WI: John Flamsteed recognizes he observes a new planet

He was responsible for several of the earliest recorded sightings of the planet Uranus, which he mistook for a star and catalogued as '34 Tauri'. The first of these was in December 1690, which remains the earliest known sighting of Uranus by an astronomer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Flamsteed#Scientific_work
Yes, guys, that's me and my late 17th/early 18th century tech trivia. But that seemed to be just too interesting not to miss.
If Flamsteed manages to recognize Uranus as a planet...does it still end up called Uranus? Or maybe Neptune (that's the mother of all allohistoric stuff, I think)?
Swedish astronomer Erik Prosperin proposed the name Neptune, which was supported by other astronomers who liked the idea to commemorate the victories of the British Royal Naval fleet in the course of the American Revolutionary War by calling the new planet even Neptune George III or Neptune Great Britain
Considering that OTL Uranus nearly ended up being called Neptune...
 

Dorozhand

Banned
Uranus is an oddball in that its name is a Latinization of a Greek deity rather than a Roman deity. I do like the idea of the name, being the father of Saturn as Saturn is the father of Jupiter, but there is also the factor of the unfortunate English pun which, frankly, has crippled public discussion of the planet's features in the English speaking world.

There is the possibility of the name Caelus, being the rough Roman equivalent of Uranus. I do like the name aesthetically, but its meaning isn't quite the same.

One might go balls out Greek and spell it 'Ouranos', which has a sword-and-sandal sort of feel to it, but it sticks out like an even sorer thumb among the other names.

Neptune might be the best choice, actually. Then our Neptune could get the name Pluto just to make it more confusing :D although that is a very aesthetically pleasing arrangement I think.
 
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