Uhura's first name

[Christopher]

I think Sulu was arrived at by looking at a world map and seeing the Sulu Sea. It's not a Japanese name.

It wasn't supposed to be. Sulu wasn't meant to be identified with any specific Asian nation, which is why he was given the name of a sea that abutted multiple nations -- although either Roddenberry read the atlas wrong or it's changed since the '60s, because it's really only two or three countries, mainly the Philippines. The only reason we think of Sulu as Japanese is because they cast a Japanese-American actor in the role, and audiences jumped to conclusions -- as did tie-in authors who went against Roddenberry's "pan-Asian" intentions by playing up Sulu's Japanese heritage and interests in books and comics.

 

[FormerLurker]

I'm going to rain on your parade, Christopher. Sulu's given name of Hikaru did in fact come from Roddenberry, though it came to be known by way of the fans. The fans knew that Roddenberry wanted Sulu to be given the name Hikaru if TOS had gone to a fourth season, and when the early novels came out, they asked the authors to use the name. Exactly how the fans came by the information, I do not know.

As for how I know this, George Takei was a guest at the Denver Star Trek convention in fall of 1990, and I asked him in front of 3000 fans if Roddenberry had ever told him a given name for Sulu. He told all 3000 there that Roddenberry had told him that if TOS went to a fourth season, not only would he try to get Takei and Nichols hired on as recurring rather than day players, but that Sulu's given name was Hikaru. And yes, I am the one who asked him that. Starland has recordings of the guest speakers at the Denver Star Trek conventions on stage, and that one is available, if still in print, so there is proof.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Lovey Wentworth Howell

Huh, all this time I just figured that was a term of affection that Thurston used. I didn't realize it was her actual *name*.

It's not. Her first name is actually Eunice.

 

[Christopher]

I'm going to rain on your parade, Christopher. Sulu's given name of Hikaru did in fact come from Roddenberry, though it came to be known by way of the fans. The fans knew that Roddenberry wanted Sulu to be given the name Hikaru if TOS had gone to a fourth season, and when the early novels came out, they asked the authors to use the name. Exactly how the fans came by the information, I do not know.

That cannot possibly be true. The name Hikaru never appeared in the novels until Vonda N. McIntyre's The Entropy Effect in 1981, more than a decade after ST was cancelled. It wasn't in "the early novels." And it wasn't "the fans," it was a professional novelist.

Also, Roddenberry had total creative control over the animated series and was the producer of TMP. If he'd wanted to use that name for Sulu, he had plenty of opportunity to do so canonically in those projects before the name showed up in the novel.

There's also the fact that Roddenberry was so monumentally inept at coining plausible Asian names that I doubt he would've known The Tale of Genji from a hole in the ground. No way he could've come up with a name like Hikaru.

According to The Entropy Effect's editor David Hartwell, in an interview published in Voyages of the Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion, "Vonda corresponded with Gene Roddenberry and George Takei to give Sulu a first name, Hikaru. They both eventually agreed." That seems to be saying that she coined the name and convinced them to go along with it.

As for how I know this, George Takei was a guest at the Denver Star Trek convention in fall of 1990, and I asked him in front of 3000 fans if Roddenberry had ever told him a given name for Sulu. He told all 3000 there that Roddenberry had told him that if TOS went to a fourth season, not only would he try to get Takei and Nichols hired on as recurring rather than day players, but that Sulu's given name was Hikaru. And yes, I am the one who asked him that. Starland has recordings of the guest speakers at the Denver Star Trek conventions on stage, and that one is available, if still in print, so there is proof.

Either Takei misremembered, or you're conflating his answers to two different questions.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Before that, I remember an article in the Best of Trek fanzine collections proposing Penda as Uhura's first name and Walter as Sulu's first name. Apparently those suggestions had been making the rounds of fandom for a while before Hikaru and Nyota were coined, but I never saw either of them used in any professional tie-in novel or reference book.

Yep, if I recall correctly, it all came from panels featuring local zine writers and the ST cast at early SF media conventions. At some point, David Gerrold postulated "Tiberius" as Kirk's middle name and managed to get it into "Bem" (TAS episode). I believe it was DC Fontana who suggested the random "unpronounceable" Spock surname "Xtmprszntwlfd", by typing random keys on a typewriter, and then it got picked up in the semi-pro zine, "USS Enterprise Officer's Manual".

"Penda" was supposedly "approved" by Nichelle Nichols at these panels, until she approved of Rotsler's idea for the "ST II Biographies". Takei supposedly approved of "Walter", but it started out as a running joke when people accidentally introduced him that way a few times. He and Robert Asprin used "Hosato" for a Sulu-like character in "Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe", and then Vonda MccInytre proposed Hikaru for "The Entropy Effect".

But I don't know where the "Upenda" variant came from.

I'm sure it began as a misremembered rendering of Penda.

 

[Greg Cox]

I prefer to think of her as mononymous. Uhura on its own is iconic enough without adding a first name.

