It bore the traditional name Alkes, from the Arabic الكاس alkās or الكأس alka's "the cup".

[12] Consequently, Alpha Crateris itself is known as 翼宿一 (Yì Sù yī, English: the First Star of Wings).

[13] USS Alkes (AK-110) was a United States Navy Crater-class cargo ship named after the star.

Cool horizontal branch stars are often called red clump giants as they form a noticeable grouping near the hot edge of the red giant branch in the H–R diagrams of clusters with near-solar metallicity.

Its surface temperature is 4691 K. Or it might be a red-giant branch star, still fusing hydrogen in a shell around an inert helium core, in which case it would be slightly less massive, older, cooler, larger, and more luminous.