Pavel, Hikaru, and Nyota

[Avro Arrow]

Nyota was proposed as Uhura's first name in 1982's Star Trek II Biographies by William Rotsler. So King Daniel is half right. Although the name was used in tie-ins for decades, it wasn't made canonical until the 2009 movie.

Although, strictly speaking, we don't know canonically that prime-Uhura's first name was Nyota, since she was born after the timeline split. A different first name could possibly be part of the ripple effect of Nero's incursion. (We already know nu-Chekov isn't really the same person as prime-Chekov, by dint of being born in a different year.)

Not that I'm arguing that prime-Uhura's first name *isn't* Nyota, because I actually prefer/believe that it is. But Uhura is the only main character in TOS not to have her first name given in a prime-universe episode or movie. (Although it was shown on-screen in one of those TOS anniversary specials, and someone once even claimed Kirk used it--badly mispronounced--in TVH... and even though it does kind of sound like that, I believe that particular claim was debunked.)

And yet, somehow, even though Chekov's patronymic was canonically established as Andreievich, Rotsler's Biographies still claimed his father was named Alexei instead of Andrei. I guess Rotsler's Swahili was better than his Russian.

I honestly didn't realize that's how Russian names worked, so I would have made the same mistake as Rotsler!

Have there been various versions of what McCoy's middle initial "H" stands for? I know I've read "Horatio" somewhere, but I can't recall where.

^I've never heard anything but Horatio suggested as McCoy's middle name. I don't recall where it came from, though.

The earliest source I know of for "Horatio" as McCoy's middle name is the fanon U.S.S. Enterprise Officer's Manual by Geoffrey Mandel, copyright 1980... which of course pre-dates TSFS. I wonder if this influenced the TSFS scriptwriter to use "H" as McCoy's middle initial?

The same publication gives Scotty's (not McCoy's) middle name as Edward, Sulu's first name as Itaka, Uhura's first name as Upenda, and Spock's first name as a cat walking across a keyboard!

 

[Christopher]

^Oh, yes, that's where the "Horatio" came from.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Although, strictly speaking, we don't know canonically that prime-Uhura's first name was Nyota, since she was born after the timeline split.

Actually, the specific year of Uhura's birth was never given onscreen. (The only times it is given are in the Chronology and the Encyclopedia, and we all know how 'official' those are. ) Theoretically she could have been born before the split.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

The earliest source I know of for "Horatio" as McCoy's middle name is the fanon U.S.S. Enterprise Officer's Manual by Geoffrey Mandel, copyright 1980... which of course pre-dates TSFS. I wonder if this influenced the TSFS scriptwriter to use "H" as McCoy's middle initial?

Interesting. I didn't realize that "Horatio" preceded the "H." I'd guess that Harve Bennett had a copy of that book on his desk when he was writing. It seems like a big coincidence otherwise.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The same publication gives Scotty's (not McCoy's) middle name as Edward, Sulu's first name as Itaka, Uhura's first name as Upenda, and Spock's first name as a cat walking across a keyboard!

IIRC, all of these come from a Trek convention panel in the 70s, which featured David Gerrold and DC Fontana (and Mandel?). This was when David Gerrold announced that he would be including "Tiberius" in a then-upcoming episode of TAS (which he did, in "Bem") and DC Fontana supposedly authorized something "unpronouncable" ("Xtmprszntwlfd", created by literally punching random keys on a typewriter for a pesky journalist) as Spock's family name (ie. as suggested by Amanda in "Journey to Babel" when McCoy tried to call her Mrs Sarek). "Penda" had already been "authorized" by Nichelle Nichols for fanfics, but perhaps misremembered as "Upenda" by Mandel? Christopher Pike's middle name was recorded in the manual as "Robin", perhaps an AA Milne reference?

The novel "Ishmael" suggested "S'chn T'gai" as Spock's family name.

 

[Idran]

The novel "Ishmael" suggested "S'chn T'gai" as Spock's family name.

Which, as far as I've been able to tell, has since been picked up by the Star Trek fandom on Tumblr as his "official" fanon family name within that community.

A choice that bugs me for the silliest reason: I can pronounce that just fine, so obviously it can't be his real family name.

 

[Stevil2001]

The S'chn is silent.

 

[Sci]

(We already know nu-Chekov isn't really the same person as prime-Chekov, by dint of being born in a different year.)

Only if you assume that Chekov was conceived by conventional means. But if Chekov was conceived by artificial means -- if, for instance, his parents conceived him using gametes that had been preserved and then used later? It's entirely possible that Chekov could literally be the same person, merely born in different years. Just assume that in the Prime Timeline, they chose to use those same preserved gametes a few years earlier.

(Yeah, this is an elaborate piece of speculation. But it's not implausible, given 23rd century medical technology, and it keeps nuChekov the same person, biologically-speaking, as PrimeChekov.)

 

[Markonian]

The novel "Ishmael" suggested "S'chn T'gai" as Spock's family name.

Which, as far as I've been able to tell, has since been picked up by the Star Trek fandom on Tumblr as his "official" fanon family name within that community.

