Trivia time. What are the origins of the names of the 8 planets and Pluto?

Gods.

Addendum to question:

Please try to provide the name of each planet, the origin of the name, and the origin of Pluto’s name.

The Greeks named them.
Earth. Don’t know.
Jupiter. I think that was a Greek god.
Venus. Greek Godess.
Mars. Don’t know. It may mean “red something.”
Uranus. Don’t know.
Pluto. Disney? My 7 year old grandson was highly upset when they downgraded it.
I’m missing one. Mercury! Another Greek god. Or they named it after Freddy Mercury.

Mercury= some Roman deity. My guess would be a god of….uh….sun?
Venus = Roman godess of love
Earth = dunno, probably from Latin terra, meaning earth. It’s the same in Slavic languages, where zemlya means both earth/ground/country and the name of the planet.
Mars = Roman god of war
Jupiter = Roman primary god, pandan to Greek Zeus
Saturn = I think it’s Roman equivalent of Greek satyr. I’m not sure. There’s the notion of the golden age, that ended when a certain “great Saturno” died.
Uranus = ur butthole. I mean some Roman deity. Not sure what. Anus also means a year in Latin, if I’m correct.
Neptune = same, some Roman deity.
Pluto = Mickey Mouse’s dog, aka god of the dead and wealth, pandan to Greek Hades.

Perhaps the planets should be named after Disney characters.

In addition to Pluto we could have Goofy, Minnie, Mickey, Unca Scrooge, Donald, Daisy, Ariel, and Huey.

Perhaps we could rename some of the other planets to Myanus, Heranus, Hisanus….

Go @Sneki95!

No fair: @Sneki95 must have consulted Neil Tyson’s brother; disgraced boxer, ex-heavyweight champ, and ear-biter Mike. ;-(

Mercury was the messenger of the gods, very fleet of foot. The Planet was named because it moves so quickly compared to other celestial bodies.

Neptune is the god of the Sea.

Dang it. I missed Neptune.

@zenvelo Thank you. I knew they were deities, but I couldn’t remember their roles.
@Brian1946 I agree, maybe we should name the satellites like that, if we find any new ones. Mikey was an ear-bitter? Oh, so that’s why he told me to lend him my ear when I asked this…

@Dutchess_III And he missed you too!

Roman gods

Mercury – Roman god of (winged feet?)
Venus – Brightest planet, like a hand mirror for Venus, the goddess of beauty
Earth –
Mars – Red like blood for the Roman god of war
Saturn –
Jupiter – Biggest planet for the chief god
Neptune – God of sea
Uranus –
Pluto – Way out there in the dark, for the god of the underworld

Saturn is, I believe, also known as Chronos (sp?) in Greek mythology—the father of Zeus? (Chronos might not be the correct name, it’s what I’m recalling…)

Jupiter = Zeus in Greek mythology… who, unless I was told wrong/remember incorrectly, castrated his father (Saturn/Chronos) and put his balls in the sea? Or something.

Good grief I want to use a search engine now to check that…

Roman gods. And the moons are named after demigods and heroes.

@Soubresaut You’re right. Zeus castrated his father and threw the genitals in the sea. The sea foam that was created gave birth to Aphrodite.

@Sneki95 aha thanks! :D

Europa?
No I tied her with duct tape, less chafing.

I didn’t realize how rare it was to know the Greco-Roman gods.

They are the Anglicized forms of Latin names for the Roman (and in the case of Uranus and Pluto, Greek) gods.

Mercury – Mercurius (akin Greek Hermes) messenger god, and other things.

Venus – Venus (akin Green Aphrodite) goddess of love, beauty, and other things.

earth – earth is the word for the ground, dirt, soil, this place. Not really formally the proper name of our planet, which doesn’t really formally have one. Mother Earth in ancient Greek mythology is Gaia, which is also now used by people who think of our planet as one large living thing.

Mars – Mars (akin Greek Ares) god of war and other things.

Saturn – Saturnus (akin Greek Chronus) god of prosperity and other things.

Jupiter – Iupiter (akin Green Zeus) king & sky/thunder god, and other things.

Neptune – Neptunus (akin Green Poseidon) god of fresh water and the sea and other things.

Uranus – Ouranos (akin Roman Caelus) father sky, partner to Gaia (mother earth).

Pluto – Plouton (multiple Roman equivalents) ruler of the underworld.

(Wow, I sure typed “Green” instead of “Greek” a lot!)

So many experts here. The only thing I know is how those planet is supposed to influenced people’s personality according to astrology, but that isn’t something you need here Brian.

Didn’t the Romans gank most of their myth and gods from the Greek? They’re probably all Greek originally, most of them anyway.

@Berserker Yes. But the OP was about the names of the planets. The names are Roman.

Sorry.

Out to Saturn the planets all bear the names of Roman gods. Uranus and Neptune cannot be seen with the naked eye and the Romans were therefore unaware of their existence. This being said, all of those moons circling the planets were unknown to anyone before Galileo. With a good pair of binoculars you can actually watch the four Moons first seen by Galileo circling the planet. And the motion of the moons is surprisingly fast and spectacularly visible as they dance around the planet.

The Galilean satelites orbit Jupiter.

@Berserker Six of the planet names are Roman, two are Greek. The details of which gods and myths overlap between Roman and Greek versions, and when and how they got that way, has many varied details, but sort-of yes, the Romans did incorporate and adapt a lot of myth & god content from the Greeks.

@Berserker

No need to apologize.

We’re in Social and I run a loose thread anyway.

Actually it was Cronus who castrated his father, Uranus, and tossed his balls into the sea, thus spawning Aphrodite.

@Sneki95 “Anus also means a year in Latin, if I’m correct.”

Annus, though it’s plural. “Years”, not “year”. “Year” is anno.

^ Thank you for the correction. I knew there’s some connection, but I couldn’t google, so I messed it up.

Most of the Greek deities were adopted by the Romans, although in many cases there was a change of name.
Greeks to this day using the Greek names of the planes! for example Venus=Aphrodite to Greeks.
To the rest of the world the planets are in latin with the exceptions of Pluto/Πλούτωνας (the Greek God of underworld) and Uranus (witch literally mean sky in Greeks )

Here’s what I remember:

They’re all Roman mythological beings, except for perhaps Earth.

Mercury- messenger god.
Venus- Goddess of love.
Earth- synonym for dirt.
Mars- God of war, AKA TrumpCheney
Jupiter- Ruler of the gods.
Saturn- Jupe’s dad and a titan.
Uranus- I think he(?) was also a titan.
Neptuna- God and chicken of the seas.
Pluto- God of the underworld, or the Roman version of hell.