Is naming a star legit?
The short answer: naming a star is legitimate as a symbolic gift — and a scam the moment anyone tells you it's official. No company on Earth can sell an official star name. Any company that's honest about that, and shows you a real, catalogued star, is selling you something true: a symbol. Any company that isn't, isn't.
What's actually real
The star is real. Reputable star naming companies — ours included — allocate genuine stars from scientific catalogues (we use the Hipparcos and Tycho-2 catalogues, compiled by the European Space Agency's Hipparcos mission). The coordinates on your certificate point to a real ball of burning gas, in a real constellation, that you can locate on any clear night. The register entry is real too: your dedication is recorded, permanently and uniquely — we never allocate the same star twice, and anyone can verify an entry by its registry number.
What nobody can sell you
Official star names are assigned by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) — the scientific body responsible for celestial naming since 1919. The IAU does not sell naming rights, at any price, to anyone. Astronomers will never call your star by the name on your certificate. That's true of every star naming company in the world, whatever their paperwork implies — including the ones with "official", "registry" or "international" in their names.
So when review sites and astronomers say "star naming is a scam", what they mean is: the pretence of officialness is a scam. They're right. The symbol, honestly sold, is not — no more than an engraved locket is a scam because the jeweller didn't legally rename your grandmother.
How to spot a dishonest star company
- They imply officialness — "internationally registered", "legally recorded", or certificates dressed up as government documents.
- They bury the truth — if the word "symbolic" appears only in the small print of the terms page, that's deliberate.
- They won't show the star — no catalogue number, no coordinates you can check, no way to verify the entry after purchase.
- They resell — no public register means nothing stops the same star being sold twice. Ask how their allocation is verified.
- Vanishing registries — a register that exists only on paper dies with the printer. Ask what happens to the record in ten years.
How we do it
We tell you it's symbolic before you pay — it's on our homepage, in our FAQ, and on the certificate itself. Every star we allocate has its genuine catalogue reference (HIP or TYC number) and coordinates printed on your documents; every entry is publicly verifiable at any time by registry number; and each star is dedicated once, ever. You can read exactly how it all works in our honest guide.
Our test for any star company (including us): would the gift still feel true if the recipient knew everything? If the answer is yes, it's a gift. If the answer depends on them not finding this page, it's a scam.
So — should you name a star?
If you want to legally rename part of the universe: no one can sell you that, save your money. If you want to point at a real star on a clear night and say "that one's yours" — and have it written down, permanently, where anyone can look it up — then yes. That's what star naming honestly is, and it's why people have loved it for decades. From £9.99 digitally, or £19.99 for the printed gift pack, delivered free.
A real catalogued star · dedicated once, never resold · verifiable forever
Name a star ✦