Why do we refer to Luna as "the moon" & Sol "the sun" but call all other celestial bodies by name?

Question

I've often wondered where this practice came from.

Answer 1

For the same reason that a person from Chicago might call Lake Michigan "the lake".  All of mankind's views are biased towards our own experiences, and all of mankind lives on Earth.  Since Luna is Earth's moon, it becomes known as The Moon, and since Sol is our sun it becomes known as The Sun.

Answer 2

Until a few centuries ago, the sun and moon were believed to be unique, so proper names were not necessary.

Answer 3

We don't always call other celestial bodies by a single name.

This is especially true of stars.

Betelgeuse has about twenty other names and is often called alpha Ori

(brightest star we can see in Orion); likewise Rigel is beta Ori).

One of my favorite stars is IRC 10216, but it is also called:

PEANUT NEBULA  

2MASS J09475740+1316435  

CW Leo  

[SFD98] 221.4+45.1  

CGCS 2619  

PK 221+45 1  

Zel 0945+135  

IRAS 09452+1330  

RAFGL 1381  

SCM 50  

Also - technically Moon refers to our natural satellite, and not to the satellites of other planets - but we use moon and satellite interchangeably. This is equivalent to using scotch tape to refer to any brand of sticky tape, or spackle for the DIY  filler stuff when technically it these terms only refer to those specific brands

Answer 4

Years ago it was decided to use the language of the ancient Romans (which was called Latin) for scientific terms. A lot of ancient Greek terms are also used.

The planets are all named after Roman gods including the sun and the moon. It's just that we use the common Germanic names for the sun and the moon because throughout history these two have been known to all people, whereas the planets were only known to the educated who prefered to use latin names.

Answer 5

We call America "the country", the mountains nearest to us "the mountains", the puddle we just stepped in "the puddle", and the TV nearest to us "the TV".  When I say "I'm going out to the car", no one thinks I mean someone else's car.  It's an assumption based on the obvious.  

Answer 6

Luna and Sol are not their names, they're the spanish words for "Moon" and "Sun"