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ArchivesIn addition to the Submitted Name Usage Meaning & History of the Surname KOCH on 2/5/2004 by Johan Kok
Koch - which also has the meaning of Cook in German's origin was however not from that meaning. It origins are to be traced in the Jewish ancestory. The original meaning came from the word Star. Amongst the related surnames (with or without bar in front or a ba or similar appended) are: Koch, Kochba, Kok, Kock, Kuk, Coq, Coqui, Cook (as a translation from the perceived meaning of cook) and a host of others including Kochab.
The previous pole star was Kochab (Beta Ursae Minoris, β UMi, β Ursae Minoris), the brightest star in the bowl of the "Little Dipper", located 16 degrees from Polaris. It held that role from 1500 BC to AD 500. Today, Kochab and its neighbor Pherkad are referred to as the "Guardians of the Pole" (meaning Polaris). Ursae Minoris (Latinised to Beta Ursae Minoris) is the star's Bayer designation.
It bore the traditional name Kochab which appeared in the Renaissance and its meaning is uncertain. It may be from Arabic الكوكب al-kawkab or Hebrew כוכב kōkhāv, both of which mean 'star'. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included Kochab for this star.
From around 2500 BCE, as Thuban became less and less aligned with the celestial north, Kochab became one pillar of the circumpolar stars first with Mizar, a star in the middle of the handle of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), and later with Pherkad (in Ursa Minor). In fact, circa the year 2467 BCE, the true north was best observed by drawing a plumb line between Mizar and Kochab, a fact with which the ancient Egyptians were well acquainted as they aligned the great Pyramid of Giza with it.
This cycle of the succession of pole stars occurs due to the precession of the equinoxes. Kochab and Mizar were referred to by Ancient Egyptian astronomers as "The Indestructibles" lighting the North. As precession continued, by the year 1100 BCE Kochab was within roughly 7° of the northern celestial pole, with old references over emphasizing this near pass by mentioning Beta Ursae Minoris as "Polaris", relating it to the current pole star, Polaris, which is slightly brighter and will have a much closer alignment of less than 0.5° by 2100 AD.
This change in the identity of the pole stars is a result of Earth's processional motion. After 2000 BCE, Kochab and a new star, its neighbour Pherkad, were closer to the pole and together served as twin pole stars, circling the North Pole, from around 1700 BCE until just after 300 AD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Ursae_Minoris
The previous pole star was Kochab (Beta Ursae Minoris, β UMi, β Ursae Minoris), the brightest star in the bowl of the "Little Dipper", located 16 degrees from Polaris. It held that role from 1500 BC to AD 500. Today, Kochab and its neighbor Pherkad are referred to as the "Guardians of the Pole" (meaning Polaris). Ursae Minoris (Latinised to Beta Ursae Minoris) is the star's Bayer designation.
It bore the traditional name Kochab which appeared in the Renaissance and its meaning is uncertain. It may be from Arabic الكوكب al-kawkab or Hebrew כוכב kōkhāv, both of which mean 'star'. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included Kochab for this star.
From around 2500 BCE, as Thuban became less and less aligned with the celestial north, Kochab became one pillar of the circumpolar stars first with Mizar, a star in the middle of the handle of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), and later with Pherkad (in Ursa Minor). In fact, circa the year 2467 BCE, the true north was best observed by drawing a plumb line between Mizar and Kochab, a fact with which the ancient Egyptians were well acquainted as they aligned the great Pyramid of Giza with it.
This cycle of the succession of pole stars occurs due to the precession of the equinoxes. Kochab and Mizar were referred to by Ancient Egyptian astronomers as "The Indestructibles" lighting the North. As precession continued, by the year 1100 BCE Kochab was within roughly 7° of the northern celestial pole, with old references over emphasizing this near pass by mentioning Beta Ursae Minoris as "Polaris", relating it to the current pole star, Polaris, which is slightly brighter and will have a much closer alignment of less than 0.5° by 2100 AD.
This change in the identity of the pole stars is a result of Earth's processional motion. After 2000 BCE, Kochab and a new star, its neighbour Pherkad, were closer to the pole and together served as twin pole stars, circling the North Pole, from around 1700 BCE until just after 300 AD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Ursae_Minoris
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