Meanings of minor planet names

This is a list of minor planets which have been officially named by the Minor Planet Center (MPC). The list consists of partial pages, each covering a number range of 1000 bodies citing the source after each minor planet was named for. An overview of all existing partial pages is given in section § Index.

Among the hundreds of thousands of numbered minor planets only a small fraction have received a name so far. As of 2020, there are more than 22,000 named minor planets out of a total of half a million numbered ones (also see List of minor planets § Main index as numbers increase constantly).[1] Most of these bodies are named for people, in particular astronomers, as well as figures from mythology and fiction. Many minor planets are also named after places such cities, towns and villages, mountains and volcanoes; after rivers, observatories, as well as organizations, clubs and astronomical societies. Some are named after animals and plants. A few minor planets are named after exotic entities such as supercomputers or have an unknown origin .

The first few thousand minor planets have all been named, with the Jupiter trojan (3708) 1974 FV1 currently being the lowest-numbered unnamed minor planet.[2] The first 3 pages in the below table contain 1,000 named entries each. The first 13 and 33 pages contain at least 500 and 100 named entries each, respectively. The first range to contain no entries is 122001–123000. There are also several name conflicts with other astronomical objects, mostly with planetary satellites and among themselves.

Following a proposal of the discovering astronomer, new minor planet names are published in MPC's Minor Planet Circulars on a monthly basis. The MPC applies a set of rules for naming minor planets. These range from syntax restrictions to non-offensive meanings. Over the years the rules have changed several times. In the beginning, for example, most minor planets were named after female characters from Greek and Roman mythology.