Is it true that the former planet Pluto was named after the Disney character?

BRY2K

No. The name Pluto was first suggested by Venetia Burney (later Venetia Phair), an eleven-year-old schoolgirl in Oxford, England. Venetia was interested in classical mythology as well as astronomy, and considered the name, one of the alternate names of Hades, the Greek god of the Underworld, appropriate for such a presumably dark and cold world. She suggested it in a conversation with her grandfather Falconer Madan, a former librarian of Oxford University's Bodleian Library. Madan passed the name to Professor Herbert Hall Turner, who then cabled it to colleagues in America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto The object was officially named on March 24, 1930. Mar 07 08, 5:35 AM

Arpeggionist

Among other considerations in naming the planet was that its first two letters were the initials of Percival Lowell, the astronomer who funded the observatory where Pluto was discovered (and who speculated on its existence). When a moon was discovered, it was called Charon. http://www.newuniverse.co.uk/pluto.html [Link added by Zb] Also see Q#3848 What is the only planet not named after a god? http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question3848.html Mar 07 08, 5:42 AM