About A Star Named

🌠Where Did Grandpa Go?

The idea for A Star Named began with a question I asked as a child.

One summer night, I was outside looking up at a sky full of stars. I had recently lost my grandfather, and I asked my dad:

“Where did Grandpa go?”

My dad looked up at the sky and told me:

“He’s up there, in the stars.”

I asked him how he knew.

He explained that my grandfather had spent his life helping families through funerals and saying goodbye to the people they loved. In our family, we were taught that when someone dies, they rise to the sky.

As a child, I simply believed him.

As I grew older, I understood that none of us can truly know what happens after death.

But I never forgot the feeling of looking up at that summer sky and imagining that somewhere among those stars, my grandfather was still there.

Years later, when I wanted to create something meaningful for people who had lost someone they loved, I kept coming back to that memory.

I didn’t want to simply choose a random star and give it a name.

I wanted the star to have a connection to their story.

So we created A Star Named.

You give us the place and exact time when someone passed away.

We look back at the real night sky from that moment and find the star that was above them.

That star becomes a place to remember them.

Not because we can tell you what happens after death.

Not because we can prove that someone lives in a star.

But because sometimes, having a place to look can mean everything.

A real star. A real moment. A place to remember them forever.

Their home among the stars.

🌌Why we built this

Most “name a star” services are, at heart, “pick a star and file the name in our own register” — where the star comes from and whether the name counts is usually left vague. We believed it could be done the other way around, on two counts: let the sky of that moment choose the star (time and place fix the zenith; a real catalog supplies its nearest star), and state plainly on every page that the name is a memorial and the IAU recognizes no commercial naming.

🔭Where the stars come from

Our catalog is HYG v4.1 — merged from genuine astronomical surveys including Hipparcos, Gliese and Yale, totaling 107,838 real stars across all 88 IAU constellations. Every star carries J2000 coordinates, magnitude, distance and spectral type, and each record shows traceable IDs such as the HIP number and the Gaia source ID. Coordinates are astronomy’s common language — verify ours in any third-party sky-chart app.

⚖️Honest naming, said plainly

Three things we will not do: claim a name is “registered” with the IAU or any official body; inflate a star’s supposed rarity to justify a price; or turn the free preview into a sales trick. The coordinates and IDs printed on your certificate survive any check — because if “the star is real” were not true, the whole gift would not be either.

🎯What we are for

To give missing someone a real, verifiable, lasting home among the stars. One tier — Digital Star ($19.99, delivered digitally) — no hidden upsells, no price tag on grief. Memorials are private by default; sharing is always your choice; and our team will always correct a name or process a refund when you ask.

🤍Who this is for — and our promise to you

This is for people who are missing someone, people who are missing an animal — and for those who want to send that feeling to a friend. Our vision, in one line: for every loss to have somewhere to look.

So here is what we promise: the coordinates and catalog IDs on your certificate always survive independent verification; the truth about naming is printed on every certificate, not buried in an FAQ; your memorial is private by default; and if a name needs correcting, or anything on the certificate or star page goes wrong, we answer within 48 hours — if it is our fault we fix it free, and if we cannot fix it, we refund in full.