Venetia Burney
| Venetia Burney | |
|---|---|
Venetia Burney at age 11
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| Born |
Venetia Katharine Douglas Burney 11 July 1918 |
| Died | 30 April 2009 (aged 90) Banstead, England |
| Known for | Naming Pluto |
| Spouse(s) | Edward Maxwell Phair (m. 1947–2006) |
| Children | Patrick Phair |
| Parent(s) |
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| Relatives | Falconer Madan, grandfather |
Venetia Katharine Douglas Phair, née Burney (11 July 1918 – 30 April 2009) was an English woman known for being the first person to suggest the name Pluto for the planet discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. At the time, she was 11 years old and lived in Oxford, England. As an adult she worked as an accountant and a teacher.
Venetia Burney was the daughter of Rev. Charles Fox Burney, Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford, and his wife Ethel Wordsworth Burney (née Madan). She was the granddaughter of Falconer Madan (1851–1935), Librarian of the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford. Falconer Madan's brother, Henry Madan (1838–1901), Science Master of Eton, had in 1878 suggested the names Phobos and Deimos for the moons of Mars.
On 14 March 1930, Falconer Madan read the story of the new planet's discovery in The Times, and mentioned it to his granddaughter Venetia. She suggested the name Pluto – the Roman God of the Underworld who was able to make himself invisible − and Falconer Madan forwarded the suggestion to astronomer Herbert Hall Turner, who cabled his American colleagues at Lowell Observatory. Clyde Tombaugh liked the proposal because it started with the initials of Percival Lowell who had predicted the existence of Planet X, which they thought was Pluto because it was coincidentally in that position in space. On 1 May 1930, the name Pluto was formally adopted for the new celestial body.
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