello
Rima Reiko
Rima Rudolf
Rima Siegfried
Rima Wan-Yu
Rima Zahia
Rimae Zupus
Robert
Rocco
Rosa
Ruth
Rutherford
Sampson
Santos-Dumont
Scheele
Sherrington
Sinus Amoris
Sinus Asperitatis
Sinus Concordiae
Sinus Fidei
Sinus Honoris
Sita
Slocum
Smithson
Soddy
Somerville
Soraya
Stella
Stewart
Susan
Swasey
Swift
Talbot
Tolansky
Toscanelli
Townley
Vallis Bohr
Vallis Christel
Vallis Krishna
van Albada
Van Biesbroeck
Van Vleck
Vera
Verne
Viviani
Warner
Weierstrass
Winthrop
Wróblewski
Xenophon
Yoshi
Zähringer
Zasyadko
Zsigmondy
1978
1979
(from IAU Transactions XVIIB)
[[[Mons%20Euler|Mons Euler]]]
Alder
Anuchin
Aryabhata
Barkla
Blackett
Bok
Boris
Born
Bronk
Carol
Carrel
Carrillo
Catena Leuschner (GDL)
Catena Lucretius (RNII)
Catena Michelson (GIRD)
Cori
De Moraes
Diana
Diderot
Donna
Dorsa Mawson
Dorsa Tetyaev
Ewen
Fedorov
Felix
Finsen
Gaston
Grace
Guillaume
Hargreaves
Harkhebi
Heinrich
Hopmann
Ina
Isabel
Jomo
Karrer
Kasper
Kepínski
Lacus Perseverantiae
Linda
Lindsay
Lippmann
Lipskiy
Louise
Melissa
Menzel
Mons Agnes
Mons Esam
Mons Usov
Mons Vinogradov
Olivier
Pikel'ner
Planté
Poczobutt
Richardson
Rima Vladimir
Romeo
Sabatier
Samir
Shahinaz
Shirakatsi
Sikorsky
Sinus Successus
Stearns
Taizo
Tamm
Theiler
Tiselius
Tucker
van den Bos
Vertregt
Virchow
Virtanen
von Behring
von Békésy
Wallach
Walter
Wildt
Zwicky
1982
(from IAU Transactions XVIIIB)
Beals
Jenkins
Kao
Keldysh
Recht
1984
1985
(from IAU Transactions XIXB)
[[[Hadley|Hadley]]]
[[[Rima%20Hase|Rima Hase]]]
[[[Rima%20Laplace|Rima Laplace]]]
[[[Rima%20Marco%20Polo|Rima Marco Polo]]]
[[[Rima%20Newcomb|Rima Newcomb]]]
[[[Rima%20Ptolemaeus|Rima Ptolemaeus]]]
[[[Rima%20Widmannstatten|Rima Widmannstatten]]]
[[[Rimae%20Golitsyn|Rimae Golitsyn]]]
[[[Rimae%20Liebig|Rimae Liebig]]]
[[[Rimae%20Stadius|Rimae Stadius]]]
Andersson
Bernoulli
Catena Littrow
Catena Taruntius
Catena Timocharis
Chadwick
Chalonge
Couder
Doerfel
Florensky
Fryxell
Heyrovsky
Il'in
Lallemand
Mons Delisle
Rima Agricola
Rima Artsimovich
Rima Brayley
Rima Dawes
Rima Delisle
Rima Diophantus
Rima Draper
Rima Euler
Rima Galilaei
Rima Krieger
Rima Mairan
Rima Milichius
Rima Sheepshanks
Rima Suess
Rima Sung-Mei
Rima T. Mayer
Rimae Focas
Rimae Gerard
Rimae Hase
Rimae Kopff
Rimae Maestlin
Rimae Maupertuis
Rimae Mersenius
Rimae Pettit
Rimae Repsold
Rimae Riccioli
Rimae Secchi
Rimae Taruntius
Rimae Vasco da Gama
Rupes Boris
Rupes Mercator
Rupes Toscanelli
Shuleykin
Urey
Yakovkin
1988
(from IAU Transactions XXA)
Jarvis
McAuliffe
McNair
Onizuka
Resnik
Scobee
Smith
1991
(from IAU Transactions XXIA)
Blanchard
Bondarenko
Konoplev
Kramarov
Murakami
Pilâtre
Sternfeld
1994
(from IAU Transactions XXIIB)
Ashbrook
Chappe
Faustini
Glushko
Hédervári
Nobile
Rosseland
Shackleton
von Braun
1997
(from IAU Transactions XXIIIB)
Cailleux
Kozyrev
Oberth
2000
(from IAU Transactions XXIVB)
Bliss
de Gerlache
Debus
Harlan
Shoemaker
Sverdrup
2006
(from IAU Transactions XXVIA)
Ryder
+ ~7000 satellite feature names edited from NASA RP-1097 -- many of which had been previously approved in Named Lunar Formations, but never entered in the IAU computer database.
