It was discovered on 8 August 1931, by Dutch astronomer Hendrik van Gent at Leiden Southern Station, annex to the Johannesburg Observatory in South Africa, and named after astronomer Theodore Walraven.

[2][10] Walraven is a stony S-type asteroid that orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.8–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 6 months (1,270 days).

[10] This minor planet was named in honor of astronomer and pioneer in optical instrumentation and precision photometry, Theodore Fjeda Walraven (1916–2008),[11] who was a professor at the Leiden University and for many years resident astronomer at the former Leiden Southern Station near Hartbeespoortdam, South Africa.

[2] The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 2 April 1988 (M.P.C.

[6][7][8][9] According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Walraven measures 9.2 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.362,[4][5] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20, and calculates a diameter of 11.8 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 12.0.