What’s in a name?

The name aurora comes from the Latin word meaning sunrise and was the name of the Roman goddess of the dawn. In the northern latitudes, an aurora is called the aurora borealis or the Northern Lights. Boreas is the Greek name for the north wind.

In the southern latitudes, an aurora is called the aurora australis or the Southern Lights. Australis means “of the south” in Latin.

The plural of aurora is aurorae.