The neck or “cervical” spine is a most complicated structure. You know what it does - connects the head to the body. There’s a lot of stuff passing up and down . But it also has it’s own work to do directing the head this way and that, flexing, turning, tilting.

There are seven vertebrae stacked to make the neck. These cervical vertebrae are numbered top down as 1 through 7. The top two are unique enough to get their own billing (see Atlas & Axis, the two common names for C1 and C2).

Do C3 and the rest have common names like Donner and Blitzen? No. Just C2 - C7 (pronounced CEE TWO through CEE SEVEN).

Starting with C1, the joints of each cervical vertebra are like the skins of drums stacked on one another in two stacks called pillars.. Above the red shows the C1 joints that support the skull. The yellow show the lower joints of C1 that sit on those of the Axis (C2). The bone between these two joints is that of the pillars.