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I know there are mare, oceani, and lacunae, but anything else that I'm overlooking from lists of lunar features?

Does the "dark"/far side have a particular, maybe Latin scientific name (tho it gets lit as much as the near side, of course), or the unlit area aside from 'night'?

(I'm trying to name a kitten who was born July 19th during the Apollo XI 50th anniversary. All girls, the one white one with soft black extremities is Luna, one all black but the barest white dusting about her neck is Mare, then there's Mare's essentially identical twin, who needs the name.)

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  • $\begingroup$ Macula is used for dark spots, but as far as I know they are not part of the nomenclature for Luna, but show up on Titan, Triton, Charon, Europa and Pluto. Lacus (lake) is sometimes used for small Mares. $\endgroup$
    – Anders Sandberg
    Mar 11, 2020 at 20:10
  • $\begingroup$ Interesting, but I do wanna stick to lunar geography ("lunography"??). A little reminiscent of 'macular degeneration,' too. `:( $\endgroup$
    – New Contributor
    Mar 11, 2020 at 20:42
  • $\begingroup$ Not a feature on the Moon, but you could use Diana - if not for Mare's twin, then for another one. $\endgroup$
    – John Dvorak
    Mar 12, 2020 at 14:17

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not sure about the dark side, but there are numerous other lunar features:

Wikipedia Lunar Features

Maybe Catena (a chain of craters) or Rima (lunar rilles)?

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Some parts of the Lunar South pole never see sunlight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_south_pole#Craters

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The plural are mare is maria, so Maria might be a good name for kitten/cat, particularly given the unnamed one is a twin.

Also, olivine is common mineral on the moon, as it is on earth. Olivine is generally a darker green mineral, hence its name. From this one could derive either Olive or Olivia.

Other names to consider:

  • Quacey - Scottish for moonlight
  • Lucine - Armenia name meaning "moon", shorten it to Lucy
  • Kamaria - Swahili for "beauty of the moon"
  • Selene or Selena - Greek & Latin names for the moon
  • Mona - English for the moon
  • Luna Negre - negre is Catalan for black, so the name would be Black Moon
  • Eclipse - the moon goes dark during an eclipse
  • Penumbra - the partial darkness during an eclipse.
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