The International Astronomical Union officially named a lunar crater 'Hypatia' in July 1935, commemorating her on the Moon's surface.
In July 1935, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) finalized an official batch of lunar nomenclature that included a crater named Hypatia, located near the Moon's equator adjacent to the Rimae Hypatia rilles. This act permanently inscribed her name onto the lunar landscape, joining a select group of historical scientists, philosophers, and scholars memorialized in the Moon's official cartography.
The naming of the crater reflects the esteem in which Hypatia was held by the international scientific community during the early 20th century, a period marked by renewed interest in the history of science and the recovery of women's contributions to intellectual history. As one of the few women honored with a lunar feature at that time, the crater stands as a rare and significant recognition of a female scholar within a nomenclature system historically dominated by male scientists.
The crater Hypatia, along with the associated Rimae Hypatia system of rilles, continues to be studied by lunar geologists and referenced in astronomical literature, ensuring that her name remains actively used within scientific discourse nearly two millennia after her death.