Spock, Scotty, Sulu
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CONSPIRACY!
...
No seriously, just a coincidence.
But how can it be a coincidence? It's not like they picked the names out of a hat.
Sulu was named in honor of Desilu executive Herb Solow (pronounced "solo"). Scott was named at James Doohan's suggestion, basically, since it was his idea to the character with a Scottish accent. So Spock was the only name that came solely from Roddenberry's imagination. So yeah, it is a coincidence. S is one of the most common letters in the alphabet, so it's not all that unlikely.
"s" is one of the most often used consonants. And from the days when I still used printed phonebooks, I remember that the "s" section had about the most entries (and I can imagine it's not that different in English-speaking countries).
Or maybe the show has been brought to you by the letter S. It's named Star Trek, after all.
Or maybe the show has been brought to you by the letter S. It's named Star Trek, after all.
Actually, "the alphabet" has none. And even the alphabet has only one.
(Why is there no graemlin with a tongue-in-cheek Vulcan face?)
Now this is more like it...
But it would be interesting to know if this holds true:
Hereabouts, we use the same alphabet, only with three added vowels (indicated by umlauts), and the phone book for the capital has 43 pages of S surnames, as opposed to e.g. 41 pages of L surnames or 40 pages of H surnames. Those are the three top contenders, so chalk up one for Finland at least.
However, move a step eastward and you run into a language with at least seven different S letters in the alphabet... Take another step and you reach a nation where there is no alphabet, and no traditional surnames beginning with any sort of S! I guess we're best off if we limit ourselves into arguing about names in English-speaking countries, then.
Timo Saloniemi
Yes - shame he never quite mastered the accent, then, isn't it...?
I'd place Scotty's accent somewhere in the middle of the Irish sea...
Also interesting is the fact that so many character names on Star Trek (all incarnations) feature the strong "K" sound, a consonant usually associated with strength.
Kirk
Spock
McCoy
Scott
Chekov
Picard
Riker
Crusher
Sisko
Etcetera. I'm sure there are many more.
Kirk
Spock
McCoy
Scott
Chekov
Picard
Riker
Crusher
Sisko
Etcetera. I'm sure there are many more.
It's a SOCIALIST plot I tell you! Socialist starts with the letter "S!" AAAAAAA! (It's funny, when I was putting together a cast of characters for a story I'm writing, I tried to vary the spelling of the characters' names so there weren't too many "S" or "K" names or sounds for this reason!)
In DSN, you also have two characters whose names start with the letter "O" (O'Brien and Odo), in VOY you have two characters with "ay" at the end of their names (Janeway and Chakotay), and in ENT, two characters whose names start with the letter "T" (T'Pol and Tucker.) TNG seems to have the least amount of duplication in terms of character names.
In TOS, if they had cast another actor as the chief engineer, he might've been a different ethnic type. As I recall, the only character they had in mind was a loosely defined person with an accent, to be determined. Doohan did different voices (French, Spanish, etc.), and he then suggested, "If he's an engineer, he better be a Scot." And of course, Scotty's first name, Montgomery, was James Doohan's middle name.
Anyone know who else auditioned for the role of chief engineer?
Red Ranger
In DSN, you also have two characters whose names start with the letter "O" (O'Brien and Odo), in VOY you have two characters with "ay" at the end of their names (Janeway and Chakotay), and in ENT, two characters whose names start with the letter "T" (T'Pol and Tucker.) TNG seems to have the least amount of duplication in terms of character names.
In TOS, if they had cast another actor as the chief engineer, he might've been a different ethnic type. As I recall, the only character they had in mind was a loosely defined person with an accent, to be determined. Doohan did different voices (French, Spanish, etc.), and he then suggested, "If he's an engineer, he better be a Scot." And of course, Scotty's first name, Montgomery, was James Doohan's middle name.
Anyone know who else auditioned for the role of chief engineer?
Red Ranger
Okay, I've done some thinking. 
The problem with the letters is the same as the birthday problem: If n people are in a room, how much is the probability that two of them are born at the same day of the year? Actually, if n=23, the probability is already greater than 50%.
Now assume that there are N=26 letters, all evenly used. The formula for the birthday problem looks like this:
p = 1 - ( factorial(n) * bin_coeff(N, n) / N**n )
So if you have six people, and taking one name into account for each person, the probability that two of them have names starting with the same letter is already 46%, if you have 7 people, it's 59%.
Okay, that's for two people, what's with three people? Need some more time for thinking...
Edit: Interesting, the German wikipedia page on the birthday problem says that normally birthdays are not evenly distributed and that it can be shown that the probability that two people have the same birthday even increases for not evenly distributed birthdays.
The problem with the letters is the same as the birthday problem: If n people are in a room, how much is the probability that two of them are born at the same day of the year? Actually, if n=23, the probability is already greater than 50%. Now assume that there are N=26 letters, all evenly used. The formula for the birthday problem looks like this:
p = 1 - ( factorial(n) * bin_coeff(N, n) / N**n )
So if you have six people, and taking one name into account for each person, the probability that two of them have names starting with the same letter is already 46%, if you have 7 people, it's 59%.
Okay, that's for two people, what's with three people? Need some more time for thinking...
Edit: Interesting, the German wikipedia page on the birthday problem says that normally birthdays are not evenly distributed and that it can be shown that the probability that two people have the same birthday even increases for not evenly distributed birthdays.
Poor Travis. Even his name is forgotten.
But the letters are not evenly used in real life. Names begining with certain letters are more common. Some names are more common. When I was in school there was always another "Mike" in every class. So advantage letter "M".Okay, I've done some thinking.
Now assume that there are N=26 letters, all evenly used. The formula for the birthday problem looks like this:
p = 1 - ( factorial(n) * bin_coeff(N, n) / N**n )
So if you have six people, and taking one name into account for each person, the probability that two of them have names starting with the same letter is already 46%, if you have 7 people, it's 59%.
Okay, that's for two people, what's with three people? Need some more time for thinking...
Edit: Interesting, the German wikipedia page on the birthday problem says that normally birthdays are not evenly distributed and that it can be shown that the probability that two people have the same birthday even increases for not evenly distributed birthdays.
Yes - shame he never quite mastered the accent, then, isn't it...?
I'd place Scotty's accent somewhere in the middle of the Irish sea...
Thank God, otherwise nobody'd understand him outside of whatever fans who lived in the region's dialect he was speaking.
Hey, he said names, he didn't specify last names.The one beginning with M?
(Of course, we may argue whether T'Pol is her first or last name, or her given or surname, or whether such terms even apply to Vulcan names.)
Timo Saloniemi
Although the choice of "Tucker" over "Trip" could have implied that. But then, Trip wasn't even really his name, just a nickname, so really...ah, screw it. You know what I mean. 
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