Meanings of minor-planet names: 179001–180000
Meanings of minor-planet names: 179001–180000
When a minor planet’s orbit is confirmed, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) assigns it a permanent number. The discoverer can then propose a name, following the IAU’s naming rules. This article covers the minor planets in the 179001–180000 range that have been named and explains what their names mean.
Official explanations for newly named small bodies are approved and published in a bulletin by the IAU’s Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN). Before May 2021, these citations appeared in MPC’s Minor Planet Circulars; more recent ones can also be found in the JPL Small-Body Database (SBDB).
Lutz D. Schmadel compiled many naming notes into the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (DMP) until his death in 2016. He built on Paul Herget’s The Names of the Minor Planets to investigate the origins of many asteroid names, especially those named before World War II. This article draws on that public-domain work.
New namings may only be added to this list after official publication; preannouncements are not permitted. The WGSBN provides the full guidelines for naming non-cometary small Solar System bodies.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 15:42 (CET).