JJTrek, representing the whole world with ship names

Okay, but this is the Abramsverse forum. If you have a problem with ship names in the Prime Universe, wouldn't GTD or DS9 (the series the ship in question is from) be more appropriate?

What I meant was the ship USS Cortez is an obscure ship. It's mentioned twice in all of Star Trek. The first time it's one of many ships spoken in the sentence, the second time its destruction is being discussed.

Although, to be completely honest, I didn't know anything about this Cortez person the ship is allegedly named after and had to look that up. Okay, odd choice for Starfleet to name a ship after. Interestingly enough, Starfleet also has a USS Malinche, and that's a bit more prominent having actually been seen in an episode, and its captain also appearing.

 

I just wanted to make clear that it's my personal preference and it would be logical considering the nature of Starfleet if people would not had started coming up with USS Napoleon, USS Alexander and so on.

 

For the life of me, I totally do not get this one. There must have been a million Excelsiors produced for Starfleet to resort to such obscure names for their ships, much less the name of Hernan Cortes's translator.

*Actually from what I've heard, this name came from Rene Echevarria, who is Cuban-American. However, if he wanted to name the ship after a Mexican, why the hell didn't he just name it after someone like Frida Kahlo, who is WAY more well-known, and not attached to a conquistador to boot?

 

I'd like to see more references to scientists in the Abrams universe, like a U.S.S. James C. Maxwell (the longtime name of one my ships in STO btw), or the U.S.S. Kirchhoff, and I mean on the screen. I don't count outside sources, since it doesn't really count if we don't see it in a movie or episode.

 

Ok so your pretty spot on with Cortez along with the some of the other examples here, problem is to avoid any names of historical people or acts that some could consider in bad taste you loose a large number of names including Enterprise.

This is kinda on topic, but didn't I read somewhere that the Cortez its logically assumed that DS9 ship was named after is considered a national hero by a fair percentage of Mexicans? I guess when it comes to the naming conventions of Prime ships such as this we should really ask someone like Ira Behr or another DS9 producer to see if they caught the reference and find who was behind the naming.

Anyway onto JJverse ship names according to Memory Alpha we have so far seen…

1. USS Antares - Named after a star system
2. USS Armstrong - No doubt named for Astonaught Neil Armstrong
3. USS Enterprise - Named after several earth naval ships and at least 2 spacecraft
4. USS Farragut - US Naval officer during the American civil war
5. USS Hood - Named after one of two (related) British Admirals and a British WW2 cruiser
6. USS Kelvin - Named after a physicist (in universe)
7. USS Kobayashi Maru - God knows
8. USS Mayflower - Ship which carried people to the 'New World' but theres also a popular theatre in the UK with the same name
9. USS Newton - Sir Isaac
10. USS Odyssey - Ship in a popular book (great name for a spaceship and incidentally the name I gave the Mirranda class ship you start STO with)
11. USS Truman - US President, served through WW2 and is to date the only leader to deploy a Nuke on an enemy target
12. USS Vengeance - Sounded cool and threatening to Marcus I guess
13. USS Wolcott - Several historical choices here

So out of 13 ships one I would guess you would definitely have an issue with (Truman) along with possibly the Hood. The majority of the others are named after what I would say are unarguably worthy persons, works etc.

Personally I prefer ships named after things other than people and even the majority of historical events. The exceptions being the likes of Enterprise and Columbia (named after the space shuttles), and Netwon.

For me I would prefer space related names (seeming they are in space) such as Antares, Quasar, Titan, Triton etc.

Alternatively names which come from legends… Daedalus, Prometheus Ares, Apollo, Excalibur etc.

I do also have a soft spot for ships which find their namesake in literature like Odyssey or Defiant or something which suggests exploration in the name like Discovery, Intrepid, Voyager etc.

 

It would be nice to see a fleet of ships including a USS Hawking (a ship this time, instead of just a some shuttlecrafts), USS Sagan, and USS deGrasse-Tyson. And, since Star Trek is already a fictional universe, how about a USS Cooper?

 

Why not just start naming ships in a similar vein to star destroyers from Star Wars? It may be a very Mirror Universe-esque way of naming ships, but they sound cool.

USS Chimaera
USS Darkvenge
USS Devastator
USS Dominator
USS Enforcer
USS Executor
USS Imperator
USS Lusankya
USS Merciless
USS Revenge
USS Vindicator
USS Vengeance

 

Like with the NX-01, what was Abrams thinking?

How many people were killed by the personnel and munitions off of those ships?

Can a ship be a "mass murderer?"

 

I would pay good money to watch the voyages of the USS Frank Drebin.

Mayor: Drebin, I don't want anymore trouble like you had last year on the South Side. Understand? That's my policy.
Frank: Yes. Well, when I see 5 weirdos dressed in togas stabbing a guy in the middle of the park in full view of 100 people, I shoot the bastards. That's *my* policy.
Mayor: That was a Shakespeare-In-The-Park production of "Julius Caesar", you moron! You killed 5 actors! Good ones!

