Without any exposition/background information they'd just be made up words and gibberish. Which is why they usually stick to names we know like Surak and Gorkon.
Ship Names
- Thread starter NinjaRaiden2005
- Start date
Really? That's pretty interesting.
Figuring out a registry number for my now-Excelsior class vessel is becoming quite a pain. I've seen a few numbers for unidentified ships on Memory Alpha which has helped a little, but I can't seem to figure out just how old my ship would be to match one. If it wasn't such a big detail concerning Starfleet ships I'd probably skip over this little detail.
I'm okay with the gibberish. I'll get and appreciate what they're going for. They can fill me in whenever.
Regarding themes, if a strong one is established, then a single aberration can always be treated as no aberration at all - this is the future, after all, and an incredibly famous archer named Montana might have won six Olympics Games in a row for all we know.
I'm sort of partial to thinking that "lesser" ships get thematic names because they are to be built in great numbers and nobody bothers with being innovative with them. If one of them does something heroic, though (say, USS Bozeman of the Very Small Towns Class), then that particular name may be taken outside the theme and applied to a member of a class of "greater" ships. And the Enterprises tend to come from "greater" classes, save for Archer's old tub which may indeed have been part of a thematic group parroting NASA space shuttle names.
Of course, after a few centuries, all the "taken out of their thematic context" heroic names pile up into an unholy mess. But heck, perhaps the famed Starship Class is thematic, too, all the ships there being named after famous starships? Naturally, there's no USS Starship to launch the class - the naming practice is instead similar to the Royal Navy one, where there's always a County Class (without any HMS County), a Town Class (without a HMS Town), a River Class (without... you get the gist). But in order to be included, you need to have been a famous starship once. And perhaps it helps there if you used to be a warship, and those in turn might parrot old warship names from Earth history to an unhealthy degree.
Timo Saloniemi
I'm sort of partial to thinking that "lesser" ships get thematic names because they are to be built in great numbers and nobody bothers with being innovative with them. If one of them does something heroic, though (say, USS Bozeman of the Very Small Towns Class), then that particular name may be taken outside the theme and applied to a member of a class of "greater" ships. And the Enterprises tend to come from "greater" classes, save for Archer's old tub which may indeed have been part of a thematic group parroting NASA space shuttle names.
Of course, after a few centuries, all the "taken out of their thematic context" heroic names pile up into an unholy mess. But heck, perhaps the famed Starship Class is thematic, too, all the ships there being named after famous starships? Naturally, there's no USS Starship to launch the class - the naming practice is instead similar to the Royal Navy one, where there's always a County Class (without any HMS County), a Town Class (without a HMS Town), a River Class (without... you get the gist). But in order to be included, you need to have been a famous starship once. And perhaps it helps there if you used to be a warship, and those in turn might parrot old warship names from Earth history to an unhealthy degree.
Timo Saloniemi
You could always think of modern day naval or merchant vessels and try using them, likewise with any prominent contemporary figures in politics, science or literature (which also raises the question, what are the standards or accomplishments to warrant having a starship named after someone centuries later?). Part of me wonders if there's a U.S.S. Queen Elizabeth II, U.S.S. Merkel or U.S.S. Obama in the Federation fleet somewhere.
Clearly, the one thing they avoid like plague is naming ships after Starfleet heroes...
I mean, yes, there's a USS Chekhov out there, but the odds of her being named after "our" Chekov are pretty slim, even without the slightly different spelling. There's a shuttle named Pike there, but there's probably a shuttle named Salmon, too, and in any case no shortage of Pikes of interest outside "The Cage".
Perhaps it just doesn't do to be a "Starfleet hero"? Perhaps taking credit is the ultimate act of debasing oneself? Perhaps naming ships after killers is considered disgusting, unless said killers themselves died sufficiently many centuries ago, on a backward planet the heroes can safely ridicule? Who knows.
Timo Saloniemi
I mean, yes, there's a USS Chekhov out there, but the odds of her being named after "our" Chekov are pretty slim, even without the slightly different spelling. There's a shuttle named Pike there, but there's probably a shuttle named Salmon, too, and in any case no shortage of Pikes of interest outside "The Cage".
