Why are they called "belly buttons"?

Question

I'm 16, and i've always wondered why they gave them that odd name

Answer 1

because it is on your belly and it looks like a button.

Answer 2

Perhaps it is due to the shape, rather puckers appearance, looking like a button.  I found the following a while ago.  Perhaps you too will find it interesting.

The source site has even more on belly buttons.

Bellybutton names

The belly button has many names, including the fairly technical term "navel". "Navel" comes from the Anglo-Saxon word "nafela".

The Romans called the belly button the "umbilicus".

The Greeks called it the "omphalos". So if you add the Greek word "tomê" (meaning "cutting"), you get "omphalotomy". This word means "cutting of the umbilical cord".

Omphalos also means "k**b" or "hub". The Greeks erected a holy stone, or fetish stone, in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi (on the slopes of Mount Parnassus near the Gulf of Corinth). They called this rounded conical stone the Omphalos (or Navel), as they thought that it marked the exact center of their universe.

The tallest mountain in Bali is Gunung Agung. One Balinese myth says that their deities had mountains as their thrones, and that the highest mountain of all was Gunung Agung. The Balinese call this mountain the "Navel of the World".

The original inhabitants of Easter Island called it "Rapa Nui" ("Great Rapa") or "Te Pito te Henua" ("Navel of the World").

Answer 3

Velcro had not been invented yet, good thing too.

Answer 4

That's where the OBGYN unbuttons you to let your baby out.

Answer 5

...because if you unbutton it, your legs fall off....I believed that until 3rd grade....lol

Answer 6

It is the knot to your skin, if you open your belly button your skin will peel off..................lol

Answer 7

Because they're in the middle of the belly region and can look like buttons.

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