Named in memory of François Edouard Anatole Lucas (1842-1891), French number theorist, best known for his test for Mersenne primes and the demonstration that 2¹²⁷-1 is prime. His interests included magic squares and Fibonacci numbers, and while studying the latter he devised the similar sequence 2, 1, 3, 4, 7, ..., now known as Lucas numbers. The number of this minor planet is the twentieth member of this sequence. Name proposed by the discoverer following a suggestion by B. G. Marsden.