 Brown had also speculated that "Persephone", the wife of the god Pluto, would be a good name for the object.The name had been used several times in science fiction, and was popular with the public, having handily won a poll conducted by "New Scientist" magazine ("Xena", despite only being a nickname, came fourth).This was not possible once the object was classified as a dwarf planet, because there is already an asteroid with that name, 399 Persephone.