Question for my fellow authors

[Cobalt Frost]

If you're willing to tell, that is I'm curious to know why your hero ships were named what they are. We seem to have a couple of the "standards"; names like Phoenix, Excalibur, and the like, but we also have Reykjavík, Gibraltar, and some others that escape me at the moment.

In my case, the Challenger Disaster of January 28, 1986 was a moment in time that struck me like few others have, before or since. Naming a ship after the ill-fated space shuttle is my small, perhaps insignificant way of honoring the ship and her crew (my Challenger usually has shuttlepods named for the orbiter crew).

Of course, I have a few other ships and stories. Gorky Park, which features occasionally in Challenger tales, is named for the Russian hard rock band of the late 80s. Vincennes, also a Challenger bit player, is so named because I just dig the name; various naval vessels have borne the name over the years. And the Bunker Hill, whose stores are set in the early years after TUC, is named for the battle in the American Revolutionary War (the battle proper took place at nearby Breed's Hill though.)

Would anyone else like to share?

 

[Gibraltar]

Gibraltar was a name I came up with while running a Star Trek (modified TNG-era FASA) RPG campaign in college. When I started my fanfic series, I elected to use that ship name specifically because it wasn't a hero-ship kind of name.

When I started writing Trek fanfic in 2005, much of the existing content was replete with the biggest, fastest, most heavily armed starships crewed by the best-of-the-best. I wanted Gibraltar to be the exception, an unremarkable workhorse ship with an average crew that gets forced into situations that larger, more capable ships should have been assigned to.

When I decided to start writing an early-24th century starship series, I went in a different direction. I thought Reykjavík sounded like a good ship name for evoking something of a Viking mythos. I wanted to see if the captain and crew could make the ship's reputation, turn the name of the vessel into something that gave the Federation's enemies pause.

Links to images of Gibraltar and Reykjavík below:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/4147267878701556/?multi_permalinks=5967535170008142

https://www.facebook.com/groups/4147267878701556/?multi_permalinks=5964844613610531

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I once had a starship named Determination briefly name-checked in a Kelvinverse short fic. No special reason, just needed a generic virtue name. (See here: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/trolling-the-doctor-kelvinverse.313433/)

I've fancied the name Scissortail (after a species of flycatcher (a bird)), as the perfect name for a ship run by SCIS (https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Starfleet_Criminal_Investigative_Service) - named for the name of the agency and the design.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The U.S.S. Hunter was designed for law enforcement. Its sister ship, U.S.S. Prowler, is the class-name ship (typically the 2nd ship of the line, which incorporates lessons learned from the prototype and serves as the blueprint for the class.) Hence, even though Hunter is the prototype, it's a Prowler-Class ship.

All the Prowler class ships have law-enforcement or hunting names (U.S.S. Birder, U.S.S. Inspector, U.S.S. Trapper, U.S.S. Detective...) The U.S.S. Hunter is unique in that it is sentient, self-aware and interacts with its crew via a holographic avatar - named Hunter.

The Star Trek Hunter series also includes a few other new Star Fleet prototype vessels. The U.S.S. Milky Way is designed for deep space exploration. It is a Pegasus-Class ship, all of which are named after galaxies (U.S.S. Hoag's Object, U.S.S. Whirlpool, U.S.S. Eye of Sauron...)

Another new group is the aptly named, gargantuan Atlas-Class planetary rescue vehicles. These four behemoths are essentially mobile space stations, designed to rescue large populations (and even entire biospheres) from doomed planets: U.S.S. Ark, U.S.S. Atlas, U.S.S. Mohammed and U.S.S. Delivery. These ships names are puns - Mohammed can literally move an actual mountain and put it on another planet...


I am working on a new series - Star Trek Beagle. (I'm considering dubbing it the Star Beagle Adventures in honor of CeJay. Imagine the logo...)

The Beagle group will be deliberately kept out of conflicts and assigned strictly to deep space exploration. Its skipper is a biologist. The U.S.S. Beagle is, of course, named after the ship that took Charles Darwin to the Galapagos.

Thanks!! rbs

 

[admiralelm11]

Fortitude was named for the fortitude that Starfleet officers have to make the impossible possible. I felt I was honoring those who have served in the military or as first responders.

 

[Bynar0110]

The U.S.S Edison in the fanfic I'm working on at moment, but haven't posted yet, gets it name from the inventor Thomas Edison and the Evil Scientist Dr. Fred Edison, from the PC game Maniac Mansion

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The U.S.S Edison in the fanfic I'm working on at moment...

I first read that as U.S.S. Eddington, which would have been a much different ship...
Thanks!! rbs

 

[Bynar0110]

I first read that as U.S.S. Eddington, which would have been a much different ship...
Thanks!! rbs

That's a tug transport right?

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

That's a tug transport right?

A used up and retired garbage scow detailed to the target range... As a target.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

In "'Playthings", I named a colony scout ship the SS Ingalls, after Laura Ingalls Wilder. (She went west with her family and settled the prairies, so upon reflection, it makes sense using her maiden name, her family's last name when they first settled there.)