I think that ship has sailed, though. Even the official merchandise, such as the recent Hallmark Christmas ornament, identifies her as "Nyota Uhura."

 

[Greg Cox]

As I understand the story, "Hikaru" became on-screen canon because Peter David happened to be visiting the set of the sixth movie one day, when they were filming a Captain Sulu scene, and suggested that George Takei refer to himself as "Captain Hikaru Sulu of the U.S.S. Excelsior."

Takei liked the idea. The line made it into the movie and . . . voila! "Hikaru" jumped from the books to the big screen, becoming "canon" at last.

 

[MGagen]

But I don't know where the "Upenda" variant came from.

I'm sure it began as a misremembered rendering of Penda.

I'm glad to hear it. "Up-enda" sounds too much like something that might have happened on the couch in GR's office...

 

[Tosk]

It should be Uhuru, but Roddenberry stuck a totally incongruous Romance-language feminine suffix on it.

I wonder if that's how the misspelling of her name in the ST6 credits came about or just a coincidence.

 

[Christopher]

At some point, David Gerrold postulated "Tiberius" as Kirk's middle name and managed to get it into "Bem" (TAS episode).

Now, I always figured that did come from Roddenberry, since Gary Lockwood's character from Roddenberry's The Lieutenant was named William Tiberius Rice. So maybe Gerrold was homaging The Lieutenant?

Takei supposedly approved of "Walter", but it started out as a running joke when people accidentally introduced him that way a few times.

Oh, that makes sense. In Chekov's Enterprise -- which I finally got a copy of thanks to a fan -- Walter Koenig complained about people constantly calling him George. He seemed to think it never went the other way, but apparently it did.

Takei liked the idea. The line made it into the movie and . . . voila! "Hikaru" jumped from the books to the big screen, becoming "canon" at last.

Honestly, I wish McIntyre had chosen a different name. Hikaru was the nickname of the title character in the world's oldest novel, The Tale of Genji by the Lady Murasaki, and The Entropy Effect made it clear that Sulu was named in reference to the book's character. But Genji is a really, really awful human being. He's a rich, shallow, vapid, entitled noble with no worthwhile qualities beyond beauty and breeding, and he's a rapist and abuser of women in a culture where such behavior was normative. I read the book in college (well, an abridged, translated version), and I don't think I have ever loathed a fictional protagonist more intensely (not even Holden Caulfield). Sulu deserved a better namesake.

 

[Kor]

Yes, Sulu was supposed to be a pan-Asian character. Likewise, I've seen written background materials that said Uhura was from "The United States of Africa," a political entity that doesn't exist in our era.

It's interesting that the ethnic minority characters very broadly represented the regions they came from, while the Caucasian characters from the western hemisphere were given more specific origins. Instead of a "pan-European" character, we got Scotty and Chekov, who were stereotypically (sometimes comically so) Scottish and Russian, respectively. And McCoy had a regional accent and "southern gentleman" persona.

Does this mean that the western world stayed stagnant and maintained regional diversity for hundreds of years, while Asia and Africa moved toward greater homogeneity (while their personal naming conventions changed so much that people have names that can't possibly exist in the present day)?

Though I guess later on we got a pan-European character in TNG, being from France but speaking English with a British accent and drinking English tea all the time.

Kor

 

[JonnyQuest037]

McIntyre also coined George and Winona as the names of Kirk's parents, in Enterprise: The First Adventure in 1986.

Wasn't Kirk's father named before that in Final Frontier? Or was Diane Carey just following McIntyre's lead?

I'm going to rain on your parade, Christopher. Sulu's given name of Hikaru did in fact come from Roddenberry, though it came to be known by way of the fans. The fans knew that Roddenberry wanted Sulu to be given the name Hikaru if TOS had gone to a fourth season, and when the early novels came out, they asked the authors to use the name. Exactly how the fans came by the information, I do not know.

As for how I know this, George Takei was a guest at the Denver Star Trek convention in fall of 1990, and I asked him in front of 3000 fans if Roddenberry had ever told him a given name for Sulu. He told all 3000 there that Roddenberry had told him that if TOS went to a fourth season, not only would he try to get Takei and Nichols hired on as recurring rather than day players, but that Sulu's given name was Hikaru. And yes, I am the one who asked him that. Starland has recordings of the guest speakers at the Denver Star Trek conventions on stage, and that one is available, if still in print, so there is proof.

This honestly just sounds like yet another example of Roddenberry telling someone what they wanted to hear, whether or not it had any basis in fact.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I prefer the idea that Uhura's name is just Uhura.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I'm going to rain on your parade, Christopher. Sulu's given name of Hikaru did in fact come from Roddenberry, though it came to be known by way of the fans. The fans knew that Roddenberry wanted Sulu to be given the name Hikaru if TOS had gone to a fourth season, and when the early novels came out, they asked the authors to use the name. Exactly how the fans came by the information, I do not know.

