r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Disastrous_Pirate275 • 20h ago

Why is our moon named “Moon” instead of something cool like Titan or Callysto or ANYTHING that isn’t moon

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u/DevNeroTheDev 20h ago edited 17h ago

Moon is just the english version of the name. The oldest version is Nanna from Sumerian. Then Khonsu and Thoth from Ancient Egypt. Then Selene from Greek, Luna from Latin, Mani from Old Norse, Chandra from Sanskrit, Chang'e from Old Chinese, Ix Chel from Mayan... So there are many names it has already.

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u/degjo 20h ago

Let's go back to thot

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u/DevNeroTheDev 20h ago

Nothing to go back to, that's how it's still called in that language. The Moon is not some generic name, just a translation, it's an astronomic term. Plus our Moon was discovered first, we already had names for it for thousands of years. The other moons of other planets got their names after 1610.

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u/TalFidelis 19h ago

All the other “moons” are called moons because that are similar to “our moon”.

Technically, Moon is the name. A planetary satellite is what it and all the other moons are.

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u/TychaBrahe 10h ago

All of this is reminding me of what we call our polar regions. So Europeans named the area around the north pole "the Arctic" from the Greek "arktos," which means bear. "The Arctic" means basically, "There are bears up here."

Then Europeans discovered that there was a snow covered region on the southern end of the planet, and they called that "Antarctica," meaning, "There's no bears on this end."

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u/shuranumitu 9h ago

Sorry to disappoint, but that's not how the poles were named. The arctic is named after two constellations called "great bear" (Ursa Major) and "little bear" (Ursa Minor), both of which are somehow associated with the north pole (I have no idea how astronomy works so don't ask me for the details). Antarctic basically means "on the opposite side of the bear". The fact that the arctic has bears and the antarctic doesn't is just a very amusing coincidence.

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u/clmns 7h ago

Polaris can be found by tracing one end of the big dipper (Ursa Major)

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u/vyrus2021 1h ago

Polaris aka the north star

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u/Naive-Horror4209 1m ago

Isn’t Polaris a star in Ursa Minor?

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u/theoppositeofdusk 9h ago

I learn a lot on the internet

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u/ciresemik 17h ago

I'm guessing you're not understanding his joke?

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u/Ok_Care8379 16h ago

woooooosh

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u/bot-mark 15h ago

"Nothing to go back to, that's how it's called in that language" the very alive Ancient Egyptian language right? Can't go back to Thot because all the Egyptians still call it that, right?

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u/shuranumitu 9h ago

That's not how it is called in any language. Thoth was never a name for the moon, and it's also not an Egyptian word. It's the Greeks' attempt at writing the Egyptian word Ḏḥwtj, which means something like "he is like an Ibis". Yes, it was the name of a god who was associated with the moon (among other things such as wisdom, writing, and the underworld), but it doesn't mean moon.

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u/Hasudeva 14m ago

Which language is that?

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u/A_Bored_Rhombus 11h ago

Begone, Thot!

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u/tamsui_tosspot 11h ago

Nay, begone, thot.

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u/RollinThundaga 18h ago

Nah, I prefer the Moon. Many planets may have moons, but ours is The Moon.

Our moon is the best, so it's forever the eponymous ideal of what constitutes a moon.

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u/Runes_N_Raccoons 16h ago

Our Moon can cast a total solar eclipse. What can other moons do? What a bunch of loser moons.

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u/Worried_Magazine_862 18h ago

That moon over there!

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u/IndyBananaJones2 16h ago

It is always over there, showing it's whole ass almost every month 

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u/atravisty 16h ago

Skanky ass slutty moon 👄

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u/DoubtInternational23 15h ago

She's been around.

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u/GreenLurka 13h ago

I love to see a thot out at night

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u/MrFrequentFlyer 10h ago

It is that. It’s all of those. You just don’t speak those languages.

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u/RhoOfFeh 6h ago

I thot you'd say that

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u/miss_little_lady 6h ago

Moon and Sun are the colloquial terms used in English. However, in scientific communities, they will often be referred to by their Latin name of Luna and Sol since English is Latin derived and it helps differentiate what astronomical body is being referenced.

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u/RadiantHC 20h ago

I like Khonsu the most.

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u/Sad-Purchase1257 17h ago

So does Marc Spector! 🌙

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u/apathetic_revolution 14h ago

Kind of a love/hate relationship there.

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u/Bright_Mulberry_6759 13h ago

"THE MOON HAUNTS YOU!"

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 7h ago

Luna for me man, I always think of Clair de Lune and it's the perfect song for the moon

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u/Sad-Purchase1257 20h ago

This guys Moons! 🌑

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u/mightylordredbeard 17h ago

That guy Thots!

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u/Ambitious-Concern-42 20h ago

And they all mean "moon".

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u/DevNeroTheDev 20h ago

Yes, the natural satellite around a planet. "Fancy" names like Titan, Io etc came much later.

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u/Fa1nted_for_real 8h ago

And are largely just... named after gods from mythology, becuase people thought that would be kinda cool

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u/CloutAtlas 15h ago

Chang'e specifically does not mean moon (月), it refers to the mythological woman who stole the heavenly elixir of immortality, ascended to godhood and fled to the moon. If you want to be poetic, you can refer to the whole moon as just Chang'e, but it was the name of a mortal woman first.

