Thousands of years ago, when the Romans and Greeks were naming the planets that were visible to them, they decided to name them after their gods. Mercury (Greek: Hermes) was the Roman god of commerce, travel and industry, Venus (Greek: Aphrodite) was the goddess of love and beauty, Mars (Greek: Ares) was the god of war, Jupiter (Greek: Zeus) was the king of the gods, and Saturn (Greek: Cronos) was the god of agriculture. Hundreds of years later, even when people knew that the planets weren't actually gods, they still kept with tradition and named newly discovered planets after mythological characters. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were all discovered in modern times, but their names are all still linked to ancient myths. Uranus is the Greek ruler of the heavens, Neptune (Greek: Poseidon) is the Roman god of the sea, and Pluto (Greek: Hades) is god of the underworld. The names of moons orbiting planets is also influenced by mythology. This is all except for one planet. The moons orbiting Uranus are named after characters in plays, mostly after characters in plays written by William Shakespeare. Why would you name moons after characters in a play though? Before I answer that, here's my quick guide to Shakespeare.

One of the greatest ever writers of the English language was William Shakespeare. He was born on 23rd April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England and during his life, wrote about 154 poems (called sonnets) and 38 plays. From 1588, he lived in London where many of his plays were performed in front of the courts of the Royal Family. Although his plays are now over 400 years old, they are still performed and studied today, containing themes and ideas which are as relevant now as they were when they were first written. The Globe Theatre in London was opened in 2000 and is a modern day replica of the type of theatre in which Shakespeare's plays would have originally been performed. Some of Shakespeare's most famous plays are Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Shakespeare died on 23rd April 1616 and is buried in Stratford-upon-Avon church. 

Although Shakespeare wrote a large number of plays, these plays can be placed into four categories: Comedies, Histories, Tragedies and Romances. The Comedies were often farcical comedies of error, kind of like Fawlty Towers for the 16th Century (e.g. A Midsummer Night's Dream) . The Histories were based on real historical events, usually about English history (Henry IV, Part 1) or ancient history. Tragedies were plays with darker themes (such as betrayal and jealousy) and by the end of the play, most of the characters had died! (Romeo and Juliet, King Lear)The Romances were a bit lighter in theme and featured elements of fantasy and magic (A Winter's Tale, The Tempest). 

William Shakespeare is a hugely influential figure in English literature today. Students still analyse and discuss his works, and tourists from all over the world visit Stratford-upon-Avon to visit Shakespeare's house (pictured right).  His importance inspired William Herschel in 1787 to name some of the moons known to be orbiting Uranus after characters in Shakespeare's plays. 

In 1781, Uranus became the first planet to be "discovered". The other planets that were known of at the time (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) plus the Sun and the Moon had been observed for tens of thousands of years from Earth and already had names, named by the Greeks and Romans after their gods. Before 1781, nobody knew that Uranus existed and people thought there were only six planets in the Solar System. Although Uranus had already been spotted numerous times, it was English astronomer William Herschel who first recognised that Uranus was actually a planet and not a star. Because the planet was discovered by an English astronomer, not an ancient Roman or Greek, it was very nearly named Georgian Sidus ("George's Star"), in honour of England's ruler at the time, King George the Third. Unsurprisingly, the scientific community didn't really like this name, wanting the new planet to keep the tradition of being named after Roman or Greek gods. So the seventh planet in the Solar System became known as Uranus, a name suggested by German astronomer Johann Elert Bode. 

In 1787, a few years after discovering Uranus, William Herschel discovered two large moons orbiting the planet. Probably annoyed about having to allow the name to be changed of the planet that he had previously discovered, he decided this time to honour the greatest playwright in English history by naming the two moons after characters in one of his plays. The moons were named Titania and Oberon after the King and Queen of the Fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Again, some people (such as the German ambassador) kicked up a fuss, wanting the moons to be named after classical figures, but the names chosen by Herschel remained and the tradition of naming moons of Uranus after literary characters began. In 1851, William Lassell discovered two more large moons orbiting Uranus. These were named Ariel and Umbriel. Ariel and Umbriel are characters in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, names chosen by Willian Herschel's son, John. These are the only two moons orbiting Uranus named after characters in non-Shakespearean plays, although one of the main characters in The Tempest by Shakespeare is also named Ariel. The next moon to be discovered was in 1948 by American astronomer Gerard Kuiper. This moon was named Miranda, another character from The Tempest. It wasn't until Voyager visited Uranus in 1986 that any more moons were discovered. All of these moons, and all moons discovered since then have been named after characters in Shakespeare's plays. Even moons yet to be discovered will be named after Shakespeare's characters. He may have knew his plays were pretty good back when he was writing them, but even Shakespeare wouldn't have imagined that his characters would one day become immortalised in worlds millions and millions of miles away from his home in Stratford!

Here is a list of all of the Moons of Uranus, their size and location, the date they were discovered and where their names originate.

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