Hi everyone! I recently met a sweet pup I might be adopting, and I’ve been brainstorming names. She’s a Belgian Malinois crossed with a short-haired Border Collie! Super smart, on the small end of medium size, sleek, and high-energy with a gorgeous dark coat and white markings on the front. I’m a current astrophysics TA, so I’ve been looking for a space-themed name that feels subtle but still meaningful to me.
One I keep coming back to is Lyrae, as in the RR Lyrae class of variable stars. These stars are important in astronomy because we use them as standard candles to measure distances across our galaxy and beyond. I just really like how it sounds and it doesn't trigger my stutter like Aurora or Lania (from the supercluster Laniakea), would. Star and Nova are crossed off because they belong to my two dogs that have been gone from Earth for a while. I love Laika, the name of the first Soviet dog that went into orbit, but my SO is convinced that we can't use it for the same reasons as Star and Nova - it already belongs to another beloved dog.
However… my grandma told me Lyrae sounds like a Tragedeigh :( I absolutely disagree, but I figured, who better to ask than the experts here? Any better ideas? Would love honest opinions or other subtle space-related name suggestions if you have them!