List of names for the Milky Way

This list of names for the Milky Way are in various languages. Some of them derive from myths, which can be found at Milky Way (mythology).

Before galaxies in the modern sense were discovered, in Europe "the Galaxy" was another name for the Milky Way.

List of names in various languages
  • Afrikaans: Melkweg "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Apulian: Strascine de Sande Jàchepe "St. James' trail"
  • Arabic: درب التبانة‎ darb at-tabbāna "Haymakers' Way" (classical)
  • Arabic: درب اللبانة‎ darb al-labbāna "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Armenian: Հարդագողի ճանապարհ hardagoghi chanaparh "Straw Thief's Way", from a myth.[1]
  • Akkadian: ṣerret šamê "the snake of the skies"[2]
  • Basque: Esne bidea, translated from Latin
  • Belarusian: Млечны Шлях "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Berber languages:
    • Kabyle: Asif n igenwan The heavens river
    • Tamashek: ⵎⵂⵍⵍⴰⵡ (mehellaw)
    • Tasusit: ⴰⵖⴰⵔⴰⵙ ⵏ ⵡⴰⵍⵉⵎ (agharas n walim) "Haymakers Way"
  • Belarusian: Птушыная дарога "Way of the Birds"
  • Bengali: ছায়াপথ Chāy.āpath "Shadow Path"/"Reflected Path"
  • Bengali: আকাশগঙ্গা Ākāśagaŋgā "Ganges of the Aether (Upper Sky)", from a Hindu myth
  • Bosnian: Mliječni Put, "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Bulgarian: Млечен Път, "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Catalan: Via Làctia "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Catalan: Camí de Sant Jaume, "The Road to Santiago"
  • Chechen: Ça Taxina Taça "the route of scattered straw"
  • Cherokee: ᎩᎵ ᎤᎵᏒᏍᏓᏅᏱ, romanized: Gili Ulisəsdanəyi, lit. 'The Way the Dog Ran Away', from a myth
  • Chinese: 銀河 (Yínhé) "Silver River"
  • Chuvash: Хуркайӑк ҫулӗ "Way of the Gray goose"
  • Cornish: Hyns Sen Jamys "Saint James Way"[3]
  • Croatian: Mliječna Staza "Milky Way", translated from Latin.
  • Croatian: Kumova slama Godfather's straw (traditional.)
  • Czech: Mléčná dráha "Milky Way", translated from Greek or Latin
  • Danish: Mælkevejen "The Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Dutch: Melkweg "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • English: Milky Way, translated from Latin[4]
  • Erzya: Каргонь ки "Way of the Crane"
  • Estonian: Linnutee "Way of Birds", from a myth
  • Finnish: Linnunrata "Way of Birds", from a myth
  • Faroese: Vetrarbreytin "The Winter Way"
  • French: La Voie Lactée "The Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Galician: Via Láctea "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Galician: Camiño de Santiago, "The Road to Santiago"
  • Georgian: ირმის ნახტომი, irmis nakhtomi "The Deer's Leap"
  • German: Milchstraße "Milky Way"
  • Gujarati: આકાશગંગા Ākāśagaṃgā "Ganges of the Aether (Upper Sky)", from a Hindu myth[1]
  • Greek: Γαλακτικός κύκλος Galaktikos Kyklos "Milky Circle", from a myth
  • Hawaiian: Hōkū-noho-aupuni "the ruling star"[5]
  • Hawaiian: Iʻa "fish"[5]
  • Hawaiian: Iʻa-lele-i-aka "fish jumping in shadows"[5]
  • Hawaiian: Kau[5]
  • Hawaiian: Lālani[5]
  • Hawaiian: Lele-aka[5]
  • Hawaiian: Leleiona "shark-sucker"[5]
  • Hebrew: נהר די נור‎ "Fire Stream"/"River of Light", from the Bible
  • Hebrew: שביל החלב‎ "The Milky Way"
  • Hindi: आकाशगंगा Ākāśagaṃgā, from a Hindu myth[1]
  • Hungarian: Hadak Útja "The Road of the Warriors", from a myth (historical)
  • Hungarian: Tejút "Milky Way" , Translated from Latin
  • Icelandic: Vetrarbrautin "The Winter Way"
  • Irish: Bealach na Bó Finne "The Fair Cow's Path"
  • Irish: Claí Mór na Réaltaí "Great Fence of the Stars"
