Named in honor of Tamara Mikhajlovna Smirnova (1935–2001), devoted observer of minor planets and a staff member of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy from 1966 to 1988. During her long-lasting activity she made about 9,000 observations and measured numerous positions of minor planets at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory. She discovered over one hundred minor planets and a comet, this object being her hundredth discovery. (M 24917) _ _.
Discovered on 30-8-1971 in Nauchnyj by Smirnova, T. M.