1916 Boreas a rotation period between 3.4741 and 3.49 hours with a brightness variation between 0.25 and 0.35 magnitude (). In 1994, astronomer Tom Gehrels estimated "Boreas" to measure 3.5 kilometers in diameter, based on an assumed albedo of 0.15. The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 3.07 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 14.93. This minor planet is named after the Greek god of the north wind, Boreas, as the asteroid was discovered moving rapidly northward after passing the ascending node of its orbit. The official naming citation was
Pygmy (Greek mythology) Monstrous Races of Men Are Derived From the Stock of Adam or Noah's Sons." Later Greek geographers and writers attempted to place the Pygmies in a geographical context. Sometimes they were located in far India, at other times near the Ethiopians of Africa. The Pygmy bush tribes of central Africa were so named after the Greek mythological creatures by European explorers in the 19th century. From Pliny's Natural History: From "The Life of Apollonius of Tyana" by Flavius Philostratus: From "The Travels of Sir John Mandeville": Pygmy (Greek mythology) The Pygmies ( "Pygmaioi", from the adjective πυγμαῖος from πυγμή "pygmē",