A disproportionate amount of the crew seems to be Irish, Scottish or Japanese

[WarpTenLizard]

We all know 90s "Trek" had a problem with Starfleet crews being disproportionately comprised of Western humans. But "Voyager" took it a step further. Not only were most of the names we heard Western, but nearly all of them were British, particularly Irish or Scottish.

See for yourself.

In addition to Kathryn Janeway and Joe Carrey, who both had Irish heritage as part of their characters, we had:

• Fitzpatrick
• McKenzie
• Macormak
• McAllister
• McMinn
• ....quite a few more Mcs....
• Mulchahey
• Doyle
• Boylan
• O'Donnell
• Really Sharr
• Swinn
• Hogan

And that's just the clearly Irish or Scottish names; never mind the general British names:

• Wildman
• Andrews
• Ashmore
• Jenkins
• Baxter
• Brooks
• Chapman
• Rollins
• Henley
• Biddle
• Swift

We have a few Spanish names (Ayala, Dorado, Molina). We have a smattering of Italian, French, German, Russian and Polish names each. But none as numerous as those Irish and Scottish names.

There don't seem to be any Middle Eastern names at all!

Unai and Trumari might be African.

Then we get to Asian names. Harry Kim has the only surname that's Korean. Ahni Jetal and India Shigihara seem to be Indian. Every other Asian name on Voyager seems to be Japanese:

• Kashimuro Nozawa
• Kyoto
• Hindaki Shibunawa
• Suzi Shimizu
• Ikuyo Seuphon
• Arlene Fukai

...not a single Chang, Quan, Park, Ahn, Xiong, Hu, Patel, Vang, or Chen, never mind attempts to include Mongolian or Thai names.

Why so many Irish, Scottish and Japanese? Did the "Voyager" writers have an affinity for large islands? Or did those just happen to be the names of so many behind-the-scenes crew getting characters named after them? (Yes, I do know the story behind Samantha Wildman's name.)

Thoughts?

 

[Ragitsu]

"problem"?

 

[WarpTenLizard]

"problem"?

For realism about a fleet supposedly comprised of people around the world and off-world, yes.

 

[Christopher]

The preponderance of British or Irish surnames in Star Trek is a franchise-wide issue, as Ex Astris Scientia covered:

Ex Astris Scientia - Human Names in Star Trek

Evidence of lacking cultural diversity in Star Trek

www.ex-astris-scientia.org

"Seuphon" is not even remotely a Japanese name, and I find no references to the name existing outside of Voyager. Perhaps it's an alien surname. "Hindaki" also appears to be a made-up name, though at least it's phonetically possible for Japanese.

 

[James Swallow]

The Welsh get overlooked again. *tsk*

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

In the future, new surnames may arise the same way existing ones originally did; from occupations, transliterations, misspellings, legal name changes, etc.

 

[1001001]

The Welsh get overlooked again. *tsk*

 

[Zolkar]

I mean I think a lot of it also stems from the fact Star Trek is an American franchise at the end of the day so it's not unusual that most of the cast members will have a Northwestern European background, especially in the case of older Trek shows (I know the newer shows have done better with regards to diversity). It is, of course, a major bias for a show set into the future.

 

[David cgc]

I mean I think a lot of it also stems from the fact Star Trek is an American franchise at the end of the day so it's not unusual that most of the cast members will have a Northwestern European background, especially in the case of older Trek shows (I know the newer shows have done better with regards to diversity). It is, of course, a major bias for a show set into the future.

Robert Hewett Wolfe on his tumblr accounted specifically for the preponderance of minor characters with hispanic names in DS9 with the explanation that most of the writers were from areas with large latine communities, and when reaching for some arbitrary "diverse" name, would still tend to land on ones they knew from the people around them when they grew up.

 

[USS Firefly]

And what about the Dutch? There should be a couple of captains and admirals with Dutch names

 

[Christopher]

I mean I think a lot of it also stems from the fact Star Trek is an American franchise at the end of the day so it's not unusual that most of the cast members will have a Northwestern European background, especially in the case of older Trek shows (I know the newer shows have done better with regards to diversity). It is, of course, a major bias for a show set into the future.

It's an American franchise, but it's one that purports to depict an inclusive, multinational future Earth, which means the writers have a responsibility to try to depict a more diverse cast. I mean, I'm very white, from an Anglo-American background, yet I've managed to populate my fiction with characters from many different nationalities. If I could do it, they could've done it.

