Clever Trek names

[Myasishchev]

Or Data, since because he's an android he processes....


Nevermind. That's not clever at all.

At least they didn't name him Mr. Beep-Boop.

And why the plural?

I wonder if Star Trek may be the principal reason that the language has more or less acquiesced to data as a singular noun...

 

[Nerys Myk]

Kira Nerys or Odo

How so?

 

[scotpens]

. . . I wonder if Star Trek may be the principal reason that the language has more or less acquiesced to data as a singular noun...

The word “data” was used as a mass or collective noun, taking a singular verb, long before Star Trek was a spark in Gene Roddenberry's brain.

I mean, seriously, who says “datum”?

 

[Myasishchev]

"Are these they?"

It's often not used in the singular, the same way "bacterium" isn't often heard, but it's useful if you're pinpointing a specific object: "That datum is incorrect."

But I admit that "Those data are incorrect" sounds slightly stilted.

 

[Timo]

(Does anybody use the singular of "media" for non-supernatural nouns?)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[WillsBabe]

The name Thomas is derived from "twin", which is appropriate for Tom Riker, Will Riker's transporter "twin".

 

[scotpens]

(Does anybody use the singular of “media” for non-supernatural nouns?)

I often hear of a performer or entertainer working in various “mediums.” That's wrong. It should be “media.” Mediums are people who claim to communicate with the dead. “Media” in the sense of “avenues of mass communication” is often construed as singular in informal usage, e.g. “The media was all over this story.”

 

[FormerLurker]

Many Trek TOS characters had symbolic names. In "City on the Edge of Forever," Edith Keeler is a focal point whose life or death can alter the course of history, as the keel of a ship is its main structural member.

snip

According to the original script by Harlan Ellison, the name Keeler is a play on the Guardians (that's right, plural) of Forever calling her the 'Key' to changing the past.

 

[Myasishchev]

(Does anybody use the singular of "media" for non-supernatural nouns?)

Timo Saloniemi

Sure, "The Medium Is the Message," "the medium of film," so forth.

 

[maneth]

Picard is not only French for someone from the Picardie region, but it also supposedly means a person who holds a pike. A tip of the hat to Captain Pike perhaps?

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Odo is a name that already existed during the days of the Anglo-Saxons.

 

[Pegaritaville]

Don't forget Morn, which is an anagram for Norm, the omnipresent fellow at the end of the bar on Cheers.

DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations" also had agents Dulmer and Luscsly, which were anagrams of Mulder and Scully.

 

[Brian]

And in the Enterprise pilot:

Admiral Forrest (for DeForest Kelley)
Admiral Leonard (for Leonard Nimoy)
Commander Williams (for William Shatner)

And some farmer named Moore, not named with nearly as much fondness as the other three...

 

[Vanyel]

Doesn't Locutus mean one who speaks, or something along those lines?

 

[iguana_tonante]

"Locutus" means "spoken" in Latin. "Locutus est" would be "he has spoken".