Aliens with one name vs. aliens with two names

[Christopher]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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^ Why would Dukat use English abbreviations on his log?

Why would he record the log in English? We're presumably hearing a translation of what he's "actually" saying in Cardassian, so the initials would've been translated for our benefit as well.

[Melakon]

Who said anything about Dukat writing his station logs in English?

Points to Christopher for typing faster than me.

[scotpens]

Santa Kang wrote:

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Spock's a human name.

According to TMOST, G.R. chose the name Spock because it sounded strong, and at at the time he had never even heard of the famed pediatrician, author and antiwar activist Dr. Benjamin Spock. (Which is rather hard to believe, considering that in the 1950s and '60s, just about every American household with children had a copy of Spock's Baby and Child Care.)

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I would have preferred it if Dukat's first name really was Elmo.

[Melakon]

There's a photo taken during the original series run, of Nimoy holding a newspaper headlined Spock arrested, reporting one the doctor/activist's participations in a demonstration.

[Elder Knight]

The Gorn.

Is that one name or two? Or any name at all? Does the article count?

[tighr]

KamenRiderBlade wrote:

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So here's the thing I always found interesting about human last names.

Traditionally, most family's just take the father's last name for the children and wife.

Doesn't that seem kind of antiquated? Imagine what if humans went by a different route way back in the past and it followed onto today.

Imagine if the children had both parents first name as their last names but with a hyphen seperating the two parents name?

It would be a unqiue way of naming and have a consistant way of passing down family heritage.

Some cultures do. You're referencing a patrilineal latinized heritage, which is what many Western people use for naming of children. But its not written anywhere that we have to follow those rules.

However, I have a friend who is of Indian descent (Tamil Nadu, to be exact) and his first name is a given name and his last name is his dad's first name. Since he lives in the United States now, he's told me that if he ever has kids he'll probably utilize the American custom of giving your surname to your kids, which would end that tradition (i.e., his kid's would have the same last name as him, as opposed to having his first name).

I had a professor in college who combined his last name with that of his wife when they were married, creating a brand new unrelated name. Their children also have that as their surname.

I have a friend who goes by her middle name (didn't like her first name, I guess). When she was married she legally changed her first name to her former middle name, her new middle name is her former surname, and her new surname is her husband's.

My mother is of Hispanic heritage, and when she married my father she legally dropped all of her extra last names. Interestingly, she had a lot of them, because her grandparents combined two family names to make one combined surname (so her dad had three family names), so my mom's birth surname was actually three different words, her paternal grandfather's dual name and her maternal grandfather's singular name. To make matters even more complicated, her first name is "Maria", which is an exceptionally common Hispanic name, so to avoid confusion among friends she went by her first and middle name. In total, she had 5 names, potentially adding a sixth when she married my dad.

[t_smitts]

The Wormhole wrote:

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You're correct, although Dukat's initials were revealed in A Time to Stand as SG. He refers to himself in his log as "Dukat, SG" which would be consistent with his first name of Skrain given in the novels.

However, someone. Ira Behr or Ron Moore or someone said that the original intent was that SG was meant to be an abbreviation of his title, "Station Gul."

I always thought another possibility might be SUPREME Gul, since he still used the title of Gul after becoming de facto leader of Cardassia (and presumably outranking any legates).

Elder Knight wrote:

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The Gorn.

Is that one name or two? Or any name at all? Does the article count?

Just like the Tholians, there's only been one named individual from this race in canon. That's not really enough to make a decision one way or the other.

[Christopher]

^He was kidding, hence the .

[The Wormhole]

This thread reminded me of another oddity in regards to alien names, Denobulans. Presumably they have two names, since when Dr. Phlox's wife Feezal was on Enterprise she identified herself as "Feezal Phlox." However, not once during Enterprise's run (or even in any of the novels) have we learned Dr. Phlox's first name.

[Christopher]

The Wormhole wrote:

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This thread reminded me of another oddity in regards to alien names, Denobulans. Presumably the have two names, since when Dr. Phlox's wife Feezal was on Enterprise she identified herself as "Feezal Phlox."

Not necessarily. There are many possible origins for a second name in Earth cultures alone; a second name can't automatically be assumed to be a family name the way it is in Western cultures. There could be an alien custom wherein a wife appends her husband's given (and only) name after her own given name in order to indicate their relationship. After all, that would be the only name she could take.

Of course, Feezal had two other husbands, so I doubt very much that "Feezal Phlox" was her legal name. She probably just introduced herself that way to Phlox's human colleagues as a convenience.

[TorontoTrekker]

Christopher wrote:

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According to Dorothy Fontana, Spock's first name is Harold.

Funny, I heard that from Jane Wyatt (at a con in New York City, in 1986).

MacLeod wrote:

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If we take one example a male and female marrying, there is nothing to say that the male can't adopt the females surname as the family name. Though more often than not it is the males family name which is adopted.

Similary a double-barrelled name combining the two surnames could be adopted.

That's what Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens did, actually. (I forget which of them originally had which name, though. I used to know, and I'm sure the information is online somewhere, but it's not important enough to this thread for me to go looking it up at quarter to 2 in the morning on a weeknight. )

[Christopher]

Maybe it was Jane Wyatt. I knew it was some woman closely associated with the Spock character.

[diankra]

Though Jane Wyatt's comment was probably a joke, it's conceivably possible that Spock has two full names, to satisfy both Vulcan and Human traditions and keep both families happy... though he and his parents just settle for Spock in most circumstances. It's rare, but not totally unknown for this to happen for people of mixed heritage (ISTR reading of a few cases where people have had trouble travelling due to having dual nationality, with different names in the two passports, even though both are legally correct in the relevant parent's home country).

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'm sure there are many, many alien races who simply only have one name. And I think in a few TOS novels, there were *humans* who went by that custom. Weren't there?