Celtic Command Crew?

[Filmakr1]

Hey, I've always wondered what nationality Kirk was supposed to be. The surname "Kirk" would be scottish or scotts-irish, wouldn't it? And the name "McCoy" would obviously be irish, so that leaves three (including scotty) out of the four of the command crew being of celtic descent.

On second thought, would Spock be half-english as well? "Grayson", his mother's maiden name sounds english, I guess ... So that's almost all 4 of the top crew from the British Isles!

Opinions? Input?

 

[A beaker full of death]

Actually, I believe "Kirk" is a corruption of the Native American name "Kirok," fairly common in Iowa.

 

[Nerys Myk]

McCoy isn't part of the command crew. He's a doctor.

 

[Orcus]

Hey, I've always wondered what nationality Kirk was supposed to be. The surname "Kirk" would be scottish or scotts-irish, wouldn't it? And the name "McCoy" would obviously be irish, so that leaves three (including scotty) out of the four of the command crew being of celtic descent.

On second thought, would Spock be half-english as well? "Grayson", his mother's maiden name sounds english, I guess ... So that's almost all 4 of the top crew from the British Isles!

Opinions? Input?

You could say that a fair number of us can trace our ancestry back to Britain and Ireland - so is it that remarkable? I'm not sure how atypical it is in the US but here in NZ most of we "Europeans" are of British extraction...

...although, having said that, I'm a bit of a multi-cultural mongrel myself: Brit, Spic and Arabic (possibly)...

 

[Kegg]

Hey, I've always wondered what nationality Kirk was supposed to be. The surname "Kirk" would be scottish or scotts-irish, wouldn't it?

Possibly. The word is a Scottish one, meaning church, and there are examples of the name in Scotland and Britain.

so that leaves three (including scotty) out of the four of the command crew being of celtic descent.

On second thought, would Spock be half-english as well?

Maybe Spock is, but that doesn't make him 'of celtic descent.'

 

[iguana_tonante]

Kirk is definitively a Scottish word, but the surname is so common that he doesn't have to be of Scottish-descent, at least no more than 1/n-th on his father's side. I think some novels conjured for him a Native American heritage on his mother's side. McCoy again is a Scottish last name, with the same caveats. Scott, if I recall correctly, it's actually an Irish last name, identifying Scottish families living in Ireland. Grayson sounds English, but it's not the same as Celtic: the suffix -son sounds more Anglo-Saxon than Celtic, which means it is ultimately of German descent.

 

[T'Girl]

McCoy isn't part of the command crew. He's a doctor.

Given his input with major command decisions made by both Kirk and Spock, McCoy is certainly as much a member of the command staff as Troi will be, probably more.

 

[Pauln6]

Actually I think you'll find that pretty much the entire crew is African.

 

[Timo]

...Although most are from the western parts of that continent as, to Uhura's disappointment, they don't speak Swahili with any fluency.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nerys Myk]

McCoy isn't part of the command crew. He's a doctor.

Given his input with major command decisions made by both Kirk and Spock, McCoy is certainly as much a member of the command staff as Troi will be, probably more.

Kirk likes his imput, but he's not part of the official command contengent.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Kirk is definitively a Scottish word, but the surname is so common that he doesn't have to be of Scottish-descent, at least no more than 1/n-th on his father's side. I think some novels conjured for him a Native American heritage on his mother's side. McCoy again is a Scottish last name, with the same caveats. Scott, if I recall correctly, it's actually an Irish last name, identifying Scottish families living in Ireland. Grayson sounds English, but it's not the same as Celtic: the suffix -son sounds more Anglo-Saxon than Celtic, which means it is ultimately of German descent.

I think the Scots are decended from the Irish "tribes" who moved to Scotland. around 400 AD.

 

[Green Shirt]

I think the Scots are decended from the Irish "tribes" who moved to Scotland. around 400 AD.

I think Chief Tyrol must be accounted for somewhere in the geneology.

 

[Red Ranger]

Actually I think you'll find that pretty much the entire crew is African.

Aren't we all?

 

[Myasishchev]

Kirk is definitively a Scottish word, but the surname is so common that he doesn't have to be of Scottish-descent, at least no more than 1/n-th on his father's side. I think some novels conjured for him a Native American heritage on his mother's side. McCoy again is a Scottish last name, with the same caveats. Scott, if I recall correctly, it's actually an Irish last name, identifying Scottish families living in Ireland. Grayson sounds English, but it's not the same as Celtic: the suffix -son sounds more Anglo-Saxon than Celtic, which means it is ultimately of German descent.

