Naming ships after people

[The Wormhole]

They don't name starships after real recent Earth historical figures who are still living, because they don't want to make a judgement call about what the legacy of a person will be before they've been dead for a while; that is, how history will remember them. It could be embarrassing if a famous scientist's claims are proven wrong, or a "great" leader's dark side comes out.

Stephen Hawking has a shuttlecraft on TNG named after him. In the novels they named an orbital facility after Obama even before he won the election for his first term.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Okay, well, generally, not exclusively. It's why they ought not to do so, anyway.

 

[TommyR01D]

Okay, well, generally, not exclusively. It's why they ought not to do so, anyway.

I guess we should be glad there was never a USS Saville.

 

[Cyke101]

Unfortunately except for the USS Vengeance, you will not find ships with more frightening names. You will never hear about Captain Vader and the USS Devastator for example.

That's a misconception. Admiral Marcus' supership was actually the USS Van Janse, named for Earth's greatest roadie of the 22nd century, who was inspired to name himself after Van Morrison and Janis Joplin.

 

[TommyR01D]

Stephen Hawking has a shuttlecraft on TNG named after him. In the novels they named an orbital facility after Obama even before he won the election for his first term.

I seem to remember that in Life Line we had Barclay flying the Dawkins, presumably a reference to Richard.

 

[Mojochi]

I've often wondered when in maybe TNG's time, we'd slowly cycle into seeing ships being named four notable past starfleet figures Like Kirk or Spock. The USS Montgomery Scott sounds like one helluva name for a ship imho. lol

 

[Forbin]

I've often wondered when in maybe TNG's time, we'd slowly cycle into seeing ships being named four notable past starfleet figures Like Kirk or Spock. The USS Montgomery Scott sounds like one helluva name for a ship imho. lol

Why only four?

 

[1001001]

I seem to remember that in Life Line we had Barclay flying the Dawkins, presumably a reference to Richard.

Or Darryl.

 

[Mojochi]

Why only four?

Grr... Typos. Lol

 

[The Wormhole]

I've often wondered when in maybe TNG's time, we'd slowly cycle into seeing ships being named four notable past starfleet figures Like Kirk or Spock. The USS Montgomery Scott sounds like one helluva name for a ship imho. lol

There is a USS Archer listed on a computer display in Nemesis. And in the novels there's a USS James Kirk.

 

[TommyR01D]

It can go either way. Take the US carriers for example. The USS Nimitz was named for Admiral Chester W. Nimitz but only bears his last name. On the other hand, the USS Carl Vinson and all the ones named for US Presidents have full names. My guess is that it depends on the importance of the person it's named after, and how well it rolls off the tongue. As you pointed out, the USS Niels Bohr just sounds better than the USS Bohr.

Sometimes a ship is given the full name of a famous person because there are more than one famous person with that person's last name. A far as I know there is only one really famous Nimitz, but there are multiple famous Roosevelts, Washingtons, and even Lincolns. Also sometimes it is to specify when someone is not exactly famous in all circles. Most people like have no idea who Carl Vinson or John C. Stanislaus even are, and yet we have Aircraft carriers named after them among a lot of Presidents names. Since USS Enterprise (CVN-65) and USS America (CV-66) all the fleet carriers have been named after people...until the next USS Enterprise (CVN-80) is commissioned.

Starfleet seems to specify for famous people if they need to be more specific, or if the name sounds better in full as oppose to a short version. You will tend to find British ships named after Admirals and Generals that only use their last names, since they will either assume you know which one they are named after, or are inclusive in case there are multiple people with that last name (there actually are a bunch of famous people named Hood in the Royal Navy). Plus Starfleet names ships and shuttles after scientists and people famous for space exploration. I had a talk with someone after the old FASA and Starfleet Battles naming conventions which favored military names where later TNG and others favored men of peace and the like. Where in those two game systems you could find a USS Napoleon or a USS Genghis Khan, it is unlikely you would find one on any televised Star Trek not set in the mirror universe. But you would find ships named after famous warships of the past like Yorktown, Akagi, Enterprise, Victory, and Monitor. About the only name you will likely never find, even in the mirror universe, is a USS Hitler (expect perhaps named by a player in a game...as a joke)

There really isn't much consistency with this, even in the real world. Some ships only have a person's last name, others have their first and last name, others still include the initial of their middle name, and in some cases if the person had any titles like "Sir" or "Lord" even that gets included in the ship's name.

There is of course the USS Winston S. Churchill as well as HMS Churchill the submarine. There are ships named after royals as well - there have been many uses of HMS Prince of Wales and one of HMS Duke of York, as well as four called HMS Buckingham (referencing George Villiers). There really is no fixed pattern.

 

[David Strickhouser]

In one of Peter David's novels (I believe Vendetta), he mentions the U.S.S. Chekov.
Now I'm a big fan of Pavel, but I don't think his career was that notable.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Maybe some ships with last names only are named after more than one person. There's an author by that name, and maybe others. Perhaps Pavel had a famous uncle or aunt...

 

[Ithekro]

HMS Hood was named after several people, and some could assume it was also named after a man who died around the time she was laid down.

 

[UssGlenn]

In one of Peter David's novels (I believe Vendetta), he mentions the U.S.S. Chekov.
Now I'm a big fan of Pavel, but I don't think his career was that notable.

Hard to say, we never saw his career after he was a Commander. Didn't Shatners novels say that he eventually ended up as the Admiral in charge of all of Starfleet?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Pavel_Chekov#Apocrypha