The Galaxy Naming Project · TheGalaxyDB
A real galaxy. A permanent record in a real astronomical database. Five dollars. Every cent above operating costs goes to charity.
Each galaxy claimed once. No reprints. No resets. When they're gone, they're gone.
Before You Spend Five Dollars
We don't own these galaxies. Nobody does. The International Astronomical Union, the only body with scientific naming authority, doesn't sell galaxy names commercially. Neither do we. What you're paying for is not a deed, not legal ownership, not a name scientists will use in journals.
The galaxies in our database come from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, HyperLEDA, HECATE, and SDSS, peer-reviewed, published catalogs used by actual astronomers. Your galaxy is real. Its redshift, classification, and coordinates are real. The name you give it will live permanently in our public catalog, attached to that real object, searchable by anyone.
That's the product. A real record, honestly described. We think that's worth five dollars. If you agree, read on. If not, we respect that too.
The rest of this page will be honest about the scale of what you'd be giving someone. Some of it is funny. Some of it isn't. Both are appropriate.
The Scale
Here's what you'd actually be giving someone.
A gravitationally bound system of between 10 million and 100 trillion stars.
Plus every planet orbiting those stars. Plus every moon orbiting those planets.
Plus every comet, asteroid, and gas cloud that drifts between them.
Plus all the light that has been traveling from it across the void
since before multicellular life appeared on Earth.
For five dollars.
Star naming services have existed for decades. This is different. No one has ever tried to name galaxies. A galaxy isn't a light in your sky. It's an entire civilization of suns you'll never visit, orbiting nothing you'll ever understand, at a distance that makes your lifespan feel like a rounding error. Naming one in honor of someone is either the most audacious thing a human being can do, or the most tender. Possibly both.
We think your loved one can decide which.
Why This Works Differently
Star gifting works because of intimacy. The recipient can look up, find Orion, and feel something. "That one is mine" fits in a human mind. The scale is comprehensible enough to feel personal.
Galaxies break that. A galaxy 400 million light-years away, containing 300 billion stars, each with their own solar systems, the mind slides off it. This is one galaxy, holding more stars than the number of humans who might have ever lived. Then think of each of those stars potentially having their own Solar System, with several planets. The mind cannot comprehend this.
So galaxy gifting in that sense doesn't work. But you know what does? The sense of scale itself. The realization that we are all here, on this tiny planet, orbiting this tiny Sun, within this tiny Solar System. The scale helps us remember our place in the Cosmos. Whether you believe in a God or Supreme Being or not, and looking at all of this, how can you not?
You must acknowledge the grand weight of this immense thought.
So every galaxy named and gifted will be dedicated to charitable purposes. For every dollar gifted in galaxy naming, half of it will go to organizations that help the poor, the needy, the unfortunate among us, for we realize that we are all here as one. Seeing the massive scale of these immensities out there, then turning and looking back at home, and seeing what is happening right here on this tiny little blue marble, that gives us perspective.
For Someone You Love
There is a child in your life who stares at the night sky. Maybe they're sick. Maybe they're scared. Maybe they're just nine years old and consumed by a phase that might last forever. You could give them a toy, a game, something that will be forgotten by March. Or you could give them something they will never be able to misplace, outgrow, or forget.
"Your galaxy is 340 million light-years away. It has 180 billion stars. I named it after you."
For five dollars.
The certificate is real. The galaxy is real. The catalog is permanent. When that child is an adult, the galaxy will still be there in the database, still bearing their name. No expiration. No company that can go out of business and delete the record. This network was built to last.
Where The Money Goes
Every dollar above operating costs goes to charitable causes. We'll publish exactly where, every quarter, publicly, with receipts. This is not a commercial enterprise built to extract money from the romantically inclined. It's a mechanism to turn the human impulse to name things into something that feeds the world.
This is our goal. We wish to turn this into a worthy cause. We may not reach $110 million or even half that. But, given the right push, and the right help...we just might. And the limit is real and finite, because once all catalog galaxies are named, the project closes. No more. This ceiling is what makes this more than a mere gift. Every name purchased brings us closer to a number that could actually matter. Your small $5 contribution becomes part of something limited, exclusive and greater.
50% of every purchase is split equally between three charities doing real work for real people. No mystery, no vagueness, no "above operating costs" language. Half goes to charity. Period.
The Hard Limit
Each galaxy in our catalog can be named once. There are no duplicates, no overflow, no additional inventory. When the counter reaches zero, this project closes permanently. The catalog will remain, publicly searchable, forever, but no new names can be added.
The first 22,431,182 people to do this will be the only people who ever can.
What You'll Receive
A digital certificate containing your galaxy's real astronomical data, alongside the name you gave it. Permanent. Searchable. Yours.
Sample certificate · galaxy data is real · SDSS J1237+6412 exists exactly as described
Pricing
Both options name a real galaxy permanently. The difference is how much data comes with it.
50% of every purchase goes directly to charitable causes. Publicly reported every quarter.
Questions
Ready?
Each one is a real place. Each one has been there since before your species existed. Each one will be there after your species is gone. It has never had a name. It's waiting.
50% of every purchase donated to charity · Public reporting every quarter
Galaxy Naming Project
Not sure? The Archive package includes a CORE-generated name suggestion.
By proceeding you acknowledge this is a personal catalog record, not an IAU-recognized designation. All proceeds above operating costs go to charity. Full FAQ.