Wouldn't the average Briton be primarily, genetically, Celtic, however? Anglo-Saxons might have dictated the culture, but it would only overlay the Celtic genetic contribution. It may be reasonable to speak of English as Celtic--then again, it would be equally reasonable to refer to French, Spaniards, and (possibly) Italians as Celtic by that standard as well.

I vaguely recall reading some paper where it was shown that the Anglo-Saxon populations didn't admix as much as one might have expected and hence the English aren't majorly Celtic, though. Which would be really weird.

Anyway, I think the Captain's nationality is Eastern Coalition, if Iowa was was still under the control of the New England states.

Actually I think you'll find that pretty much the entire crew is African.

I heard the crew's ancestors originally hailed from a hydrothermal vent long subducted beneath the crust of Earth.

 

[Orcus]

Wouldn't the average Briton be primarily, genetically, Celtic, however? Anglo-Saxons might have dictated the culture, but it would only overlay the Celtic genetic contribution. It may be reasonable to speak of English as Celtic--then again, it would be equally reasonable to refer to French, Spaniards, and (possibly) Italians as Celtic by that standard as well.

I think you're mixing your peoples here. The Britons hail from an earlier people who began migrating to what we now call Great Britain when it was still joined to France.

The Celts orginated in the Hungarian plains and slowly migrated across Europe, eventually settling in Northern Spain; then on to Cornwall, Wales and Ireland. From there some migrated to Brittany, Scotland and Cumbria.

None of these people are English*: even the Cornish (generally) wouldn't be pleased at being called English! The people that later became English are primarily of Germanic origin (Angles and Saxons) not Celtic...

* the one exception: those in the ancient Kingdom of Rheged (Cumbria) joined and mixed with Northumbria (Northern England) in the 7thC.

 

[Myasishchev]

Celts were everywhere in the first few centuries BC and thereafter, before the Germans moved west from the Ukraine.

The Angles and Saxons (and Frisians and Jutes and Flems and whoever else) arrived on an island populated by millions of Celts. I'm talking aboriginal Britons, ala aboriginal Gauls and Iberocelts.

The culture is no longer Celtic, of course, and the language was eventually eliminated from the Anglo kingdoms--but Celtic languages have been eliminated virtually everywhere, without a displacement of the underlying genetic contribution. I think it's questionable whether the Angles and Saxons totally displaced the aboriginal population--whether they'd have wanted to, or even could. I doubt it. Human populations tend to mix.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I dont think the term "Briton" existed when Britain was attached to continental Europe. By the time the term came into use the Brythonic Celts were firmly ensconce on the island.

 

[Sci]

Wouldn't the average Briton be primarily, genetically, Celtic, however? Anglo-Saxons might have dictated the culture, but it would only overlay the Celtic genetic contribution. It may be reasonable to speak of English as Celtic--then again, it would be equally reasonable to refer to French, Spaniards, and (possibly) Italians as Celtic by that standard as well.

I think you're mixing your peoples here. The Britons hail from an earlier people who began migrating to what we now call Great Britain when it was still joined to France.

I may be mistaken, but I think that Myasishchev was referring to the modern definition of a Briton -- that is, a citizen of the United Kingdom -- in his post, not the ancient Britons.

And why is everyone forgetting the Normans when talking about the ancestry of the English?

 

[TeutonicNights]

There are no more "Celts"... only speakers of "celtic languages". The whole migration thing is just a theory.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Wouldn't the average Briton be primarily, genetically, Celtic, however? Anglo-Saxons might have dictated the culture, but it would only overlay the Celtic genetic contribution. It may be reasonable to speak of English as Celtic--then again, it would be equally reasonable to refer to French, Spaniards, and (possibly) Italians as Celtic by that standard as well.

I think you're mixing your peoples here. The Britons hail from an earlier people who began migrating to what we now call Great Britain when it was still joined to France.

I may be mistaken, but I think that Myasishchev was referring to the modern definition of a Briton -- that is, a citizen of the United Kingdom -- in his post, not the ancient Britons.

And why is everyone forgetting the Normans when talking about the ancestry of the English?

Because they are a bunch of Frenchified Vikings.