Favorite planet other than Earth

[muon2]

If Pluto is on the list, why can't we vote for Eris? It orbits the sun, is larger than Pluto, and has a moon.

[muon2]

If Pluto is on the list, why can't we vote for Eris? It orbits the sun, is larger than Pluto, and has a moon.

I thought about Eris (and ceres as well) in the abstract, but Pluto is still the only one named after a Disney Character, and the only one that gets my vote. 

Alas, Disney took the name from the newly discovered object. Pluto was named for the god of the underworld as suggested by the granddaughter of an Oxford librarian. It was favored among names since the first two letters are the initials of Percival Lowell who started the project to find planet X beyond Neptune.

Ceres is another good suggestion, and an instructive tale for those who long for Pluto's return to the list of planets. The orbit of the asteroids was predicted to hold a planet and in 1801 Ceres was discovered and considered that missing planet. It and the other large asteroids were listed in tables of the planets until the mid-1800's. At that point after a gap of almost 40 years astronomers began discovering many objects in the asteroid belt. With so many objects in that region, the original asteroid-planets were reclassified removing the planetary designation. Note the historical parallel to Pluto. Like Pluto, Ceres was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

[muon2]

... after a gap of almost 40 years astronomers began discovering many objects in the asteroid belt. With so many objects in that region, the original asteroid-planets were reclassified removing the planetary designation. Note the historical parallel to Pluto. Like Pluto, Ceres was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

I'd read that about seven years ago in National Geographic.  The article was entitled "And then there were eight" or something like that.  Sad about Pluto, or so I thought.  Of course, the astronomical puzzles and toys I'd purchased for my son in his infancy all featured Pluto ("named after a delightful dog!"), but eventually, over the years, it has been phased out.  Nowadays the models have eight planets only.  I suppose he doesn't even remember a time when Pluto was a planet.  In the chart on his bedroom wall, there are eight planets and three dwarf planets and to him--and I suppose his entire generation--it all seems normal.  But when we visit the labs of higher learning, as we do on days like today--President's Day; ergo, take your child to work day--he notices that the little mechanical solar systems still have pluto.  Quaint, perhaps, and dated, but I like it.
 
Anyway, the fundamental reason for my vote for pluto was best summarized by Clarko95.
 

But by Clarko95's logic since Ceres was a newly discovered planet first, shouldn't it take precedence over Pluto?

[muon2]

But by Clarko95's logic since Ceres was a newly discovered planet first, shouldn't it take precedence over Pluto?

possibly.  If he grew up with puzzles and toys which featured Ceres as a planet, but now his children are deprived of the joy of learning the name of Ceres, then maybe he should vote for Ceres.  But that's more of an existential question, since Ceres wasn't in the poll in the first place. 

As a Vader, don't you enjoy explaining them every Sunday our nine planets?

With the discovery of KBOs in the 90's I was convinced that Pluto's days as a planet were numbered just as Ceres' were over 100 years before. By the time of the discovery of Varuna (2000) and Quaoar (2002) I was teaching my children (and students) that Pluto didn't fit any reasonable definition of a planet that wouldn't eventually make 100's of other solar system objects into planets.

Science advances with new knowledge, what could be more important to teach than that?