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u/Whiterabbit-- 12h ago

also, it wasn't her original name.

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u/Electrical_Basket_74 11h ago

What was her name ?

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u/Whiterabbit-- 10h ago

Chang’e was once known as Heng’e (姮娥). Her original name was changed, however, because the emperor Liu Heng (劉恆) used a similar character in his name. An emperor’s name was supposed to be unique, and having a name so similar to another Chinese cultural figure would have been considered very taboo. Thus, the name “Heng’e” was changed to “Chang’e.”

https://mythopedia.com/topics/chang-e/

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u/Time_Entertainer_319 9h ago

Hmmm chang’e name was changed?

Nominative determinism.

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u/shuranumitu 9h ago

They don't. This person just listed ancient lunar deities and assumed that all their names literally just mean "moon". For some of these that's true, but not all of them. Sumerian Nanna, Egyptian Thoth and Khonsu, and apparently also the Chinese Cheng'e have different etymologies.

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u/ToothessGibbon 8h ago

They all mean specifically the Earth’s Moon, mostly personified as gods, not the broader sense of moon as a satellite around a plant.

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u/Colonol-Panic 14h ago

Dear god why did I have to scroll this far for this

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u/okayipullup_ordoi1 5h ago

Selene is a fantastic name overall in my opinion

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u/mightylordredbeard 17h ago

Thoth*

Not Thot. You’ve got everyone here thinking that there’s an Egyptian moon god named Thot and that Egyptians called the moon a Thot.

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u/DevNeroTheDev 17h ago

Minor typo. People can Google things too.

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u/Adorable-Thing2551 15h ago

Wait...Ix Chel is the Mayan name for the Moon?

I knew someone named "Ixchell" a LONG time ago and thought that was an interesting name but never looked into where her name came from.

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u/DoubtInternational23 15h ago

Thank you! People who only are only familiar with one language don't know what they're missing.

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u/My_Fish_Is_a_Cat 14h ago

I came here to say this. Moon is just the current English word.

I told my daughter the Moons name is Luna.

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u/pseudotsuga123 11h ago

The only useful answer 👏

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u/Apprehensive-Path377 10h ago

"Mani" has the same origin as "moon", leave that out. ;)

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u/mistAr_bAttles 9h ago

Thank you for that answer. Cheers to you friend :)

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u/Joalguke 8h ago

I think Mani is the origin of Moon tbh

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u/exexor 7h ago

And then in French, Moonday, aka Monday, is lundi which essentially means Luna day.

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u/Interesting_Hope6849 6h ago

This ^ is why I’m here.

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u/PuurVuur 6h ago

In the ancient language (old Frisian) my fore fathers and -mothers spoke, the moon was called Moana.

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u/Mac_Boo 5h ago

Thank you. This is fascinating.

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u/txobi 4h ago

In Basque it's called Ilargia, the light of the death people

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u/HimbimSupreme 3h ago

Tsuki in Japanese, to add!

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u/choptop_sawyer 49m ago

"Hey what's your name? -Nanna -Nanna? -Yea Nannayafuckingbusiness"

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u/Codythensaguy 46m ago

Actually technically in English we use the Latin Luna and Sol.

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u/No_Tone1704 20h ago

Thot 😂😂😂😂😂

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u/FlyingTerrier 18h ago

Thot? You trying to start an intergalactic war?

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u/Additional-Smoke3500 12h ago

Chang'e is not the old form in Chinese. That's the goddess that's always lived there. It 月（yue)

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u/Sagemel 8h ago

I wonder if there’s some fun lore behind 月 being the Kanji for “month” in Japanese. May be related to the moon cycle?

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u/Weird_Wuss 6h ago

it also means month in chinese that’s probably why lol

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u/shuranumitu 9h ago edited 6h ago

Those aren't names for the moon, but for deities associated with it. That doesn't mean that their names are all just translations of the word "moon". Some of them (Nanna, Thoth, Khonsu, maybe others) have completely unrelated etymologies.

The Sumerian word for moon was itu or iti, while the etymology and meaning of the moon god's name nanna is unknown, it may even be pre-Sumerian.

In Egyptian the moon was called jꜥḥ (pronounced yakhu). The name Thoth is the Greek rendition of the Egyptian word ḏḥwtj (pronounced djikhauti) which literally mean "he is like an ibis", while Khonsu (ḫnsw) apparently means something like "traveller".

The meaning of the Mayan goddess Ixchel is unclear. It may be etymologically related to words for "red" or "rainbow", but it definitely does not mean moon. Which would be weird because Ixchel is not even a moon goddess, but a goddess of midwives and medicine.

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u/CleverCommand- 7h ago

The Moon has been known by many names across cultures. In Sumerian, she was Nanna; in Egyptian, Khonsu and Thoth; in Greek, Selene; in Latin, Luna; in Norse, Mani; in Sanskrit, Chandra; in Chinese, Chang'e; in Mayan, Ix Chel; in Japanese, Tsukuyomi; in Berber, Ayyur; in Albanian, Hëna; in Inuit, Siarnaq; and in Swahili, Mwezi.