List of proper names of stars

Of the roughly 10,000 stars visible to the naked eye, only a few hundred have been given proper names in the history of astronomy. Traditional astronomy tends to group stars into constellations or asterisms and give proper names to those, not to individual stars. Many star names are, in origin, descriptive of the part in the constellation they are found in; thus Phecda, a corruption of Arabic (, 'thigh of the bear'). Only a handful of the brightest stars have individual proper names not depending on their asterism; so Sirius ('the scorcher'), Antares ('rival of Ares', i.e., red-hued like Mars), Canopus (of uncertain origin), Alphard ('the solitary one'), Regulus ('kinglet'); and arguably Aldebaran ('the follower' [of the Pleiades]) and Procyon ('preceding the dog' [Sirius]). The same holds for Chinese star names, where most stars are enumerated within their asterisms, with a handful of exceptions such as ('weaving girl') (Vega). In addition to the limited number of traditional star names, there were some coined in modern times, e.g. "Avior" for Epsilon Carinae (1930), and a number of stars named after people (mostly in the 20th century). ==IAU catalog==

In 2016, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) Since 2024, newly approved names have appeared on the exopla.net website maintainted by the WGSN. , 85 new star names have been approved, bringing the total to 556. ==List==

In the table below, unless indicated by a "†", the "modern proper name" is the name approved by the WGSN and entered in the List of IAU-approved Star Names Names marked with a "†" have not been approved by the IAU. For such names relating to members of multiple-star systems, and where a component letter (from, e.g., the Washington Double Star Catalog) is not explicitly listed, the WGSN says that the name should be understood to be attributed to the visually brightest component. In the "Historical names/comments" column, "NameExoWorlds [year]" denotes that the name was approved by the IAU as a consequence of that year's NameExoWorlds campaign. } ==See also==