Ask Yahoo!:

Dear Yahoo!:
How can I name a star?
Marie
Shawnee, Oklahoma

Dear Marie:
You can name any star you like, but it's virtually impossible to get anyone else, much the less international authorities, to recognize your star name. Many companies will gladly take your money so they can "register" your choice of name for a particular star. This star naming is promoted as a great gift for all occasions. But none of these companies have any authority over official star names.

To shine some light on this issue, we consulted that master of exposing chicanery, Cecil Adams at the Straight Dope. He points out that the only body with the authority to name stars is the International Astronomical Union (IAU). This organization doesn't sell names for stars or any other celestial object, and doesn't recognize the names sold by any purported star-registry companies.

Stars are named according to internationally accepted rules. A few bright stars have widely known names that were given centuries years ago, such as Betelgeuse and Polaris (also called the North Star). But most stars have no proper name and never will. Instead, stars are assigned catalog numbers and are identified by their position in the sky.

Since the 1970s, various businesses have claimed to sell star names. But what these companies actually do is write your star name down in a book and randomly assign you a star. Some businesses suggest that your star name is official because the book that lists your star name is then registered with the copyright office of the U.S. Library of Congress. In reality, this doesn't confer legitimacy on your star name -- any book can be copyrighted and registered with the Library of Congress. Other companies say their list of registered star names will be kept for eternity in a secure vault or perpetual database for future generations. That may be true, but none of this means that any government, astronomical group, or space agency on Earth will refer to "your" star by "your" name.

The IAU disassociates itself from the practice of selling star names and says, "like true love and many other of the best things in human life, the beauty of the night sky is not for sale, but is free for all to enjoy."