A star for my girlfriend

Name a star for someone special on the Intergalactic Star Database.

How serious a present should be depends on how long you have been together, and a star is unusual in that it can be either. The star stays the same. The name you put on it decides whether it is a grin, a declaration or something in between.

Match the name to where you are

You get up to 60 characters and we print them exactly as you type them. That is a lot of room for getting the tone right or wrong, so think about which of these sounds like the two of you.

• A few months in. Keep it light and private. An in-joke such as "The Flat White Incident" shows you were listening and doesn't ask anything of her.
• A year or so. Mark the time. "Priya and Sam, One Year In" is warm and specific without being a proposal.
• Living together. Name something you have built. "Flat 4, Our First Home" will make her laugh now and mean more later.
• Long-term, and you know it. Use her full name, or a line you have said to each other more than once.
• Unsure? Her first name on its own is never wrong, and it looks good on the certificate.

Whatever you choose, see it on the certificate before you order, and spell-check her name twice. A misspelt name is the one thing that would properly spoil it. Our list of naming ideas may help if you are stuck.

If you live apart

A star turns out to be a very good present for two people in different places, because both of you can look for the same star on the same night. Here is how to make the most of the distance.

• Send it to her door. The posted gift pack (£13.99, UK delivery included) can go straight to her student house or flat. Just give her address as the delivery address at checkout. It arrives in a full-colour gift envelope, so you needn't rewrap anything.
• Send it to her phone. The print-at-home star (£8.99) is ready the moment you've paid. From the star's page you can send a gift link, which opens as a message from the Database and then shows her the star.
• If she is abroad. Posted packs go to UK addresses only, so use print at home. The documents print on US paper sizes as well as UK ones.
• Look up together. Agree a time on a clear evening and both open the star's page on our star finder. It shows whether the star is up and which way to face, for London or for wherever you are if you share your location.

Being on the phone while you each try to find the same patch of sky is a better evening than it sounds, and you will both be hopeless at it together for the first ten minutes, which is part of the fun. If one of you has cloud, the star's page has a live sky map you can both drag around instead.

Making it feel like more than a piece of paper

Any paper gift depends on the moment you give it. You are handing over four documents: a Certificate of Registry, a Star Area Co-ordinates Sheet, a welcome letter and a fold-out star chart. What makes them a present is what goes around them.

• Write something. One honest sentence in a card explaining the name is worth more than a long poem.
• Frame it. A plain frame turns a certificate into something that stays on a shelf after the wrapping has gone.
• Plan the night. Check our guide to spotting a star, borrow a pair of binoculars, pack a blanket and a flask, and make the giving of it part of an evening out.
• Choose the day. A Valentine's star is the obvious one, and an anniversary or a birthday work as well. The unexpected Wednesday may be the one she remembers.
• Keep the number. Make a note of the Database Number yourself as well, in case the certificate gets left behind in a house move. It is how the star is found again.

Be straightforward about what you can see. Most of our stars are just beyond what the eye can manage on its own, so binoculars are needed, and each star has its months when it stands highest. The Altitude graph on the co-ordinates sheet shows them. How bright will it be?

What you are giving her, plainly

From November 2026 each new star comes from the Hipparcos catalogue and is recorded in the Intergalactic Star Database with its own Database Number. No star is given to two people in our registry, and its Database Number is what she will use to find it again. We have been naming stars as gifts since 2004, and more than a quarter of a million have been registered with us.

It isn't ownership, and it isn't a scientific name. The International Astronomical Union decides official star names and doesn't recognise names from any commercial registry. If she asks, tell her that, and tell her why you chose it anyway.

Questions about giving your girlfriend a star