Spoilers Revealed! Number One's name is...

[David cgc]

Please no, that is just painfully stupid. She is called 'Number One' for the same reason than Riker was, any other explanation would just be torturous. It would be like McCoy's first name actually being 'Doctor'.

Or his nickname being "Bones" because that's all his ex-wife left him with?

 

[Longinus]

Or his nickname being "Bones" because that's all his ex-wife left him with?

Don't remind me of that!

 

[Kemaiku]

Or his nickname being "Bones" because that's all his ex-wife left him with?

Divorce lawyers in the 23rd century are pretty quick to give custody of planets.

 

[Doc Mugatu]

... Number One! As per her official statement at Starfleet Headquarters.

Who thinks this is awesome? Who is upset? Are 50 years of expectations undone here? Spill ye beans, fellow Trekkies,

Hate to burst bubbles but Number One's name has been reveled in James Blish's lost manuscript for the original novelization of The Cage. Number One's true name is Zahava Katzenellenbogen.

 

[Succubint]

I just assumed the Bones nickname was a shortening of "Sawbones", which is another way of saying "Doctor".

 

[Longinus]

I just assumed the Bones nickname was a shortening of "Sawbones", which is another way of saying "Doctor".

YES!

 

[SeamusShameless]

Please no, that is just painfully stupid. She is called 'Number One' for the same reason than Riker was, any other explanation would just be torturous. It would be like McCoy's first name actually being 'Doctor'.

No stupider than her name being Una, or Primus, or any other derivation of the number 1. I'd be more inclined to keep her name a mystery as it has been for the last 55 years, but I don't write Star Trek so my opinion on the subject doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Longinus]

No stupider than her name being Una, or Primus, or any other derivation of the number 1. I'd be more inclined to keep her name a mystery as it has been for the last 55 years, but I don't write Star Trek so my opinion on the subject doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Well, Una or Úna is a real name, so whilst it might be somewhat unnecessarily amusing coincidence that a person with such a name ends up as a first officer, it is not blatantly silly. Certainly no worse than having a Scottish engineer whose name is Scott. As long as her last name isn't 'Numero' or something like that, Una is fine.As for keeping the name as a mystery, first of, it is a fucking lame mystery, and secondly, if they make a full series it would be impossible without becoming comically contrived.

 

[BillJ]

Or his nickname being "Bones" because that's all his ex-wife left him with?

I thought that was a very inventive origin for "Bones" in the Trek universe.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I just assumed the Bones nickname was a shortening of "Sawbones", which is another way of saying "Doctor".

I've never heard it outside of Star Trek. When was the last time someone called a Doctor "Sawbones"? The 19th Century?

 

[David cgc]

I thought that was a very inventive origin for "Bones" in the Trek universe.

It delighted me back in 2009, and still does. I'm also very pro-Number One, and all the various specifics that have been suggested for how a woman came to be named that.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I've never heard it outside of Star Trek. When was the last time someone called a Doctor "Sawbones"? The 19th Century?

Yep. From a time when all they could do for a seriously wounded limb was to saw it off.

sawbones. "surgeon," 1837, slang, from verbal phrase; see saw (v.) + bone (n.).

 

[Mr. Adventure]

As a kid, I knew it wasn't really the case but I thought maybe they called him that because there wasn't much to him but bones, he was a pretty slim guy.

 

[Cyrus]

He was called bones because he was good at sex and did it a lot. Was kind of confirmed by Dax.

 

[Deledrius]

Consider me chuffed . . . although I have to keep pointing out that "Una" was originally Dave Mack's idea. I just used it first.

I'm really curious: what's the thinking behind making a choice like this?

 

[MarsWeeps]

I'm really curious: what's the thinking behind making a choice like this?

 

[Avro Arrow]

It all runs together in the dialog as "connuna" so it's an easy mistake to make when transcribing the subtitles. "Conn, Una", "Conn, Noona", and "Conn, 'n', uh" are all going to be nearly indistinguishable in a quick line read in a tense situation. For what it's worth, it sounded like Una to me, but knowing she'd been given such a goofy fanfic pun name in some novels likely primed me to hear it.

I totally missed this in the episode. But it reminds me of the time people claimed Kirk called Uhura "Nyota" (pronounced incorrectly as "en-yota") in TSFS. Since I was primed to expect it, when I checked the scene myself, I heard it too.

Don’t think it’s an Admiral at the end. I think it’s a Comordore.
Robert April

I think I am going to call him Commodore Tamzarian.

When was the last time someone called a Doctor "Sawbones"? The 19th Century?

The 23rd. Kirk called McCoy "sawbones" in "A Piece of the Action".

 

[GaryH]

I'm really curious: what's the thinking behind making a choice like this?

The idea is that she picked a name humans could pronounce to refer to herself when off duty. It sounded like one (uno), and homaged Una McCormack.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The 23rd. Kirk called McCoy "sawbones" in "A Piece of the Action".

Also established "patty-cake" as a term alive and well.

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

Well, Una or Úna is a real name, so whilst it might be somewhat unnecessarily amusing coincidence that a person with such a name ends up as a first officer, it is not blatantly silly.

Agreed, and in those circumstances, the idea that the captain and crew refer to her almost exclusively as number one as a personal joke is quite believable.