If you’re looking for that perfect present for someone who has everything, it’s hard to beat giving a star in the universe or a piece of the moon.

Since 1979, the International Star Registry has sold customers around the world the naming rights to about 1 million stars.

Naming a star for yourself or someone you love can cost you as little as around $68 (plus postage and packaging), for which you’ll receive a certificate with the star name, date and astronomical coordinates. You’ll also get a sky chart showing the constellation and the location, circled in red, where the star is in the sky. In terms of longevity and reliability (but not ease of use) in a product, Consumer might almost be tempted to recommend a star.

But there are several not-so-great aspects of naming a star with the International Star Registry.

Firstly, you won’t actually own the star you’re naming – the United Nations Outer Space Treaty precludes any nation, company, group or individual from owning the planets, moons or stars in space.

And while your star name may be recognised by the International Star Registry, it won’t be by anyone else. Only the International Astronomical Union (IAU) can officially name stars - and these are not sold, but assigned letters and numbers by strict rules so they can be located. These are the names used by scientists, authorities, and space agencies, not whatever name you give yours.

You’ll also probably need to buy a powerful telescope. With only about 6000 visible stars in the night sky and a million or more stars already named by others, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to point up to the night sky and have your friends identify your star with the naked eye.

Numerous companies

With easy money to be made, it’s no wonder the International Star Registry is just one of numerous companies selling the names of stars. StarNamer, Name A Star, the Global Star Registry, Universal Star Listing, and the official-sounding Ministry of Federal Star Registration are just a few of those cashing in on this novelty gift. Some also use “charity” as a hook. StarFoundation (which uses the highly misleading web address www.buyastar.net) gives up to 25 percent of the star proceeds to one of its five “Charity Partners”.

While each company promises not to sell the same star twice and keeps its own register, there seems to be no inter-company agreement not to name the same stars. So while you may have bought “Brian” from one company, it’s conceivable someone else has bought the same star from another company and called it “Flammable Gaseous Domain of the Galactic Garden Gnome Liberation Front”.

But it’s all academic really – or unacademic as the case may be. Conservative estimates put the number of stars in the universe at around 10 sextillion (if that seems an unusual term it’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000), meaning there’s a virtually inexhaustible supply of stars for sale.

Our advice? You can call any star in the sky “Nadine” for free if you wish … even if no one else does. Apart from an expensive certificate and map, that’s pretty much the same as buying a star name from one of these groups.

For a light-hearted look at star-naming, visit The Onion which has the humorous satirical radio story, International Star Registry Accidentally Renames Sun 'Margaret'.

The moon for sale

It may sound crackpot, but the Lunar Republic Society and its affiliate The Lunar Registry have the stated goal of inhabiting the moon by 2015. To raise funds for this “privatised exploration, settlement and development of the moon”, The Lunar Registry is “selling” property on the moon.

The problem is the United Nations Outer Space Treaty, which precludes any nation, company, group or individual from owning planets, moons or stars. Undaunted, the Lunar Registry is selling “the moon’s most prestigious location”, the Sea of Tranquility (its official title in US English) as the place to be at $52 an acre, or you could slum it in the Sea of Vapors (same again) for just $26 an acre. That seems cheap, considering you’ll get a deed certificate, mineral rights and a satellite photo of your moon real estate.

Other companies, with a similarly illegitimate right to do so, are selling parts of the moon as well. We’ll wait and see how valuable or worthless these “investments” are, and how much legal action is involved when people try to claim their “property”.

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