The following names were adopted as dropped features because non-lettered names for these features had been approved subsequent to the Fall, 1982 publication of RP-1097:
[Amundsen A]
[Arrhenius P]
[Barringer L]
[Barringer M]
[Borman A]
[Borman L]
[Borman X]
[Borman Y]
[Borman Z]
[Carver K]
[De Roy X]
[Drude S]
[Drygalski Q]
[Ellerman Q]
[Golitsyn B]
- note: the preceding short list of lettered feature names appearing in RP-1097 that had been subsequently replaced by regular names is not complete, but these are the only ones presently listed as dropped features in the IAU Planetary Gazetteer. RP-1097 also redefined, reassigned and dropped an unknown number of satellite feature names that been been previously approved as part of Named Lunar Formations and/or the System of Lunar Craters. Since only the names and definitions contained in RP-1097 were entered into the database, the earlier designations are not documented there.
2008
(added October 30, 2008)
Haworth
Lenard
2009
(added January 22, 2009)
Aepinus
Bosch
Erlanger
Fibiger
Florey
Gore
Grignard
Haber
Hevesy
Haskin
Houssay
Ibn Bajja
Kocher
Kuhn
Laveran
Nefed'ev
Svedberg
von Baeyer
Wapowski
(added April 17, 2009)
Braude
Hinshelwood
Whipple
(reinstated July 13, 2009)
Euclides D
2010
(added August 2, 2010)
Bi Sheng
Cai Lun
Zhang Yuzhe
2012
(added March 29, 2012)
Lev
(added June 14, 2012)
Albert
Borya
Gena
Igor
Kolya
Kostya
Leonid
Nikolya
Slava
Valera
Vasya
Vitya
Notes
- The list of approval dates through 2008 is based on an Excel-format download of the IAU Planetary Gazetteer on August 1, 2007.
- Not counting the dropped names (listed in square brackets), the approval dates of 1899 names were listed. 21 names have been added since.
- The long list approved in 1935 was the initial nomenclature of the Moon's nearside. The initial list was actually much longer, including many satellite features and peaks and rilles. That portion of the initial list is not given in the on-line Gazetteer because most of these had been dropped before the first Gazetteer was prepared. Such names are found in the on-line version only if the name was latter modified or re-adopted. Many of the initial lettered craters were re-approved in 2006, but not necessarily with their original names or locations.
- The long list of names approved in 1970 includes (but is not limited to) the main intial nomenclature for the Moon's farside. Eighteen other farside names had been previously adopted in 1961 (Whitaker, p. 232).
- A number of the names listed as being approved in 1935 were originally adopted with different spellings (see the Index of Named Lunar Formations).