  • Irish: Slabhbra Luigh "Lugh's Chain"
  • Indonesian: Bima Sakti "Magic Bhima", a character from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata
  • Italian: Via Lattea "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Japanese: 天の川 Ama no Gawa "River of Heaven"
  • Kannada: ಆಕಾಶಗಂಗಾ "Ganges of the Aether (Upper Sky)"
  • Kashubian: Mlécznô Droga "The Milky Way"
  • Kashubian: Ptôszô Droga "The Bird's Path"
  • Korean: 은하수 eunhasu "Silver River", from Chinese 銀河水
  • Korean: 미리내 (mirinae, Dragon's River) in pure Korean.
  • Korean: 우리은하 uri eunha, "Our Galaxy"
  • Kurdish: kadiz‎ "Straw Thief"
  • Latin: Via Lactea "Milky Way", translated from Greek
  • Latvian: Putnu Ceļš, The Birds' Path
  • Lojban: barda tarci bo girzu, "large-star group"
  • Lithuanian: Paukščių Takas, The Birds' Path
  • Malay: Bima Sakti, a character from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata
  • Malayalam: ആകാശഗംഗ "Ganges of the Aether (Upper Sky)", from a Hindu myth
  • Malayalam: ക്ഷീരപഥം "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Malayalam: പാലാഴി "Sea of Milk" (alternative)
  • Macedonian: Млечен Пат "Milky Way"
  • Mongolian: Сүүн зам "Milky Way", translated from Greek
  • Maltese: Triq Sant' Anna, "St Anne's way"
  • Meadow Mari: Кайыккомбо корно, "Way of the Gray goose"
  • Mingrelian: მეშხურეშ შარა meshkhuresh shara "The Shepherd's Road"
  • Norwegian: Melkeveien "The Milky Way" (Bokmål, comes from Danish)
  • Norwegian: Vinterbrauta "The Winter Way" (Nynorsk, related to Icelandic)
  • Persian: كهكشان‎ Kehkashan "Straw-drawing" (traditional)
  • Persian: راه شیری‎ Rah-e Shiri "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Polish: Droga Mleczna "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Portuguese: Via Láctea "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Portuguese: Estrada de Santiago "The Road of Santiago"
  • Romanian: Calea Lactee "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Romanian: Calea Robilor or Drumul Robilor ("The Road of the Slaves")[6]
  • Russian: Млечный путь "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Sanskrit: मंदाकिनी Maṃdākinī, "the calm or unhurried one (feminine)" in Vedic, personal name of Ākāśagaṃgā (see Bengali, Gujarati,Marathi and Hindi)[7]
  • Sanskrit: अर्यम्णः पन्थाः Aryamṇáḥ Pánthāḥ, "Aryaman's Path"
  • Sardinian: Sa bia de sa paza "the Way of Straw"
  • Scottish Gaelic: Slighe Chlann Uisnich "the path of the children of Uisneach" from Celtic mythology
  • Serbian: Kumova slama "Kum's straw", from Serbian folk myth
  • Serbian: Кумова слама "Kum's straw", from Serbian folk myth
  • Slovak: Mliečna dráha "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Slovene: Rimska cesta "The Roman Road", because pilgrims followed it when traveling to Rome
  • Spanish: Via láctea "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Spanish: Compostela "Field of Stars", originally from Latin
  • Spanish: Camino de Santiago "The Road to Santiago"
  • Swedish: Vintergatan "Winter Street", from an old myth
  • Classical Syriac: ܐܘܼܪܚܵܐ ܕܓܹܢܵ̈ܒ݂ܹܐ‎ "The Road of Thieves"[8]
  • Tamil: பால் வழி Pāl Vaļi "Milky Way", translated from Latin
  • Telugu: పాల పుంత Pāla Puṃta
  • Thai: ทางช้างเผือก "The way of the white elephant"
  • Turkish: Samanyolu "Road of Straw"
  • Ukrainian: Чумацький шлях "Chumaks' Road"
  • Vietnamese: Ngân Hà "Silver River", translated from Chinese
  • Võro: Tsirgurada "Way of Birds", from a myth
  • Welsh: Llwybr Llaethog "Milky Way", translated from the Latin
  • Welsh: Caer Wydion "The Fort of Gwydion"

