Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
This minor planet was named after Chinese astronomer Cheng-yuan Shao (born 1927), an assistant to Richard McCrosky "(see previously numbered )" in Harvard's minor-planet program at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Oak Ridge Observatory in Massachusetts, United States. Shao was also involved in the recovery of near-Earth asteroid 1862 Apollo. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 20 February 1976 ().