Is Naming a Star Real? An Honest Guide to Commercial Star Naming
The star is real and its coordinates check out. The official naming right does not exist. What the IAU, the AAS and the planetarium society actually say, and how to tell an honest service from hype.
Answer in three layers: the star is real (an object from a genuine survey catalog such as HYG, with verifiable coordinates and distance); the name is symbolic (the IAU, the only body that officially names celestial objects, recognizes no commercial naming); and “registration” or “official certification” does not exist. To judge a service, check whether it publishes its catalog, gives coordinates and IDs you can verify, and plainly states that the name carries no official status. We do all three.
Unpacking the question: star, name, registration
- The star itself
- Real: from genuine survey catalogs, with RA/Dec (J2000), distance and catalog IDs you can trace and verify
- The memorial name
- Symbolic: printed on your certificate and memorial space, meaningful to you, entered in no astronomical database
- Registration / official naming right
- Does not exist: the IAU is the only body that officially names celestial objects, recognizes no commercial naming, and there is no “official star registry”
What the IAU and the astronomical societies actually say
Start with the body that decides. The International Astronomical Union is the only organization with the standing to name celestial objects, and it does so through its Working Group on Star Names, drawing on historical and cultural tradition rather than on anything anyone paid. It does not sell names, and since 2022 its rules bar personal names outright: no people, no animals, no brands, no political events.
The professional societies have said the same thing for decades. The American Astronomical Society puts it plainly in its own FAQ: there is no place where you can purchase a star, and the names sold by commercial services are not recognized by anyone in the scientific community. The International Planetarium Society took that position in 1988 and has held it since, noting that the names scientists actually use are never sold, and that the star charts bundled with purchased names have been altered from real catalog data.
What this means in practice is simple. The same star can be sold by several companies under different names, each one recorded only in that company’s own database. No outside body issues the registration, and none could. If a service tells you the IAU has recorded your name, that statement is false, whichever company is making it.
What an honest service looks like: a checklist
Most of the controversy around “is it real” comes from the packaging. Filter any service, including ours, with four questions: (1) Do they name their catalog and data source (a genuine survey like HYG or Hipparcos, not a self-made “star registry”)? (2) Do they give you coordinates and a catalog ID you can verify in software like Stellarium? (3) Do they clearly state the name has no official status and is not recognized by the IAU? (4) Is it a single transparent price, or does fine print add “registration fees”? Only services that pass all four are worth your money.
The claims you will see, and what they actually mean
- “Officially registered”
- It means registered with the company you bought from. There is no public register of star names, so there is nothing else to register with. The phrase is doing marketing work, not legal work.
- “Certificate of ownership” / “deed”
- A keepsake document. It conveys no legal title to the star, and no document could, because a celestial body is not a thing that can be owned, transferred or inherited.
- “Kept in a vault”
- A private ledger held by the company. There is no public register to check it against, so being kept in a vault and being kept in their database are the same thing.
- “Includes an official star chart”
- Check the coordinates yourself. Enter the RA/Dec from the certificate into Stellarium or any catalog and see whether a star is actually at the position the chart marks. If they disagree, you have your answer about the chart.
- “Name a star after anyone”
- On a certificate you can print any name you like. In the IAU catalog, personal names have been barred since 2022. Both statements are true, and only one of them appears on your certificate.
How to verify your own star after purchase
When you have the certificate, type its RA/Dec into any planetarium software (Stellarium, the free SkySafari tier) and the star should sit exactly where you pointed; then match the catalog ID and magnitude. If it checks out, it is real. That verification rests on astronomy, not on the seller’s word. Step-by-step instructions are in our locating guide.
If you already bought a star from another service
First, the reassuring part: you were not cheated, unless the seller promised you official standing. What you bought was the star itself plus a keepsake document, and both are still there. To settle it properly, do three things. Take the RA/Dec from the certificate and look it up in Stellarium or any catalog; if the coordinates check out, the star is real. Then find the page you bought from and see whether it claimed “official registration” or IAU recognition; if it did, the advertising was false, and none of that touches your memorial. And the name will not appear in any astronomical database. That was always true, and it does not change what the thing means to you.
How we differ from traditional star registries, side by side
Since the test is four questions, here are the two side by side: a traditional “star registry” mostly assigns a star from a list and prints a certificate that looks official; ours is computed, and gives you the real star at the zenith of the moment and place you enter, with verifiable coordinates, a 3D return to that night’s sky, and a private memorial space by default. The price sits on the same line too: one tier, $19.99, no add-ons. The full comparison table is on our comparison page, including the rows where we lose.
The IAU doesn’t recognize it. So why does the memorial still hold?
With the honest half said, back to the real question: if there is no official standing, why is it still worth doing? Because a memorial never depended on a registry to work. It depends on being there: a star with real coordinates, findable by anyone on any night, fixed by the moment and place they passed, and in that spot every year from now on. Official naming changes an entry in an astronomy archive; a memorial star changes what you see when you look up. The first needs authority. The second only needs you.
It is also why verifiability matters: the coordinates check out in any planetarium app, the catalog ID traces to a real survey, and the certificate hides nothing. Because every part survives scrutiny, the thing is actually dependable. A symbol is not a weaker version of the real; it is a different kind of real.
FAQ
So is buying a memorial star a scam?
No. Honest services sell a keepsake industry: buyers know there is no official naming right and pay for a bond with a real star. The problem is services that dress it up as “official registration”. The checklist above filters them out.
Can two companies sell the same star?
Yes. There is no registry, so “uniqueness” is each company’s own ledger. What we can promise: the same moment and place always produce the same star (the determinism comes from the astronomy), and the coordinates you receive verify in any catalog.
Why do certificates look so official?
Formal-looking certificates are an industry habit, which is exactly why you should read the small print: it should say the naming is a memorial gesture and not recognized by the IAU. Every certificate and FAQ page of ours says precisely that.
Is naming a star legal?
Yes. Selling a symbolic name is a lawful keepsake business, and printing a name on a certificate breaks no rule. The problem is never the keepsake, it is the claim. If a seller tells you the IAU records the name, that claim is false, and no one can deliver it.
Can I name a star after someone who is still alive?
Commercially, yes, and people do it for births, weddings and anniversaries. Officially, the IAU bars personal names from its own catalogues altogether, so the question does not arise there. The name on your certificate is yours to choose.
What does “officially registered” actually mean?
In this industry it means registered with the company you bought from. A public register of star names does not exist, so there is nowhere else to register. The phrase is doing marketing work, not legal work.