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Hi Andrew,
Don't take this as a criticism, just my own view which those who know me, know well. Others see this topic differently and I guess you are all entitled to your own wrong opinions ;-^)).
I have a strongly rooted aversion to creating new "common names" for objects in the night sky. The idea of allocating a "popular name" is almost contradictory to the idea itself. It is akin to inventing a nick-name for yourself. Worse still it can lead to confusion.
How many galaxies are now commonly called the "Pinwheel galaxy" -- four at last count I think, M101, M33, M83 and NGC 2997? Actually, one of the last two is called the "Southern Pinwheel", but I can't remember which one (Case in point)! To add to the mix, then there is the "Pinwheel Nebula" -- M99 which is also a galaxy. This surely is one of the major reasons why we give things a catalogue number so when we communicate with each other, we know _exactly_ what we are each talking about.
I harbor a particularly deep loathing for "common names" that are culture specific. Quite a few of the common names we have become stuck with have been invented in the U.S.A and quite often they refer to a thing quite foreign or unknown to our culture. The excellent planetary nebula NGC 6337in Scorpius is a very good example -- the "Cheerio Nebula" of which I became aware about 15 years ago.
When I saw that name, I thought, what in the hell is a cheerio? It wasn't till they were sold here about 6 years ago that I appreciated the context of the name. An amateur astronomer in Africa or Asia would probably still be in the dark (no pun intended) trying to work out what the name meant.
Another example is the "Toby Jug" nebula -- IC 2220. Some of us will know what a toby jug is, I suspect most won't. It was coined by a couple of Poms at the AAO.
Howabout we start calling things the "nulla-nulla" nebula? (NGC 3199 perhaps) (No, please please, I didn't really suggest that) That'll have the whole world guessing what it looks like!
Even better, we could call _all_ the dark nebulae the "Vegemite Nebula". Sound's right and proper don't it? Then we can argue about whether some should be called the "Marmite nebula".
Burn all common names unless they are _Universally Common_. (Or at least in the context of this hobby "Earthaversally"!)
Having said that, how did the O.C NGC 6231 escape without a moniker I wonder?
Best,
Les D
The laws of Thermodynamics (summarised)
1st Law: You can't win.
2nd Law: You can't break even.
3rd Law: You can't leave the game.
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