Ophelia is asteroid #171 and a member of the Hirayama-family Themis. Ophelia was discovered by the French astronomer Alphonse Louis Nicolas Borrelly at the Marseille Observatory. The moon Uranus VII, also known as S/1986 U 8, is named Ophelia too. This is the outer shepherd moon of Uranus’ ε-ring. Nothing else is known about this Ophelia, that is named after the same namesake as the asteroid #171.

Ophelia is named after Ophelia, a character in Shakespeare’s theater play Hamlet. The theater play is named after the Danish prince Hamlet, who is also the main role in this theater play. The royal family has a counselor, who is named Polonius. This royal counselor has a son named Laertes and a daughter named Ophelia. She is younger than her brother. Ophelia is first an adorer and lover of Hamlet, but when her father gets told about this affair, he ends it and prohibits that Ophelia sees Hamlet again. But later Polonius feels the necessity to spy on Hamlet, who gets counseled by his friend Horatio instead of a royal counselor. Polonius uses his daughter Ophelia for this purpose. Polonius gets convinced that Hamlet is about to become mad, so Hamlet shall get some distraction, so Hamlet is sent on a mission to England. Ophelia is sad, then she just drowns in a creek. Maybe because of insanity. When Hamlet returns, he has to figure out that Ophelia is about to get buried and he gets into a strife with the counselor family.

I did read from some astrologer that Ophelia should represent manipulation and manipulators. I can’t see any reason why this should be Ophelia’s meaning. Furthermore Ophelia is an originally Greek name stemming from the word opheleia (ὠφέλεια), which means aid, support, help, or advantage. These seem to be likely meanings and not in contradiction with Ophelia’s role in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.