Hencke is asteroid #2005 and also known as 1973 RA. Hencke was discovered by the Swiss astronomer Paul Wild at the Zimmerwald Observatory. Hencke belongs to the Hirayama-family Eunomia.

Hencke is named after the German amateur astronomer Karl Ludwig Hencke, who lived from 1793 until 1866 and discovered two asteroids. These asteroids were Astraea and Hebe. The name Hencke is a variant of the Old German personal name Heimric, which means “home rule”. This doesn’t look very relevant.

As I explained in my article on Hebe, Karl Ludwig Hencke was the only one, who continued to search in the gap between Mars and Jupiter, while all other people thought that four planets there would be more then enough and no further discovery could be expected. This seems to be his most prominent feature. So Hencke shows the attitude of not giving up. Of course also people with the name Hencke.