[2] The distance to this star from the Sun can be deduced from the parallax measurements made during the Hipparcos mission, yielding a value of 130.9 light-years (40.1 parsecs).

It may be from Arabic: الكوكب al-kawkab or Hebrew: כוכב kōkhāv, both of which are broadly used to describe a celestial body and can be translated as 'planet' or 'star'.

[16] Consequently, the Chinese name for Beta Ursae Minoris itself is 北極二 Běi Jí èr ('the Second Star of North Pole'), representing 帝 Dì ('emperor').

[3] Kochab has reached a state in its evolution where the outer envelope has expanded to 44 times the radius of the Sun.

[8] A mass estimate using the interferometrically-measured radius of this star and its spectroscopically-determined surface gravity yields 2.5 ± 0.9 M☉.

[21] As precession continued, by the year 1100 BCE, Kochab was within roughly 7° of the north celestial pole, with old references over-emphasizing this near pass by referring to Beta Ursae Minoris as "Polaris",[20] relating it to the current pole star, Polaris, which is slightly brighter and will have a much closer alignment of less than 0.5° by 2100 CE.