The 11 year old girl who suggested the name "Pluto" for the newly discovered planet is now 87, and is the only person alive to have named a planet. BBC News has a lovely profile of Venetia Phair (née Burney), who named the ninth planet:
On the morning of 14 March 1930, the young Venetia Burney was sitting down to breakfast in the dining room of the house in north Oxford where she lived with her grandfather Falconer Madan.
Mr Madan, who was retired as librarian at the Bodleian Library, was with her reading The Times newspaper.
When he got to an article on page 14 about the new planet's discovery, he remarked on it to Venetia.
"I can still visualise the table and the room, but I can remember very little about the conversation," Mrs Phair said.
The article mentioned that the planet had not yet been named, prompting Venetia Burney to suggest her own.
Mr Madan was so impressed with the name Pluto, he went straight to his friend Herbert Hall Turner, professor of astronomy at the University of Oxford, and one of the leaders in the worldwide effort to produce an astrographic chart.
(via Neatorama)
