The pattern of constellations (groupings of stars) we use today has Mesopotamian origins and was adopted in ancient Greece and Egypt. The constellations make up an interesting collection of animals, mythical beasts and heroes. In the ancient Greek scientific tradition, early astronomers, such as Hipparchus and Ptolemy described stars by their location within constellations. They typically used terms such as the "star on the beak" or the "eye of the bull".

When the ancient Greek scientific tradition ended, the star location descriptions were translated into Arabic and used by astronomers working within the Islamic world. They also used some star names originating in the independent Arabic tradition of star folklore.

During the Renaissance in Western Europe, Arabic astronomical books were translated into Latin. As a result of this translation, the Arabic star names and location descriptions became latinised into the names we use today. As astronomy developed with the use of the telescope, new systems of naming stars and other astronomical objects were invented such as the Bayer Letters, a system where the brightest stars in each constellation are given a Greek letter, and Flamsteed Numbers. Messier (M) Numbers and NGC (New General Catalogue) Numbers are used for identifying other celestial objects, such as star clusters, galaxies and nebulae.