The name Pluto isn't just attached to a small icy world at the edge of the solar system. It is also the name of an ancient Roman god, a Greek god with a different name but the same job, and a beloved cartoon dog. They all became famous in the same year — 1930. And they are all connected, in surprising ways.
Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld — the dark, cold place beneath the earth where souls went after death. In Greek mythology, the same god is called Hades. The planet Pluto was named after him in 1930 by an 11-year-old girl from Oxford because a faraway, freezing world fits the underworld perfectly.
Same God, Different Storytellers
In Greece, he was Hades.
In Rome, he became Pluto.
Same job: ruler of the underworld.
Same fate: a world named after him 2,000 years later.
The ancient Greeks worshipped many gods, and one of the most important was Hades, the god of the underworld. He had two brothers — Zeus, the king of the gods who lived on Mount Olympus, and Poseidon, the god of the sea. After their father Cronus was defeated, the three brothers divided the world between them. Zeus got the sky. Poseidon got the oceans. Hades got the underworld, the dark land of the dead.
When the Romans took over from the Greeks centuries later, they kept all the same gods but renamed them. Zeus became Jupiter. Poseidon became Neptune. And Hades became Pluto. The name Pluto comes from the Greek word "Ploutōn," meaning "wealthy" — because the underworld contained all the metals and gemstones hidden inside the earth.
What the Underworld Was Like
In the old stories, Pluto's underworld wasn't exactly a punishment. It was just where everyone went after they died. Souls travelled there in a journey that included:
- The river Styx — the dark river marking the boundary between the world of the living and the dead
- The ferryman Charon — who took souls across the Styx for the price of a coin
- The three-headed dog Kerberos — who guarded the gates so nobody could leave
- The goddess Nyx — goddess of the night, mother of darkness
- And the swampy edges, where the many-headed serpent Hydra lurked
Look at those names again. Charon, Styx, Kerberos, Nyx (which became Nix), Hydra. They are the names of Pluto's five moons. Astronomers picked names from the same mythology to match the planet. The whole Pluto system is the Greek underworld in miniature. Meet all five moons.
The Famous Stories — Pluto and Persephone
The most famous Pluto-myth tells how the seasons began. The young goddess Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest. One day Pluto saw Persephone picking flowers and was so taken with her that he carried her down to the underworld to be his queen.
Demeter was heartbroken. She let everything growing on Earth wither and die. The other gods worked out a deal: Persephone would spend part of every year with Pluto in the underworld, and part of every year back on Earth with her mother. While she is away, the world freezes. When she comes back, Demeter is happy again and everything grows.
That, in the old stories, is why we have seasons. It is also a perfect myth for a planet whose own atmosphere literally freezes every year and falls to the ground as snow. More on Pluto's freezing atmosphere.
How Venetia Burney Picked the Name
When Pluto was discovered on 18 February 1930, the Lowell Observatory in Arizona had to figure out what to call it. Suggestions poured in from all over the world — Minerva, Cronus, Atlas, Zeus, even names for the discoverer's wife.
The winning suggestion came from an 11-year-old girl in Oxford, England. Her name was Venetia Burney, and she was eating breakfast with her grandfather on the morning of 14 March 1930 when he told her about the newly discovered planet. Venetia had been studying Greek and Roman mythology at school. Without much hesitation she said: "Pluto."
Why? It made perfect sense. The new planet was far, far away — out at the edge of the solar system in the dark and cold, just like the mythological Pluto's underworld. The name even matched Percival Lowell's initials — PL — Percival being the astronomer who started the search 30 years earlier.
A farm boy found it.
An 11-year-old named it.
The first two letters were the founder's initials.
Venetia's grandfather, who happened to know an astronomer at Oxford, passed the suggestion to the Lowell Observatory. They loved it. By 24 March 1930, the new planet was officially named Pluto. Venetia received a £5 reward (worth about £350 today). She told reporters years later that she had spent it on a doll's house. More on Pluto's discovery.
The Disney Dog — A Coincidence That Wasn't One
In 1930, the very same year Pluto was discovered, Walt Disney introduced a new cartoon dog as Mickey Mouse's pet. The dog first appeared without a name in a film called The Chain Gang. Disney first called him "Rover," then renamed him "Pluto the Pup" in 1931, then dropped the "Pup" and stuck with just Pluto.
Was the dog named after the planet? Almost certainly yes. Walt Disney never directly confirmed it, but the timing is unmistakable. Pluto the planet was on every front page in the world in March 1930. The cartoon Pluto was named six months later, when Pluto was still the most talked-about word in science.
Venetia Burney lived to be 90 years old, working as a schoolteacher in England. In 2006 — the same year Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet and the same year NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft toward it — she gave interviews about her childhood breakfast moment. She lived just long enough to see the spacecraft begin its journey to the world she had named. She died in 2009, six years before it arrived.
So if anyone tells you Pluto was named after the Disney dog, you can politely tell them the opposite is true. The dwarf planet got there first.
Read about Pluto's discovery and how Tombaugh found it, the underworld-themed names of Pluto's five moons, or jump back to the main Pluto facts page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Pluto in mythology?
Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld — the dark, cold land beneath the earth where souls were believed to go after death. In Greek mythology, the same god is called Hades. Pluto's name comes from the Greek word 'Ploutōn,' meaning 'wealthy,' because the underworld contained metals and gemstones hidden inside the earth.
Why is the dwarf planet called Pluto?
The dwarf planet was named Pluto in 1930 by an 11-year-old British girl called Venetia Burney. She suggested the name because the new world was so far away and so cold — a perfect match for the dark underworld of the Roman god Pluto. The Lowell Observatory loved the name partly because the first two letters, PL, matched the initials of Percival Lowell, who had started the search for the planet decades earlier.
Was Pluto named after the Disney dog?
No — it was the other way around. The dwarf planet Pluto was named in March 1930. Walt Disney introduced his cartoon dog later that same year, almost certainly inspired by the planet that was making world headlines.
Is Pluto the same as Hades?
Yes. Pluto and Hades are the same god — the ruler of the underworld in Greek (Hades) and Roman (Pluto) mythology. The Romans kept all the Greek gods but gave them Roman names. Pluto is the Latin version.
Why are Pluto's moons named after the underworld?
Astronomers picked names from the same mythology to match the dwarf planet. Charon is the ferryman of the dead, Styx is the river that marks the boundary of the underworld, Kerberos is the three-headed dog who guards the gates, Nix is the goddess of night, and Hydra is the many-headed serpent.