 

It's likely meant to be Japanese, the Maru name is common for Japanese merchant ships. The problem is it is odd for Starfleet to use it, on commercial and private ships use Maru in their names. Likely, someone just added USS to the name without paying attention in Trek XI (in TWOK it was SS Kobayashi Maru).

 

USS Monobrow

 

I started a similar topic in General Trek Discussion at http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=241819
And since the restrictions stipulated in this thread are different from those of my own, I nominate:
U.S.S. Benazir Bhutto
U.S.S. Sun Tzu
U.S.S. Neil deGrasse Tyson
U.S.S. Aung San Suu Kyi
U.S.S. Dag Hammarskjöld
U.S.S. Nelson Mandela
U.S.S. H. G. Wells
U.S.S. Nicola Tesla
U.S.S. George Washington
U.S.S. Kamehameha

Note that some of these names have already been covered by novels and comics.

Ditto. "Cortes"/"Cortez" is not an uncommon surname among Hispanophone and Lusophone people. Though I must acknowledge that Hernán Cortés must be the most infamous Cortes/Cortez.

I don't know if you follow the Voyager relaunch novels or not, but there is a Merian-class U.S.S. Hawking in them. Marvel's Starfleet Academy comics also have an Intrepid-class U.S.S. Sagan s.

 

Its funny how people who bring up the Kelvin registry that the precedent comes from PrimeTrek.

That is true but Enterprise would be lumped in with Truman and Hood for names which could cause an offense if someone insisted on being offended, I just didnt name her specifically along with the other pair.

As for can a ship of the line be classed as a "mass murderer", Im sure some would argue yes but seeming she was fighting in a war against an enemy who had no problem blowing Naval bases to bits in surprise attacks I would argue no.

If you say yes then you would also have to say that Police officers who are forced to take a criminals life saving themselves, colleagues or bystanders during a shootout are murders too.

 

Some suggestions for ship names

USS Eratosthenes: First to calculate the Earth's diameter and most likely the distance to the Sun, and Starfleet didn't name a ship after him?
USS Aryabhata: Most accurate measurement of Earth's diameter, proposed a model of the solar system with elliptical orbits and axial rotation of planets. Explained eclipses by proposing that the Moon reflects the light of the Sun. Calculated the sidereal year to an accuracy of 4 minutes per year.
USS Brahmagupta: Translation of his and Aryabhata's works into Arabic are thought to be a primary inspiration for Arabic astronomy. Also USS al-Fazari after the family of astronomers/mathematicians, who translated the works and invented the earliest surviving astrolabe.
USS Gan De: First star catalogue, first observation of sun spots. Allegedly seen first to see the Galilean moons of Jupiter with his naked eye. I've tried to accomplish that multiple times with tree branches, so far with no success.
USS al-Jazari: Invented first programmable analogue computer, which was a rather elaborate piece of art, including robotic musicians. He was very fond of humanoid automata in his work, he had automated waitress serving drinks, and some of them were almost humorous, like a flush-toilet-like robot for washing hands.
USS da Vinci: Naming a ship after him is way better than Janeway playing with a holographic fake da Vinci. (Although I'd go with USS Leonardo)
USS Turing: Britain has a prominent place in Starfleet in JJverse, I am sure the name of a great man that had been failed by its former government has a place among the fleet.
USS Gagarin: Appeared on-screen in TNG: A Measure of a Man. Should be more prominent.

 

Despite my always whining about the zero, it's not exactly what I have a problem with. More accurately, it's how unnecessary it is on the Kelvin's registry. Prime Trek has already established starships with three digit registries, USS Grissom is NCC-638, USS Essex is NCC-173, just to name a few. So why couldn't the Kelvin be NCC-514? Why did it have to be NCC-0514?

 

Or, at the very least, a USS John J. Adams.



.

 

In case you didn't already know, the Saber-class U.S.S. da Vinci (NCC-81623) is the main vessel of the eBook series S.C.E. (later named just Corps of Engineers), set in 2376 to 2377.

Not that I hope that my explanation ever makes it into an actual canon work, but maybe in the 2220s/2230s of both prime and alternate reality, Starfleet Operations thought, "Hey, we've got NCC-1000 and above in service or on the definite drawing board. Let's have 4 digits on all registries since Starfleet is undoubtedly at this point going to have thousand(s) of starships!" And then someone in the 2250s/2260s decided that leading zeroes were pointless and it changed back.

 

I like these three, worthy contributors to science.

You are right, its just never really bothered me either way.

They are a good series of books with an underrated ship when it comes to the live action series.

 

This is only a rumor based on the fact that the Kelvin's namesake is Abrams's grandfather, but it has been speculated that the registry is his birthday (i.e. he was born in May of 1914, hence 0514. Had he been born in November say, the registry would have been 1114). Whether this is true or not I don't know, but since the other ships' registry numbers correspond to their names in some way, it's possible.

So apparently Abrams just isn't as anal-retentive or OCD about such things as some Trek fans are. And in the large scheme of things it isn't really that big a deal. He wasn't trying to change things or piss people off. He was just honoring his grandpa.

 

It's still silly. If I was born on the 1st of January then I wouldn't write my birthday 01/01, just 1/1.