Minor planet designations are number-name combinations given by the Minor Planet Center, a part of the IAU. They are used for dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies such as asteroids, but not comets. They are given to a body once its orbit is secured and unrelated to provisional designations, given when an object is found.

The two parts of a formal designation are

• a number, historically given in a similar order to the order that it was found, now given only after the orbit is secured
• a name, either the name assigned by the astronomer who found it or, more commonly, the provisional designation.