| Date of Change |
New Spelling |
1935 Spelling |
| 1961 |
Lacaille | |
| 1961 |
Condamine | |
| 1961 |
Lapeyrouse | |
| 1961 |
Legentil | |
| 1961 |
Lemonnier | |
| 1961 |
Leverrier | |
| 1961 |
Ampère | |
| 1961 |
Mount Argaeus | |
| 1961 |
Mount Hadley | |
| 1961 |
Hadley Delta | |
| 1961 |
La Hire | |
| 1961 |
Pico | |
| 1961 |
Piton | |
| 1961 |
Rümker | |
| 1961 |
Alps | |
| 1961 |
Taurus Mountains | |
| 1961 |
Teneriffe Mountains | |
| 1961 |
Promontory Agarum | |
| 1961 |
Promontory Agassiz | |
| 1961 |
Promontory Deville | |
| 1961 |
Promontory Fresnel | |
| 1961 |
Promontory Heraclides | |
| 1961 |
Promontory Kelvin | |
| 1961 |
Promontory Laplace | |
| 2000 |
Walter |
(Note: in addition to spelling changes, Whitaker, p. 235, says the original Brisbane, Le Gentil and Regnault, all listed with an approval date of 1935, were later moved)
- A number of the names listed as being first approved on later dates were actually part of the 1935 nomenclature. The many 1961 approval dates given in the on-line Gazetteer may indicate that changes in spelling or position were made in Table III of G. P. Kuiper's Photographic Lunar Atlas (1960). According to the IAU resolution reproduced on p. 232 of Whitaker, the contents of that Table were approved in 1961 as "corrections" to the IAU's Named Lunar Formations (1935).
| Listed Date |
Listed Name |
1935 Name |
Comment |
| 1970 |
Adams |
additional people honored | |
| 1961 |
Auzout |
||
| 1961 |
Galvani |
moved (Whitaker, p. 235) | |
| 1961 |
Hausen |
moved (Whitaker, p. 235) | |
| 1961 |
half of Frères Henry |
see Henry Frères | |
| 1961 |
Kästner |
||
| 1961 |
Maclear |
||
| 1961 |
Möstlin |
old spelling per LTM | |
| 1961 |
Marco Polo |
moved (Whitaker, p. 235) | |
| 1961 |
Mount Bradley |
||
| 1961 |
Mount Huygens |
||
| 1961 |
Mount Wolff |
"Wolff" moved (Whitaker, p. 235) | |
| 1961 |
Apennines |
||
| 1961 |
Carpathians |
||
| 1961 |
Caucasus |
||
| 1961 |
Cordillera Mountains |
moved (Whitaker, p. 235) | |
| 1961 |
Haemus Mountains |
||
| 1961 |
Harbinger Mountains |
||
| 1961 |
Jura |
||
| 1961 |
Pyrenees |
||
| 1961 |
Straight Range |
||
| 1961 |
Riphaeus |
(had several sub-parts in 1935) | |
| 1961 |
Spitzbergen |
||
| 1961 |
Pingré |
moved (Whitaker, p. 235) | |
| 1961 |
Promontory Archerusia |
||
| 1961 |
Promontory Aenarium |
||
| 1961 |
Ariadaeus Cleft |
||
| 1961 |
Hyginus Cleft |
||
| 1964 |
Rima xxxx |
68 rima + 3 rupes names were approved in 1964, many were listed in 1935 by similar names with Roman numeral designations | |
| 1961 |
Altai Scarp |
||
| 1961 |
Straight Wall |
||
| 1961 |
Seneca |
moved (Whitaker, p. 235) | |
| 1964 |
O. Struve |
Struve had a different meaning in 1935 | |
| 1961 |
Ulugh Beigh |
moved (Whitaker, p. 235) | |
| 1961 |
Alpine Valley |
||
| 1961 |
Rheita Valley |
||
| 1961 |
Schröter's Valley |
||
| 1961 |
Wilkins |
- The farside names Hertz, Kurchatov, Lobachevskiy, Mendeleev, Pasteur, Popov and Tsu Chung-Chi appear in the 1970 approval list; but they had been previously approved, along with eleven other farside names, in 1961. Perhaps the original finding map was too vague to be sure the newly approved features were the same as those originally intended.
- Although they do not appear in the on-line Gazetteer, according to Whitaker (p. 232), the farside names Joliot Curie, Sklodowska-Curie and Montes Sovietici were approved in 1961. These names were apparently later dropped, but in 1970, Joliot was approved for what had initially been Joliot Curie and two large craters in the vicinity of the original Sklodowska-Curie were separately approved as Sklodowska and Curie. Montes Sovietici has not reappeared.
- The Soviet Mountains were named from the high Sun Luna 3 farside images. They are crater rays, not mountains, and hence were quietly dropped. - tychocrater Aug 3, 2007