Perhaps it just doesn't do to be a "Starfleet hero"? Perhaps taking credit is the ultimate act of debasing oneself? Perhaps naming ships after killers is considered disgusting, unless said killers themselves died sufficiently many centuries ago, on a backward planet the heroes can safely ridicule? Who knows.
Timo Saloniemi
While there a numerous persons with the name, you are undoubtedly thinking of Yamamoto Isoruku, famous Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy in WWII.
Actually, the USS Yamato Galaxy class starship was named either after the WWII Imperial Japanese battleship IJN Yamato, or possibly (but less likely) a reference to Yamato Province or the use of the term to refer to greater Japan. The WWII ship, like her sisters IJN Musashi, and IJN Shinano were named after historic provinces. From a practical perspective, USS Yamato was probably chosen for use in TNG as it was a name of a famous non-western ship well known enough to register with at least some viewers.
TOS Shuttlecraft appear to be named after famous Earth explorers, scientists or artists
Not sure about that. While we can't be sure that the USS Archer from ST: Nemesis isn't named for either Henry Archer, Jonathan Archer or both it seems likely, and TrekLit has added the Galaxy-class USS Robinson (likely named after UESF Cdr AG Robinson, first human to break the Warp 2 barrier) and the Akira-class USS James T Kirk, and STO has added the cruiser USS Montgomery Scott, the Quasar-class science/medical vessel USS McCoy (replaced by the Destiny-class science vessel USS McCoy).
In Star Trek Online there's the USS Kirk. Its captain explicitly says it's named after James Kirk. As far as I know the game isn't considered canon so make of that what you will. I personally don't see a problem in naming ships after Starfleet or Federation heroes. Real navies do it all the time.
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Writing and playing STRPG and working on a (The Final Reflection based) Klingon campaign at the minute I get to use all sorts of alien ship names. Famous emperors, heroes, myhical beasts and names of Klin Zha (the Klingon tactical cultural core game) pieces are especially suitable.
DRG3 claims the ship is named after Jackie Robinson, the registry number is even some sort of Jackie Robinson reference.
Oh you know I had a brain fart and remembered an earlier thread about the Yamato. In it we said that it couldn't have been named in-universe for the anime battleship, so we said maybe Yamato was a historical figure from our future.
Rain Robinson.
As much as I likemy idea, and I think it would fit the naming scheme better, that makes sense.
Yep. It's NCC-71842:
718 = Telephone area code for Brooklyn, NY where Jackie played (with the Dodgers)
42 = Jackie's jersey number
I also like the idea that some runabouts are named after other watercourses, like streams or creeks, such as the
USS Dawson's.
USS Dawson's.
There's also the USS Akagi, named after a Japanese carrier that was their flagship during the Pearl Harbour attack. In Redemption, it served alongside the USS Hornet, a ship named after an American carrier which also fought at Pearl Harbour on the allies side. Ronald D. Moore saw it fitting that the two ships should serve side by side in Redemption.
Also, according to Memory Alpha, the Akagi was destroyed six months later by an attack involving a ship named Enterprise.
Also from the Japanese navy, we have the USS Yamato.
(Only a special few will get this one) That means there is a runabout named USS Turtle Creek parked aboard a ship named the USS Arnold Slick...
Huh? There were no US aircraft carriers present when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Hornet was still working up on the East coast after commissioning in October '41. Hornet was in the Battle of Midway, though, when Akagi was sunk (by bombers from Enterprise).
Apologies! I've just re-read the Memory Alpha entry about the Akagi and I realise I completely misread the entry on the USS Akagi. I knew it was the Battle of Midway too, somewhere in my memory, but decided to double-check Memory Alpha and then read it completely wrong. Akagi was part of the Pearl Harbour strike force, but was destroyed by Enterprise's bombers at Midway. Memory Alpha's quote: "The American carrier USS Hornet was also heavily engaged in that action". "That action" was the Battle of Midway of course, not the Pearl Harbor attack.
I suck at history.
