It's also a very cool binary star! Now also known as Omicron Ceti and the namesake of a whole category of "Mira"-type stars! It's the first variable star whose change in brightness was observable with the naked eye, and it goes from pretty bright to almost invisible over the course of 11 months, prompting more study into variable stars. More importantly to meaning, it was named Mira for the Latin word for 'wonderful', "mirus", (but it is actually mira if you do the declension into a sentence). That's also where the root of the word "miracle" comes from: a thing to be wondered at. (It also happens to be the imperative form of the verb "to be amazed/to wonder (or look in wonder)/to marvel", so you could be calling your baby 'wonderful' or...demanding everyone else marvel at her! Since it means "look!" in third person in Spanish, too, it'll get that point across anyway ;D I have a character I named "Mira" more or less at random, and I've grown very fond of the fun facts.) Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira - more on the "wonderful" star and for those who are curious about my Latin: https://www.online-latin-dictionary.com/latin-english-dictionary.php?lemma=MIRUS100 - the adjective form https://www.online-latin-dictionary.com/latin-english-dictionary.php?lemma=MIRO100 - the verb form
More importantly to meaning, it was named Mira for the Latin word for 'wonderful', "mirus", (but it is actually mira if you do the declension into a sentence). That's also where the root of the word "miracle" comes from: a thing to be wondered at.
(It also happens to be the imperative form of the verb "to be amazed/to wonder (or look in wonder)/to marvel", so you could be calling your baby 'wonderful' or...demanding everyone else marvel at her! Since it means "look!" in third person in Spanish, too, it'll get that point across anyway ;D I have a character I named "Mira" more or less at random, and I've grown very fond of the fun facts.)
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira - more on the "wonderful" star
and for those who are curious about my Latin:
https://www.online-latin-dictionary.com/latin-english-dictionary.php?lemma=MIRUS100 - the adjective form
https://www.online-latin-dictionary.com/latin-english-dictionary.php?lemma=MIRO100 - the verb form