section_path: History/Naming
section_name: Naming
paragraph_text: Naming
  
  Shortly after its discovery, Neptune was referred to simply as "the planet exterior to Uranus" or as "Le Verrier's planet". The first suggestion for a name came from Galle, who proposed the name Janus. In England, Challis put forward the name Oceanus.
  
  Claiming the right to name his discovery, Le Verrier quickly proposed the name Neptune for this new planet, though falsely stating that this had been officially approved by the French Bureau des Longitudes. In October, he sought to name the planet Le Verrier, after himself, and he had loyal support in this from the observatory director, François Arago. This suggestion met with stiff resistance outside France. French almanacs quickly reintroduced the name Herschel for Uranus, after that planet's discoverer Sir William Herschel, and Leverrier for the new planet.
  
  Struve came out in favour of the name Neptune on 29 December 1846, to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, after the colour of the planet as viewed through a telescope. Soon, Neptune became the internationally accepted name. In Roman mythology, Neptune was the god of the sea, identified with the Greek Poseidon. The demand for a mythological name seemed to be in keeping with the nomenclature of the other planets, all of which were named for deities in Greek and Roman mythology.
  
  Most languages today use some variant of the name "Neptune" for the planet. In Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Korean, the planet's name was translated as "sea king star" (海王星). In Mongolian, Neptune is called Dalain van (Далайн ван), reflecting its namesake god's role as the ruler of the sea. In modern Greek, the planet is called Poseidon (Ποσειδώνας, Poseidonas), the Greek counterpart of Neptune. In Hebrew, Rahab (רהב), from a Biblical sea monster mentioned in the Book of Psalms, was selected in a vote managed by the Academy of the Hebrew Language in 2009 as the official name for the planet, even though the existing Latin term Neptun (נפטון) is commonly used. In Māori, the planet is called Tangaroa, named after the Māori god of the sea. In Nahuatl, the planet is called Tlāloccītlalli, named after the rain god Tlāloc. In Thai, Neptune is referred to by the Westernised name Dao Nepchun/Nepjun (ดาวเนปจูน) but is also called Dao Ket (ดาวเกตุ, lit. ' star of Ketu '), after Ketu (केतु), the descending lunar node, who plays a role in Hindu astrology. In Malay, the name Waruna, after the Hindu god of seas, is attested as far back as the 1970s, but was eventually superseded by the Latinate equivalents Neptun (in Malaysian) or Neptunus (in Indonesian).
  
  The usual adjectival form is Neptunian. The nonce form Poseidean (/ p ə ˈ s aɪ d i ən /), from Poseidon, has also been used, though the usual adjectival form of Poseidon is Poseidonian (/ ˌ p ɒ s aɪ ˈ d oʊ n i ən /).