Editing Pluto (section)

=== Name and symbol ===
The name ''Pluto'' came from the Roman [[Pluto (mythology)|god of the underworld]]; and it is also an [[epithet]] for [[Hades]] (the Greek equivalent of Pluto).

Upon the announcement of the discovery, Lowell Observatory received over a thousand suggestions for names.<ref name="pluto guide" /> Three names topped the list: [[Minerva]], Pluto and [[Cronus]]. 'Minerva' was the Lowell staff's first choice<ref name=S&G/> but was rejected because it had already been used for [[93 Minerva|an asteroid]]; Cronus was disfavored because it was promoted by an unpopular and egocentric astronomer, [[Thomas Jefferson Jackson See]]. A vote was then taken and 'Pluto' was the unanimous choice. To make sure the name stuck, and that the planet would not suffer changes in its name as Uranus had, Lowell Observatory proposed the name to the [[American Astronomical Society]] and the [[Royal Astronomical Society]]; both approved it unanimously.<ref name=T&M>Clyde Tombaugh & Patrick Moore (2008) ''Out of the Darkness: The Planet Pluto''</ref>{{rp|136}}{{sfn|Croswell|1997|pp=54–55}} The name was published on May 1, 1930.<ref name="Venetia" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Pluto Research at Lowell |url=https://lowell.edu/in-depth/pluto/pluto-research-at-lowell/ |website=Lowell Observatory |access-date=March 22, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418140312/http://lowell.edu/in-depth/pluto/pluto-research-at-lowell/ |archive-date=April 18, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The name ''Pluto'' had received some 150 nominations among the letters and telegrams sent to Lowell. The first{{efn|A French astronomer had suggested the name ''Pluto'' for Planet X in 1919, but there is no indication that the Lowell staff knew of this.<ref>Ferris (2012: 336) ''Seeing in the Dark''</ref>}} had been from [[Venetia Burney]] (1918–2009), an eleven-year-old schoolgirl in [[Oxford]], England, who was interested in [[classical mythology]].<ref name=T&M/><ref name="Venetia" /> She had suggested it to her grandfather [[Falconer Madan]] when he read the news of Pluto's discovery to his family over breakfast; Madan passed the suggestion to astronomy professor [[Herbert Hall Turner]], who cabled it to colleagues at Lowell on March 16, three days after the announcement.<ref name=S&G>Kevin Schindler & William Grundy (2018) ''Pluto and Lowell Observatory'', pp. 73–79.</ref><ref name="Venetia" />

The name 'Pluto' was mythologically appropriate: the god Pluto was one of six surviving children of [[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]], and the others had already all been chosen as names of major or minor planets (his brothers [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] and [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]], and his sisters [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]], [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]] and [[Vesta (mythology)|Vesta]]). Both the god and the planet inhabited "gloomy" regions, and the god was able to make himself invisible, as the planet had been for so long.<ref>Scott & Powell (2018) ''The Universe as It Really Is''</ref> 
The choice was further helped by the fact that the first two letters of ''Pluto'' were the initials of Percival Lowell; indeed, 'Percival' had been one of the more popular suggestions for a name for the new planet.<ref name=S&G/><ref>Coincidentally, as popular science author [[Martin Gardner]] and others have noted of the name "Pluto", "the last two letters are the first two letters of Tombaugh's name" Martin Gardner, ''Puzzling Questions about the Solar System'' (Dover Publications, 1997) p. 55</ref>