Aboriginal Australian languages

The Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia called the Milky Way wodliparri in the Kaurna language, meaning "house river".[9]

Common names

Birds' Path

The name "Birds' Path" is used in several Uralic and Turkic languages and in the Baltic languages. Northern peoples observed that migratory birds follow the course of the galaxy[10] while migrating at the Northern Hemisphere. The name "Birds' Path" (in Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Bashkir and Kazakh) has some variations in other languages, e.g. "Way of the grey (wild) goose" in Chuvash, Mari and Tatar and "Way of the Crane" in Erzya and Moksha.

Milky Way

Many European languages have borrowed, directly or indirectly, the Greek name for the Milky Way, including English and Latin.

Road to Santiago

The Milky Way was traditionally used as a guide by pilgrims traveling to the holy site at Compostela, hence the use of "The Road to Santiago" as a name for the Milky Way.[4] Curiously, La Voje Ladee "The Milky Way" was also used to refer to the pilgrimage road.[11]

Ganges of the Sky

The Sanskrit name "Ganges of the Sky" (आकाशगंगा Ākāśagaṃgā) is used in many Indian languages following a Hindu myth.

Silver River

The Chinese name "Silver River" (銀河) is used throughout East Asia, including Korea and Vietnam. In Japan and Korea, "Silver River" 銀河 (Ginga) means galaxies in general.

River of Heaven

The Japanese name for the Milky Way is the "River of Heaven" (天の川), as well as an alternative name in Chinese (Chinese: 天河; pinyin: Tiān hé).

Straw Way

In a large area from Central Asia to Africa, the name for the Milky Way is related to the word for straw. It has been suggested that the term was spread by Arabs who in turn borrowed it from Armenia.[12]

Walsingham Way

In England the Milky Way was called the Walsingham Way in reference to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham which is in Norfolk, England. It was understood to be either a guide to the pilgrims who flocked there, or a representation of the pilgrims themselves.[13]

Winter Street

Scandinavian peoples, such as Swedes, have called the galaxy Winter Street (Vintergatan) as the galaxy is most clearly visible during the winter at the northern hemisphere, especially at high latitudes where the glow of the Sun late at night can obscure it during the summer.

References
  1. Toivanen, Sampsa; Sipilä, Heikki. "What is the Milky Way called in different languages?". Archived from the original on 25 September 2006. Retrieved 6 January 2007.
  2. Sureth Dictionary. "Milky Way". www.assyrianlanguages.org. Association Assyrophile de France. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  3. "Cornish Dictionary". Cornish Language Partnership. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  4. Macleod, Fiona (1911). Where the forest murmurs. New York: Duffield & Company. Chapter 21: Milky Way. Archived from the original on 17 February 2007.
  5. "Nā Puke Wehewehe ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi". wehewehe.org. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  6. "lactee". Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii române (in Romanian). Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică "Iorgu Iordan", Editura Univers Enciclopedic. 1988.
  7. HRODRIGUES. "GANGA: GODDESS AND SACRED RIVER". Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  8. Sureth dictionary. "Milky Way". www.assyrianlanguages.org. Association Assyrophile de France. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  9. "Reconciliation". Adelaide City Council. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  10. ^ Sauer, EGF (July 1971). "Celestial Rotation and Stellar Orientation in Migratory Warblers". Science 30: 459–461.
  11. "The Pilgrim's Way: El Camino de Santiago". Archived from the original on 17 December 2006. Retrieved 6 January 2007.
  12. Harutyunyan, Hayk (29 August 2003). "The Armenian name of the Milky Way". ArAS News. Armenian Astronomical Society (ArAS). 6. Archived from the original on 29 April 2006. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
  13. Bogle, Joanna. "A Pilgrimage to Walsingham, 'England's Nazareth'". National Catholic Register. EWTN. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
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