It was discovered by American astronomer Brian Skiff at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station on 12 January 1983.
[7]: 5 In October 2004, a rotational lightcurve of Lennon was obtained during a photometric survey of V-type asteroids at several observatories in Japan.
The fragmentary lightcurve gave a very long rotation period of 137 hours with a high brightness variation of 0.6 in magnitude (U=1).
This minor planet was named in memory of English musician John Lennon (1940–1980), famous for his song "Imagine" and co-founder of The Beatles, one of the most successful bands in the history of popular music.
[2] The minor planets 8749 Beatles, 4149 Harrison, 4148 McCartney and 4150 Starr, were named after the band and its three other members.