This crater is bowl-shaped, with a small interior floor at the midpoint and a somewhat eroded outer rim.

In 2000, the IAU named this feature after Nathaniel Bliss, the 4th Astronomer Royal.

(This revision was announced by the XXIVth general assembly of the IAU, on August 15, 2000.)

This new name for the feature was originally suggested by Patrick Moore.

However this was due to a mix-up, and Bliss is actually the crater formerly known as Plato A.