It's not just fanon, it is officially licensed. The name is also used in Myriad Universes: Shattered Light: The Tears of Eridanus. S'chn T'gai is a family within T'Pau's clan.

 

[Christopher]

"Penda" had already been "authorized" by Nichelle Nichols for fanfics, but perhaps misremembered as "Upenda" by Mandel?

I think it's a legitimate variation of the name. A Google search turns up references to Penda, Upenda, and Upendo as Swahili names.

The novel "Ishmael" suggested "S'chn T'gai" as Spock's family name.

Which, as far as I've been able to tell, has since been picked up by the Star Trek fandom on Tumblr as his "official" fanon family name within that community.

A choice that bugs me for the silliest reason: I can pronounce that just fine, so obviously it can't be his real family name.

Maybe it's not pronounced the way it appears to be spelled. Sometimes a transliteration only approximately represents the actual sound of a foreign word. For instance, I had a college friend whose name was Xuân, the Vietnamese word for spring, and she pronounced it "tsoon" (ts as in cats, oo as in book). Since Vietnamese transliteration is based on French phonetics, it sounds nothing like it looks to English-speakers' eyes. And then there are languages that have sounds with no equivalents in English. Japanese has a sound that's halfway between R and L and is generally romanized as R in the currently preferred scheme and L in older schemes (which is why "Godzilla" and "Gojira" are alternate spellings of the same name that's actually pronounced about halfway between).

Or maybe Vulcan is a tonal language like Chinese, where if you pronounce the same sounds with a different intonation, it totally changes the meaning of the word. Maybe if you don't inflect "S'chn T'gai" just right, with a subtlety that only Vulcan hearing can discern, it sounds like something very rude.

 

[Markonian]

Or maybe Vulcan is a tonal language like Chinese, where if you pronounce the same sounds with a different intonation, it totally changes the meaning of the word. Maybe if you don't inflect "S'chn T'gai" just right, with a subtlety that only Vulcan hearing can discern, it sounds like something very rude.

That may explain the difference between Surak and the Suurok-class.

 

[Christopher]

That may explain the difference between Surak and the Suurok-class.

I dunno, that seems more like the difference between Janssen and Johnson. I'm talking about the sort of thing where the phonemes are exactly the same but only the tonality differs.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Maybe it's not pronounced the way it appears to be spelled. Sometimes a transliteration only approximately represents the actual sound of a foreign word. For instance, I had a college friend whose name was Xuân, the Vietnamese word for spring, and she pronounced it "tsoon" (ts as in cats, oo as in book). Since Vietnamese transliteration is based on French phonetics, it sounds nothing like it looks to English-speakers' eyes. And then there are languages that have sounds with no equivalents in English.

She rendered it "tsʊn"? Why? As I understand Vietnamese, "Xuân" is pronounced /s̪wɜn˧˧/, roughly like English "SOO-ən"".

 

[Christopher]

^Well, she wasn't Vietnamese herself; her mother taught English to Vietnamese immigrants, and thought it was a good name. So I can't attest to the accuracy of her pronunciation. Anyway, it still shows that how a word is written down doesn't automatically correspond to how it's pronounced.

 

[dstyer]

Names come from a lot of different places for a lot of different reasons. My daughter's middle name being "Nerys" doesn't mean she's Bajoran.

. . . And I thought I was the only one who did that. . .

My daughter's middle name is also "Nerys," and my wife insisted on naming the dog "Dax."

 

[KRAD]

Names come from a lot of different places for a lot of different reasons. My daughter's middle name being "Nerys" doesn't mean she's Bajoran.

. . . And I thought I was the only one who did that. . .

My daughter's middle name is also "Nerys," and my wife insisted on naming the dog "Dax."

Boy, what a coupla nerds.........




(I kid -- I have a cat named after a Firefly character and a dog named after a Muppet....)

 

[Greg Cox]

True story: Our neighbors recently introduced us to their new baby girl, Cordelia?

"As in King Lear?" I asked.

"No, as in Lois McMaster Bujold."

 

[JonnyQuest037]

IIRC, all of these come from a Trek convention panel in the 70s, which featured David Gerrold and DC Fontana (and Mandel?). This was when David Gerrold announced that he would be including "Tiberius" in a then-upcoming episode of TAS (which he did, in "Bem")

IIRC, wasn't even "Tiberius" originally just a joke of Gerrold's, based on the miniseries I, Claudius airing around that time?

Christopher Pike's middle name was recorded in the manual as "Robin", perhaps an AA Milne reference?

I've always hated that. Way too cutesy IMO.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

And now that I think of it, TAS is also where D.C. Fontana introduced that Amanda's original surname was "Grayson."

 

[Christopher]

IIRC, wasn't even "Tiberius" originally just a joke of Gerrold's, based on the miniseries I, Claudius airing around that time?

If so, it's quite a coincidence, considering that the main character of Roddenberry's first series, The Lieutenant, was US Marine Corps Lieutenant William Tiberius Rice. Roddenberry reused character names a lot (cf. William T. Riker), so I always figured "Tiberius" came from him.

And now that I think of it, TAS is also where D.C. Fontana introduced that Amanda's original surname was "Grayson."

Yep, in "Yesteryear."