And so it begins again. With a new year and a new month comes another sensational blog post about a tour that nobody on our planet has ever requested. Yes, Some Geek Told Me’s Tour of the Solar System is back!

We are entering the third year of the tour, and this is our 19th stop. Amazingly, the tour is still ongoing, though I can’t understand why given my writing skills. If you missed the previous entries, don’t worry! Here’s a helpful list of important tour stops:

1.) Meet the Family

2.) The Sun

3.) Planets vs. Dwarf planets

4.) Mercury

5.) Venus

6.) Earth

7.) The Moon

8.) Mars

9.) The Asteroid Belt

10.) Ceres

11.) Jupiter

12.) The Galilean moons

13.) Saturn

14.) Titan

15.) The Moons of Saturn

16.) Uranus

17.) Titania

18.) The Moons of Uranus

Now some of you good people would have noticed that we are sitting at an unusual junction, since we don’t have three entries related to a single planet, but four. I know, it’s odd. Saturn was our last planet, which covered Saturn, Titan, and the Moons of Saturn.

However, Uranus is sick of being in their big sibling’s shadow and has demanded an additional entry to accompany the blog posts of Uranus, Titania, and the Moons of Uranus.

And if you’ve got eyes like Sherlock Holmes or Batman, you would have also noticed that this is the third entry concerning the Moons of Uranus. No, I haven’t run out of ideas yet. It’s just that the Moons of Uranus need an additional entry, in my biased and humble opinion.

I have waffled on about this before, so today, I want to expand upon it, mainly because when it comes to bad ideas, I’m extremely well-versed in them. So have your cameras ready, because we are going to be discussing the names of the Moons of Uranus. Booyakasha!

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You could be reading this blog post on the bus, at home, at work, or standing in line to purchase some glorious Salt and Vinegar chips, but you would be guilty of thinking of one question; no, not that one. Yes, that one. What is so special about the Moons of Uranus? It’s a fair question, so your mother would be proud of you.

Not only does Uranus belong to several social clubs like the gas giants, planets with rings, and ultracold, but it also belongs to another selective group. In this case, it has multiple natural satellites or moons. Uranus has 28 known moons, and they are all different and unique, whether it’s their size, shape, rotation, or composition.

I apologise if I’m repeating myself, but I want to highlight what makes the moons of Uranus unique compared to other moons in the Solar System. Unlike most moons, which are named after deities from Roman or Greek mythology, the moons of Uranus have different origins for their names. Even our own Moon has a name that sounds like it came from a group of astronomers who got drunk at a meeting.

No, the Moons of Uranus, which are also known as the Literary Moons of Uranus, are named after characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope, both literary geniuses in their own way.

With Shakespeare, 24 characters from several of his plays have had moons named after them in the Uranian system. As for Pope, his contribution to the naming process lies in his poem called, The Rape of the Lock. First published in 1712, it contains three characters that have moons named after them.

The trend started with John Herschel, who was by all accounts, an overachiever. He was the son of William Herschel, the astronomer who discovered Uranus, Titania and Oberon, and made other astronomical observations and discoveries. Titania and Oberon were discovered in 1787 but did not receive names until 1852.

Since then, the trend for naming Uranian moons after literary characters, instead from Roman or Greek mythology caught on, and for over 150 years, people have still been doing it to maintain the tradition.

In my infinite wisdom and because I like data, I’ve decided to present these moons in a table, to best represent how amazing, cool, and a little nerdy, these moons actually are. I’ve ranked them by the order they were discovered in. Enjoy!

Name of Moon	Year of discovery	Source of name	Name of work	Who the character is
Titania	1787	William Shakespeare	A Midsummer Night’s Dream	Queen of the Fairies
Oberon	1787	William Shakespeare	A Midsummer Night’s Dream	King of the Fairies
Ariel	1851	Alexander Pope	The Rape of the Lock & The Tempest	An airy spirit & a spirit in service to Prospero
Umbriel	1851	Alexander Pope	The Rape of the Lock	The chief gnome
Miranda	1948	William Shakespeare	The Tempest	Daughter to Prospero
Puck	1985	William Shakespeare	A Midsummer Night’s Dream	Oberon’s knavish sprite
Cordelia	1986	William Shakespeare	King Lear	Lear’s youngest daughter
Ophelia	1986	William Shakespeare	Hamlet	Polonius’ daughter
Bianca	1986	William Shakespeare	The Taming of the Shrew	Sister of Katherina
Cressida	1986	William Shakespeare	Troilus and Cressida	Calchas’ daughter
Desdemona	1986	William Shakespeare	Othello	Othello’s wife
Juliet	1986	William Shakespeare	Romeo and Juliet	The 13-year-old daughter of Capulet, is the play’s female protagonist
Portia	1986	William Shakespeare	The Merchant of Venice	A rich heiress; later the wife of Bassanio
Rosalind	1986	William Shakespeare	As You Like It	Duke Senior’s daughter
Belinda	1986	Alexander Pope	The Rape of the Lock	A young lady with beautiful hair and the victim of a vile crime
Caliban	1997	William Shakespeare	The Tempest	An enslaved servant of Prospero
Sycorax	1997	William Shakespeare	The Tempest	A witch and the mother of Caliban
Perdita	1999	William Shakespeare	The Winter’s Tale	The daughter of Leontes and Hermione, unaware of her royal lineage
Stephano	1999	William Shakespeare	The Tempest	The King’s drunken butler
Prospero	1999	William Shakespeare	The Tempest	The rightful Duke of Milan and a magician
Setebos	1999	William Shakespeare	The Tempest	The deity purportedly worshipped by the witch Sycorax
Francisco	2001	William Shakespeare	The Tempest	A lord serving under Alonso
Trinculo	2001	William Shakespeare	The Tempest	The King’s jester
Ferdinand	2001	William Shakespeare	The Tempest	Alonso’s son
Cupid	2003	William Shakespeare	Timon of Athens	The Roman God of desire, erotic love, attraction, and affection
Mab	2003	William Shakespeare	Romeo and Juliet	The queen of the fairies
Margaret	2003	William Shakespeare	Much Ado About Nothing	Waiting-gentlewoman attendant on Hero
S/2023 U 1	2023	This moon is not named yet

As you can see, The Tempest wins the award for the most characters named after moons, though I’m not sure what the prize is. I bet Shakespeare has been pointing that out to Kit Marlowe.

Also, S/2023 U 1 was only discovered in November 2023, and to my best understanding, it has not been given an official name yet. Whether the name comes from The Rape of the Lock or one of Shakespeare’s plays, we will just have to wait and see.

What’s your favourite Moon of Uranus or literary character on the list? As always, please let me know. That’s another blog for another week. Thanks again for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. I’m still on Twitter and Mastodon, posting daily things about different subjects, but I do love #FactsMatter.

Please don’t forget to walk your dog, read a banned book, look out for the time travellers at the inauguration, and I’ll see you next week.

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