Twinkle, twinkle, little . . . (insert name here)

New York

WHICH branch of science has the worst trouble with names? You might think it's physics, which has bestowed whimsical-sounding names like quarks, neutrinos, selectrons and bosons on the most elemental constituents of nature.

But in astronomy, the confusion can be, well, cosmic. Where would we be without the North Star, also known as Polaris, Alpha Ursae Minoris, HD 8890 and a host of other names including (in Inuit) Niiqirtsuituq?

The stars are our oldest promise of order in the universe and the most profound symbols of our possible destiny. But only a relative handful of the…