Talk:List of named minor planets (alphabetical)

Add information to List of minor planets

We should add all of this information, as well as List of named minor planets (numerical),to List of minor planets as a section called ‘Statistics’, then add a subsection called ‘Alphabetical Statistics’ and do the same for the Numerical version but name that sub section ‘Numerical Statistics.’ This article is too short and no longer serves any use as opposed to List of minor planets.

I also said the same thing in the Numerical version’s talk page. Neon 11:33, 30 November 2019 (UTC)

Wheres the list

Theres no list. 2600:387:F:4117:0:0:0:B (talk) 17:28, 10 January 2023 (UTC)

List does not appear on mobile

The list does not seem to appear on mobile versions of the page. I'm wondering if the infoboxes could be modified to display on mobile devices, or at least, add the alphabetical list in place of the infobox.

AridCeption (talk) 17:38, 22 October 2025 (UTC)

Invitation to respond to request for comment

I made a request for comment that's relevant to this subject at Wikipedia talk:Neutral point of view#RfC: When is it due to mention that an article subject has a minor planet named after it?. Renerpho (talk) 22:54, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Dubious statistic for use of diacritics

The MPC's Alphabetical List of names (archived version from today, for reference: ) is used as a source that Of all these minor-planet names, 1311 contain diacritical marks. That may not be a good source for this claim, because quite a few of names that should have diacritical marks are listed there without them. It is also difficult to verify. How am I supposed to determine the number without diacritical marks? I can run a self-written script, and find that there are currently 1,113 names for which the two name columns are not identical; an additional 79 names contain apostrophes. What else am I supposed to count, and should I really be expected to go to that length to verify a reference? I'm not the only one who has trouble with it, compare the edit summary for the most recent update made to the article (Special:Diff/1340613874, 26 February 2026). The last time the diacritics number was updated was in Special:Diff/1186264278 (22 November 2023).

Here is an incomplete list of examples that are missing diacritics in the MPC's list, just from the first few thousand numbered asteroids: (2109) Dhôtel, (3117) Niépce, (5289) Niemelä, (6429) Brâncuși, (6584) Luděkpešek, (7316) Hajdú, (8096) Émilezola. I'm fairly certain I didn't catch all below number 10000, and it doesn't get better once you go beyond that.

Most of these may have come about because the names were changed in the past five years or so to include the diacritics. But it's not that the MPC is simply out of date; for example, the name "Roentgen" (for Nobel laureate Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, discoverer of X-rays) was changed to (6401) Röntgen in January 2026, and the MPC's alphabetical list has the correct form. By the way: The original name, published in June 1996, is not mentioned in List of minor planets named after people. What are the inclusion criteria for that list if Röntgen doesn't make the cut?

It has only been in the last few years (since they're no longer bound by the limitations of ASCII) that they have opened up to the idea of using diacritical marks more liberally, so missing the majority of name changes from that time is a problem. Renerpho (talk) 12:49, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

I'm tagging Tom.Reding. Maybe you have some ideas? Renerpho (talk) 12:51, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

I don't think "Of all these minor-planet names, 1311 contain diacritical marks." is a worthwhile statistic. If it were easy to verify, then the benefit (minimal) would be worth the cost (minimal). Unfortunately, the MPC is quite inconsistent with its application of diacritics, and requires digging into the errata for resolution. Some of the MPC's errata is reflected in MPNames.html, and some is not. Therefore, it brings the cost of verification up without providing much value.

FWIW, I've found that the MPC's individual listings to be the most reliable (though not always: see ''Ayló''chaxnim vs. our 594913 ꞌAylóꞌchaxnim) & up-to-date, but they are unable to be queried at scale, as the MPC sees doing so as abuse and quickly blocks your IP for some time; hence, {{The Banstar Barnstar}}.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  13:12, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

That's a nice barnstar. I hadn't seen that one before!

I'm okay with completely removing the statistic. It's more trouble than it's worth. Renerpho (talk) 20:42, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

No list

Once again, there is no list. Bug? Dandasohhhh (talk) 04:29, 30 March 2026 (UTC)