Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes recently spotted the faintest object ever seen in the early universe. The galaxy they spotted existed 13.8 billion years ago — only 400 million years after the Big Bang.
The research team nicknamed the galaxy Tayna, which means “first-born child” in Aymara, the language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes.
I’m not sure if tayna was ever used as a personal name among the Aymara, but I think there’s a possibility it was. After all, the word winona (meaning “first-born daughter”) was traditionally used as a name for first-born daughters among the Dakota Sioux.
The name Tayna has been given to hundreds of baby girls in the U.S., with usage peaking in the mid-1970s. (This usage mirrors the rise and fall of the more popular choice Tanya.)
What do you think of Tayna as a baby name? Does the cool definition offset the inevitable Tanya-confusion?
Source: NASA Space Telescopes See Magnified Image of Faintest Galaxy from Early Universe
Image: NASA, ESA, and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile