With Valentine’s Day around the corner, romance is in the air. And what could be more romantic than a picnic under the stars, pointing up to the night sky, and gazing at a star you’ve named for your Valentine?

A quick online search reveals multiple paid services for naming a star, usually accompanied by a certificate and a star map for finding the star.

However, these names are not official and are not used by astronomers. According to the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group on Star Names, the official body that leads selecting star names: “the sky is not owned by anyone”.

So what names do astronomers use for stars and how are official star names selected?

Pay to name a star

Star-naming services offer a range of paid packages – some costing just A$40 – and add-ons to name a star or two.

If you dig into the FAQs you can usually find a disclaimer stating that the star names are recorded in their private database. They have to include this, as the International Astronomical Union explicitly states stars cannot be named after people (except for rare cases). Even without these rules and disclaimers, these websites have too many customers and not enough stars.

Many websites that sell star names claim the star will be visible to the naked eye. For those with excellent vision star-gazing on a dark night, roughly 2,500 stars are visible to the naked eye (5,000 in both hemispheres).

And if you pay for a higher-price package including only “extra bright stars” or visible binary systems (two stars orbiting each other), the number is even smaller.

Yet some of these websites claim to have 100,000-plus, or even 500,000-plus, satisfied customers.

This means that each star has been named at least 20 times. It’s a smidge less romantic when your Valentine’s name is the 20th, or even 100th, name for a star.

The proper process of naming stars

Astronomers never use these purchased names.

Instead we use proper names and designations for stars. Stars can only have one, official proper name, such as the stars Sirius, Betelgeuse and Polaris.

But many have a whole bunch of designations. Designations are unique combinations of letters and numbers used by astronomers when creating surveys and catalogues of stars. Most stars don’t have a proper name, but all known stars have at least one designation.

Fewer than 600 stars have a proper name. This is out of more than one billion stars that have been identified by astronomers.

The International Astronomical Union’s Working Group on Star Names keeps an up-to-date list. New stars were most recently added on December 25 2025. The working group has guidelines and rules for naming stars, sometimes including the public in the process.

Typically, star names are rooted in history and culture. Collecting historical and indigenous constellations is part of the working group’s strategy. For example, one of the most recently named stars is called “Sarvvis”, a name used by the Sami people of Northern Scandinavia.

Designations tell astronomers which telescope saw the star. This tells us information about the star, such as what types of light it emits.

Sirius has more than 60 designations, including 2MASS J06450887-1642566, HIP 32349 and CNS5 1676.

“2MASS” is the Two Micron All-Sky Survey in infrared, so this tells us Sirius emits infrared light. “HIP” refers to the European Space Agency Hipparcos mission, and tells us Sirius is a bright optical star. The “CNS5” is the Fifth Catalogue of Nearby Stars, telling us Sirius is closer than 25 parsec (or 82 light years) from the Sun.

The numbers “J06450887-1642566” are the coordinates of the star, and “32349” and “1676” are unique numbers to identify Sirius specifically in those catalogues.

New star names are rare

I have given many stars new designations in my Sydney Radio Star Catalogue. I also gave the star TYC 8332-2529-1 the new designation MKT J170456.2-482100 when I detected it for the first time using the MeerKAT telescope.

In that case, “MKT” stands for “MeerKAT” and the numbers give the coordinates of the star at the time we detected it. That star only has designations, no proper name. Stars can always get new designations when a new survey of the sky is performed or a new catalogue constructed. This is why some stars have tens of designations.

The International Astronomical Union’s Working Group on Star Names guidelines prohibit commercial, political or military names and even prohibit naming stars after pet animals.

Since official star naming is focused on historical and cultural names, it is rare for new star names to emerge.

Even for naming campaigns open to the public run by the International Astronomical Union, only stars too faint to be seen by the naked eye are considered. A very recent official star name is “Siwarha” – a name suggested by the team that discovered the star. The name means “her bracelet” and is the name for Betelgeuse’s small companion star.

So it is rare, but not impossible, for astronomers to name the stars they discover.

You can’t officially name a star after your Valentine. But you can plan a romantic evening of star-gazing and point out the officially named stars visible at this time of year. Betelgeuse, Sirius and Rigel can be seen in Australia in the early evening on Valentine’s day.