You might have heard of some of the more popular stars, such as Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Polaris. These names sound foreign, and they are—their origins are mostly Arabic translations of Latin descriptions.

But to add to the confusion, scribes in the Middle Ages reproduced astronomical manuscripts by hand—a method that introduced errors, especially when copying words they did not know. Over time, the process of making copies of copies made it harder to decipher the original meaning of some words.

The common names for the brightest stars in the sky date back to ancient myths. Stars were often named after heroes, animals, or components of the constellations they helped form. The folklore of the stars offers a tantalizing glimpse into the associations ancient peoples established with the stars.

In all, about 900 stars have common names primarily of Arabic, Greek, or Latin origin. A few star names are relatively modern, however, invented as recently as the 20th century.

A few examples of common names are Sirius (Greek for scorching), Thuban (corrupted Arabic for serpent's head), and Betelgeuse, (a copying error from yad al-jauza, meaning the hand of al-Jauza, the "Central One").