If I remember correctly, this story came about when George Takei decided to use the name "Hosato" in the SF book he wrote with Robert Asprin. A character very like Sulu. I think this name is what Takei is remembering about the fourth season of TOS, and discusions with Roddenberry, who had promised some background for Sulu.

In the early 70s, there was even a Sulu/Takei fan club called "Hosato".

Sulu's given name was Hikaru. And yes, I am the one who asked him that. Starland has recordings of the guest speakers at the Denver Star Trek conventions on stage, and that one is available, if still in print, so there is proof.

But no doubt George is misremembering for his own anecdote. Because Vonda McIntyre definitely coined "Hikaru" when writing "The Entropy Effect" and had to ask Roddenberry's approval before Pocket could print it. She also asked Takei for his blessing.

I remember when TTE came out, I thought Vonda had used the same name, and had to go back to "Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe" to check.

http://trekmovie.com/2010/07/02/star-trek-author-vonda-mcintyre-reveals-how-sulu-got-his-first-name/
"In a guest blog post at io9, Vonda McIntyre writes about writing one of the first Star Trek novels 'The Entropy Effect' (1981), which was the second Star Trek novel published by Pocket Books (the first being the book adaptation of 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'). Her blog contains a passage on how she gave Sulu a first name:

"The only potential glitch in the Star Trek books came about because I couldn’t figure out how to write a love scene where the protagonists called each other by their surnames. So I gave Mr. Sulu a first name, 'Hikaru', which is from 'The Tale of Genji'. I was blissfully unaware of the glitch till long after the fact; someone at Paramount objected to the idea of the character’s having a given name, for reasons unclear to me. David had the good idea of asking Gene Roddenberry and George Takei their opinion, and both of them said "Go for it" or words to that effect. And so Mr. Sulu has a first name."
​

 

[ZapBrannigan]

"Up-enda" sounds too much like something that might have happened on the couch in GR's office...

I was going to say something similar. Upenda sounds like a Bond girl pun name, for the kind of Bond girl you'd find working at the Bottoms Up club.

Koik: "All the way up, if you know what I mean!"

Honestly, I wish McIntyre had chosen a different name. Hikaru was the nickname of the title character in the world's oldest novel, The Tale of Genji by the Lady Murasaki, and The Entropy Effect made it clear that Sulu was named in reference to the book's character. But Genji is a really, really awful human being. He's a rich, shallow, vapid, entitled noble with no worthwhile qualities beyond beauty and breeding, and he's a rapist and abuser of women in a culture where such behavior was normative. I read the book in college (well, an abridged, translated version), and I don't think I have ever loathed a fictional protagonist more intensely (not even Holden Caulfield). Sulu deserved a better namesake.

It sounds like McIntyre didn't read the book.

And while we're at it, the Roman emperor Tiberius doesn't seem like a good role model either. He doesn't have much to recommend him as a namesake, apart from a cool sounding name.

 

[Harvey]

As for how I know this, George Takei was a guest at the Denver Star Trek convention in fall of 1990, and I asked him in front of 3000 fans if Roddenberry had ever told him a given name for Sulu. He told all 3000 there that Roddenberry had told him that if TOS went to a fourth season, not only would he try to get Takei and Nichols hired on as recurring rather than day players, but that Sulu's given name was Hikaru. And yes, I am the one who asked him that. Starland has recordings of the guest speakers at the Denver Star Trek conventions on stage, and that one is available, if still in print, so there is proof.

If Roddenberry wanted to keep Nichols and Takei on as regulars, the time to show them support would have been in season two -- when the decision was made to drop both as regular cast members (Desiu/Paramount allowed Nichols' contract to lapse after 2x13, and similarly released Takei following 2x26).

Roddenberry did nothing then, and he would have done nothing if season four had materialized. Sulu and Uhura didn't have enough screen time to warrant an exclusive contract for either actor.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

BTW, didn't "Tiberius" as Kirk's middle name start out as a joke by David Gerrold at a convention because "I, Claudius" was running at the time? I forget exactly where I read that.

 

[T'Girl]

Not everyone has to have two names. In "The Changeling" they called her Uhura even with her child-like mental state. If she actually had a first name, it would seem odd not to use it then.

True, Christine would have used Uhura's personal name in that situation, when Uhura still possessed the mind of a young person. Providing she had a personal name.

In-universe of course.

 

[F. King Daniel]

But I don't know where the "Upenda" variant came from.

Im pretty sure it's from the "USS Enterprise Officer's Manual" fan manual.

 

[T'Girl]

Penny on the Big Bang Theory has never been given a last name.

My personal choice for Penny's family name (for years) has been "Dreadfuls."

So is she Penny Hoffstader now? Or Penny (Something)-Hoffstader?

Well, even though her sales job is working out, Penny is still pursuing an acting career, so she might retain her original name as a stage name on her resume.

.