Here's the story from Caltech, which explains the name
Quaoar and the fact that it is a re-discovery of something they first photographed in 1982.
Quote:
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The discovery of Quaoar is not so much a triumph of advanced optics as of modern digital analysis and a deliberate search methodology. In fact, Quaoar apparently was first photographed in 1982 by then-Caltech astronomer Charlie Kowal in a search for the postulated "Planet X." Kowal unfortunately never found the object on the plate-much less Planet X-but left the image for posterity.
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