Origin and history of Uranus

1800, the first planet found that had not been known in ancient times, it is named for the god of Heaven in Greek mythology, husband of Gaia (the Earth) and by her father of the Titans, etc. Uranus is the Latinized form of Greek Ouranos, name of the god who personifies the heavens, which is literally "heaven, the sky."

The planet was discovered and identified as one in 1781 by Sir William Herschel (it had been observed before but mistaken for a star; in 1690 Flamsteed cataloged it as 34 Tauri); Herschel proposed calling it Georgium Sidus, literally "George's Star," in honour of his patron, King George III of England.

I cannot but wish to take this opportunity of expressing my sense of gratitude, by giving the name of Georgium Sidus ... to a star which (with respect to us) first began to shine under His auspicious reign. [Sir William Herschel, 1783]

The planet thus was known in English in 1780s as the Georgian Planet; but that name naturally never caught on "amongst foreigners." French astronomers began calling it Herschel in honor of the discoverer, and German astronomer Johann Bode proposed Uranus as in conformity with other planet names, and English astronomers were preferring Uranus by 1809. However Uranus is said not to have come into common use until c. 1850.

The example had been set by Galileo, who had attempted to name the moons of Jupiter he had discovered Sidera Medicæa in honor of the Medici family, which failed.

Yet no sovereigns ever deserved better of literature and science than the family of Medici ; and, if their name has not come down associated with the stars discovered by Galileo, so, neither are we to expect, that the name of the most respectable sovereign of the House of Brunswick is to continue united to the discoveries of Herschel. [review of Vince's "Complete System of Astronomy," vol. III, in Edinburgh Review, April 1809]