Iota Ceti is a star system in the equatorial constellation of Cetus. Its name is a Bayer designation that is Latinized from ù Ceti, and abbreviated Iota Cet or ù Cet. It has the traditional name Deneb Kaitos Shemali. The name was from the Arabic word ðÃÂè ÃÂÃÂ÷ó çÃÂôàçÃÂà- dhanab qayá¹Âas al-shamÃÂlë, meaning the northern tail of the sea monster. it is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 3.562. Based upon an annual parallax shift of , it lies around from the Sun. The system is drifting further away with a line of sight velocity component of +19 km/s.
In Chinese, (), meaning Square Celestial Granary, refers to an asterism consisting of ù Ceti, ÷ Ceti, ø Ceti, ö Ceti, àCeti and 57 Ceti. Consequently, the Chinese name for ù Ceti itself is (, .)
This is an MK-standard star with a stellar classification of K1.5 III, indicating that it is an evolved K-type giant star. However, Houk and Swift (1999) list a classification of K1 II, which would indicate this is a bright giant. It is a suspected variable with a visual amplitude of around 0.05 magnitude. The star has about 3.7 times the mass of the Sun, 30 times the Sun's radius, and radiates 380 times the solar luminosity from its outer atmosphere at an effective temperature of 4,645 K.
Iota Ceti forms a wide astrometric pair with a common proper motion companion, a magnitude 10.40 star at an angular separation of 106.4 arcseconds along a position angle of 191ð (as of 2014). This companion may be a K-type star.