The story of the Intergalactic Star Database

The Intergalactic Star Database has been helping people mark the moments that matter by naming a star since 2004. This page sets out how the registry works now, how it has been kept, what changed in November 2026 and who stands behind the name. We have kept to what can be stated plainly.

Since 2004: a registry for the moments that matter

The idea at the heart of the registry is simple: someone wants to mark an occasion, and a star is registered under the name they choose. More than a quarter of a million stars have been registered with us, as birthday and Christmas presents, for weddings and new babies, and in memory of someone loved.

That number is worth a moment's thought, because each one began with a person choosing a name that mattered to them. A quarter of a million names means a quarter of a million occasions, and we have treated each of those entries the same way: one star, one registration, one name. No star is given to two people in our registry.

You will find those occasions on our pages about a birthday star, a star at Christmas, weddings and anniversaries, a newborn baby, and a star in memory.

More than twenty years of private records

For more than twenty years the registry was kept privately. Stars were registered under the names people chose, but the record itself wasn't something you could open and look through on a website.

Those stars are not lost and the records have not gone away. Stars registered before November 2026 are held in our original registry, which isn't connected to this website, so they can't be looked up here. If you have a certificate from those years, we have a page explaining what you can do.

So there are two parts to the registry today: our original registry, which holds the stars from before November 2026, and our online registry, which holds every star registered since. A star you name now goes into the second of those.

What changed in November 2026

In November 2026 we opened our online registry. Two things changed that month, and they are separate.

• The registry came online. Every star registered from then on can be found on this website. Enter its Database Number on our star finder and you can see the star in the night sky, and print its Certificate of Registry and Star Area Co-ordinates Sheet at home whenever you like.
• Each new star comes from a named catalogue. From November 2026 each new star is chosen from the Hipparcos catalogue, the star map made by the Hipparcos satellite of the European Space Agency, and it is listed with its catalogue number, its exact position in the sky and its constellation.

Some things are as simple as they sound. A star is entered in the Intergalactic Star Database with its own Database Number and the name you choose. Each comes with four documents: a Certificate of Registry, a Star Area Co-ordinates Sheet, a welcome letter and a fold-out star chart of the night sky. You can have them printed and posted in a gift pack, or ready to print at home the moment you've paid. Our gift pack page shows what arrives.

We also want to be honest about the name. Your chosen name is recorded in our registry. Astronomers and scientific star catalogues use their own names and numbers, official star names are decided by the International Astronomical Union, and it doesn't recognise names from any commercial registry. Your star's name won't appear in scientific records. Most of our stars need binoculars to see. We would rather you heard all of that from us. Read more about how star naming works.

Who stands behind the name

Crowther Creative Products Limited, a UK company (number 04994959), trades as the Intergalactic Star Database. Intergalactic Star Database is a registered UK trade mark (number UK00004415837), held by that company, and we have been naming stars under it since 2004.

A trade mark is a practical thing for a registry to have, because a registry is only as useful as the name on it. It means there is one identifiable company answerable for the Intergalactic Star Database, and you can check who that is.

This website, intergalacticstardatabase.co.uk, is the only website we run under that name, and we also sell through Amazon UK. We have no connection with any other website or star naming company using our name, so please don't be fooled by impersonators. If you have found us under some other address, it isn't us. The safest route is to type our address yourself, and our guide to what to check before buying a star sets out the rest.

Nor is this page a finished account. A registry that has been going since 2004 goes on adding entries, and the next one might be the star you name. If you want to know how the process works from the moment you type a name, our step-by-step page on what happens when you name a star walks through it. And if you are here because you were given one of our certificates and aren't sure what to do with it, begin with finding your star.

Questions about our history