Named in honor of the Belgian amateur astronomer and professional meteorologist Jean Meeus, among whose numerous contrubutions to astronomy are the original 1963 edition of “Tables des Petites Planetes” and improved and updated versions of Oppolzer's canon of eclipses. His other writings range from dynamical studies of long-term motions of Apollo objects, through examinations of geometrical configurations of the planets, to the debunking of the idea that there exist observations of faint natural satellites of the earth. Name proposed by E. Bowell, who made the key identification for this planet, and also by J. U. Gunter, following a suggestion by E. Fogelin.