What gods are the planets of our solar system, except for Earth, named after?

All of the planets, except for Earth, were named after Roman gods and goddesses.

Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus and Mercury were given their names thousands of years ago. Those were the planets that the ancient Romans could see in the sky without a telescope.

The other planets in our solar system were not discovered until much later, when telescopes were invented. Even then, the tradition of naming the planets after Roman gods and goddesses continued.

Most of the moons and some asteroids are also named after the critters and creatures and gods and goddesses found in Roman mythology. Some of the constellations in our solar system are named after Roman gods as well.

The name 'Earth' is an English/German name which simply means the ground. It comes from the Old English words 'eor(th)e' and 'ertha'. In German it is 'erde'. The name Earth is at least 1000 years old.

More Info: rome.mrdonn.org

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56 Comments

Margaret O'Neill

It is both Roman AND Greek!!

Pierre Poirier

To those saying it is named for both Roman and Greeks gods. Not so. Jupiter maybe the equivalent of the greek god Zeus. But the planet is named Jupiter, not Zeus

Stevie G

The correct answer is Greek and Roman God's.

Micheline Ratcliffe

Steve Grant, plurals don't have an apostrophe unless of course you meant to say "Greek and Roman Gods' names" and forgot to add the word 'names'. The misuse of the saxon genitive is a mystery to me. I don't understand why people don't understand this simple rule. "The boy's books are on the desk" and if there are more than one boy it becomes "the boys' books are on the desk".

✨KRISTA✨

But, the source used by this author indicates that the planets "are" named after Roman Gods. The planet Uranus, is named after an ancient Greek king of the Gods. I don't know 🤔 whether this king was a God or not. Neptune and Pluto are named after Greek Gods.