 

[mthompson1701]

I chose the name Excalibur because it was standard. Honestly, I figured it was a good, strong name for a starship. I figure it was a successor to the Constitution-class ship seen in The Ultimate Computer. I selected the Excelsior-class because it made sense for the time period I'm writing in. Since I don't intend to go past season 1 of TNG with my series, I can transfer the name to the Ambassador-class Excalibur if I choose to do so. That was really my thinking process on naming the ship.

 

[admiralelm11]

What do you mean you're towing me out as target practice?

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

What do you mean you're towing me out as target practice?

I was talking about the U.S.S. Eddington (which is what my aging eyes saw first when reading Bynar's U.S.S. Edison.)

I figure that's a good use for a ship named after Michael Eddington...

Thanks!! rbs

 

[Will The Serious]

Vulcan was chosen after the concept for my series began percolating in my head. I wanted a series that centered around a less military format. My initial concept came from a character that visited the Enterprise in the Next Generation series who was more a Hans Solo type of character, charming, a bit swash buckling, and I thought a good recurring character if he was fleshed out a bit more. A private contractor who took transportation jobs that may not always be so... official. That combined with my fascination with the Vulcan persona and the character of T'Pol, as played by Jolene Blalock, made me want to feature a female Vulcan captain. I loved the quiet intelligence she projected, but mostly the idea of uncompromising ethics. I also wanted to take classic Vulcan logic and slowly enculturate it into a more emotional human world.

My series is, in a sense, a coming of age story. Our hero, the Vulcan captain, will grow from contemptuous of emotions, to accepting, then to understanding and finally to embracing a pragmatic blending of both.

Naming the ship Vulcan grew out of the title of the series. I was interested in delving a little more into the personal perspectives of non-Earth species and also getting a glimpse of the world outside of Star Fleet. I had a concept of the ship being designed to run smuggling trips across the Neutral Zone, hence the cloaking ability, but I couldn't account for such a ship being anything but a lost military machine.

When I thought of titling one of the episodes, 'The Vulcan Laughs', in which our Vulcan captain learns to express her humor, but that's also when I decided to name the ship Vulcan. The series name is about A Vulcan and also about The Vulcan. Both Captain S'Talla and the newly awake AI named Vulcan will come of age together, one learning from the other.

-Will

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

I am now publishing the Star Beagle Adventures to Ad Astra:

Star Beagle Adventures

There are a few more ships that are now regulars in that story:

• U.S.S. Beagle (Named after the H.M.S. Beagle that carried Charles Darwin to the Galapagos)
• U.S.S. Puppy (the Beagle's task shuttle - nearly as large as a runabout)
• U.S.S. Mako (Named after beloved American actor, Makoto Iwamatsu)
• U.S.S. Escort (Name from Memory Alpha for an Escort class (or Defiant class) ship)
• U.S.S. Bluebird (Runabout stationed within the Mako - the name comes from the song Starship Trooper by YES, which inspired episode 4 in which the runabout first appears)

The Beagle and the Puppy are refurbished Vulcan High Command ships.
The Mako is an Intrepid class ship (same as U.S.S. Voyager).

 

[TheLoneRedshirt]

USS Bluefin NCC-4458 is an Albacore-class border cutter. The name comes from a current United States Coast Guard Cutter and also a former U.S. Navy submarine. I thought it suitable for my stories based on Starfleet's Border Service (my 24th century version of a space-based Coast Guard.)

 

[admiralelm11]

The USS Starsong was a name that I originally made up for an alien crew in a Star Trek universe of my own imagination. She was a heavy cruiser that was the flagship of a clan of that species. Instead, I decided to use her as an Excelsior-class ship because I thought it would be great to honor music and the ideas that songs can inspire in people.

USS Featherwind was just a scout ship. I haven’t done much with her. I was thinking of birds and how they glide on the wind when I came up with that name.

 

[Firebird]

Naming my main starship the USS Nerv was a natural extension of adapting Evangelion into the Star Trek universe, so there's not really any sort of interesting story there. Her registry number, NCC-71855, has a more interesting story.

One of the first story ideas I had for EVA-Trek was that Nerv would visit DS9, but I couldn't figure out a good way to make it work for the story without being gratuitous fan service. I ended up settling on adjusting canon a bit and having the USS Venture (NCC-71854) being unable to make it to DS9 in time to intercept the Klingons for "The Way of the Warrior." Nerv, which was the Venture's sister ship at the Utopia Planitia Shipyards, lead the taskforce in its place, which then gave me a good reason for a DS9 crossover. Not only that, it helped me plan out the story arc for the first half of the "season," giving me an end goal to pace out from starting the series at Earth.

 

[BrotherBenny]

Mine have been named after explorers, Pytheas, Xu Fu, etc. I made an attempt at a border service series with the hero ship as the Banshee (mythological), but I've also used Stonehouse, Monarch, and a couple of others.

I'm actually working on a story now that will tie up my loose ends from the United Trek author crossover series Refugee Crisis/Task Force Vanguard, set about ten years after the start of the crossover.

 

[Will The Serious]

I've also used Stonehouse, Monarch, and a couple of others.

This made me think of Stone Horse, a sailboat design. One could use the names of sailboat models: Stone Horse, Optimist, Laser, Hunter, Freedom, Beneteau, Jeanneau, Pogo, Mariner ...

I like sailing.

-Will