Here is a bit more background on the discovery and kind of peculiar name:

Discovery and Naming:
Makemake was discovered on March 31st, 2005, at the Palomar Observatory by a team consisting of Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rainowitz. The discovery was announced to the public on July 29th, 2005, coincident with the announcement of the discovery of Eris. Originally, Brown and his team had been intent on waiting for further confirmation, but chose to proceed after a different team in Spain announced the discovery of Haumea on July 27th.

With an estimated mean density of 1.4–3.2 g/cm³, Makemake is believed to be differentiated between an icy surface and a rocky core. Like Pluto and Eris, the surface ice is believed to be composed largely of frozen methane (CH4) and ethane (C2H6). Though evidence exists for traces of nitrogen ice as well, it is nowhere near as prevalent as with Pluto or Triton.

What is cool is that a lot of astronomers may be able to explore the surfaces of dwarf planets and asteroids more easily than a planet with an atmosphere, leading to more info on possible organisms and other interesting info.  And below is a video on Makemake and other close discoveries.

thanks to universetoday.com for the great info

thanks to NASA for the pic