And it's not just me. Look at Barney Miller, the 1975 sitcom created by Danny Arnold & Theodore J. Flicker. Its main cast over the years consisted of characters named Miller, Fish (probably Anglicized from Fischman or something of the sort), Yemana, Amengual, Wojciehowicz, Harris, and Dietrich. And it was set in present-day New York City. All it did was portray the city's ethnic diversity accurately, which is more than a lot of shows and movies can say. So it's really not valid to say, "Well, it's American, so most of the cast would be white." That's only the case when a bias in favor of white people is applied. The American population, especially in urban areas, has always been more diverse than that.

I mean, like David cgc mentioned, Los Angeles has a very large Hispanic population -- after all, California was a Spanish colony for over a century and then part of Mexico for 25 years before the United States conquered it by force. So the overwhelmingly white casts of most Hollywood shows over the decades are not by any means a mere reflection of the region's demographics.

And what about the Dutch? There should be a couple of captains and admirals with Dutch names

"Roddenberry" is apparently an Anglicization of the Dutch/German name Rodenberg.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

"Seuphon" is not even remotely a Japanese name, and I find no references to the name existing outside of Voyager. Perhaps it's an alien surname. "Hindaki" also appears to be a made-up name, though at least it's phonetically possible for Japanese.

Google can't seem to tell us anything about the name Seuphon! The only results are for "Star Trek." Maybe Ikuyo Seuphon is an exception to both trends--a hybrid with a human parent from Japan, and an alien parent. Or maybe Seuphon is just a new surname in the future. Perhaps Ikuyo Seuphon is from an off-world colony. She might be one of the Maquis.

As for everyone saying that "Star Trek" is a U.S. based franchise, yes, we all know that. The oddity here is specifically all the Irish, Scottish and Japanese names. Why those three counties specifically? Even in areas that are mostly-white, you'll still usually see surnames from a number of Eurpean countries. And when you ask white Americans to name some Asian surnames, most will go to Chinese names first, and after trying for more than a few seconds, will usually think of at least one or two Korean names. (Maybe the popularity of Japanese anime in the U.S. shifted Americans' bias towards Japan?)

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

when reaching for some arbitrary "diverse" name, would still tend to land on ones they knew from the people around them when they grew up.

They couldn't flip through a phone book?

(I'm reminded of the scene in Dunstan Checks In - trying to find an alias to register the titular orangutan under, one of the boys picks "Lam Binh Ngoc" out of the phone book.)

 

[Christopher]

Google can't seem to tell us anything about the name Seuphon! The only results are for "Star Trek." Maybe Ikuyo Seuphon is an exception to both trends--a hybrid with a human parent from Japan, and an alien parent. Or maybe Seuphon is just a new surname in the future. Perhaps Ikuyo Seuphon is from an off-world colony. She might be one of the Maquis.

Or an alien born on Earth to immigrant parents and given a human first name. Or a human woman who married an alien. If Lwaxana took Ian Troi's surname, it could go the other way too.

Or "Ikuyo" could be an alien name that just happens to look/sound like an Earth name, much like Spock, Kang, Chang, Dax, Kira, Nerys (although the Welsh name of that spelling is stressed on the first syllable), etc.

As for everyone saying that "Star Trek" is a U.S. based franchise, yes, we all know that. The oddity here is specifically all the Irish, Scottish and Japanese names. Why those three counties specifically? Even in areas that are mostly-white, you'll still usually see surnames from a number of Eurpean countries. And when you ask white Americans to name some Asian surnames, most will go to Chinese names first, and after trying for more than a few seconds, will usually think of at least one or two Korean names. (Maybe the popularity of Japanese anime in the U.S. shifted Americans' bias towards Japan?)

Well, the makers of Berman-era Trek shows worked alongside folks like Michael Okuda and Alan Kobayashi, so it's not like they only knew Japanese names from anime.

They couldn't flip through a phone book?

Ah, yes, that used to be one of my sources for foreign names, along with my high school yearbooks. Other sources include a book about Japanese composers that I got from my music-oriented father, and the indexes of my college textbooks on the history of various non-Western countries. These days I tend to make use of online sources, but since I live in an apartment building that houses a lot of very diverse university students, I can sometimes get good diverse character names just by going out and looking at the names on the mailboxes.

 

[Tenacity]

"Star Trek" is a U.S. based franchise ... Irish, Scottish and Japanese names.

Common American names?

Most military personnel in America come from the south-eastern part of the country, in the UK it's the southern part of England. Perhaps in the future certain cultures/areas on Earth are more likely to join Starfleet, and isn't evenly distributed

 

[Leviathan]

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[WarpTenLizard]

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Do TNG, DS9, and other shows from "Voyager's" era have an odd abundance of names from three oddly specific countries? I seem to remember far more variety among the crew names on those shows.