Ursa is asteroid #1838 and also known as 1971 UC. Ursa was discovered by the Swiss astronomer Paul Wild at the Zimmerwald Observatory. Ursa belongs to the Hirayama-family Alauda.

The discoverer’s wife is named Ursula. Their son is named Urs. Paul Wild shall have named Ursa after both of them and also after the bear shown by the coat of arms of the city and the canton of Bern, Switzerland. Urs is the Latin word for the bear. Ursa is a female bear. Ursula is a little female bear. Asteroids should be named in a feminized form, so urs can be the origin of the name Ursa. On the one hand Ursula shall also be a namesake, on the other hand there is an asteroid named Ursula, that fits better as a namesake for Ursula.

The asteroid #1838 is partly, but not only a person name asteroid. So Ursa can represent persons named after bears or named after the bear. But Ursa can also represent bears. Urs can hint to the canton Bern in Switzerland. Urs should be most interesting, when found together with Ursula. Then both asteroids can represent mother and child. Maybe also a family in a more abstract way or a family of bears. I had already published my article on Ursula when I found that there is also an asteroid named Ursa. Otherwise I would have treated them together. I would perhaps have ignored Ursa if I wouldn’t have written about Ursula too. Due to the difficulties of finding asteroids, that belong together in such ways like here the big and the small version of the same animal, I don’t know whether there are more asteroids named after bears. With currently available tools can such links only be figured out with help of coincidences. So the interpretation here should only be accepted with some reservation because other bear-related asteroids could enlarge the theme.