What's In A Name?

In this series which we'll update on a regular basis, we'll be looking at characters, planets, alien races, vessels and so on, and taking a closer look at where they got their names from. There are more than a few characters named in tribute to individuals, and there are more than a few in-jokes to be found in the series as well. If there is any character, ship, alien race etc. that you want to know the name's origin of, then get in touch with us the usual address.

Characters

Armus - A character only seen once ("Skin Of Evil") but loved by those who hated Tasha Yar! Named after one of the shows producers at the time, Burton Armus.

Wesley Crusher - Although Wesley was originally supposed to be a girl called Lesley, the idea was abandoned and Wesley was created. The character was named after Gene Roddenberry himself, whose middle name was Wesley.

Kivas Fajo - We are not 100% certain on this one, but we think it is relatively safe to assume that this alien trader, seen in the TNG episode "The Most Toys" was named after Star Trek's Script Co-ordinator Lolita Fatjo.

Geordi La Forge - Geordi was one of the first characters in Star Trek to be named after a fan, namely George La Forge. George was severely disabled, and had built up a friendship with Gene over the years after the cacellation of the original series. The fact that Geordi had a disability but was able to cope with it was in order to pay tribute to George.

Livingston - Not so much a character, but more specifically Picard's Lionfish that is in his Ready Room on the Enterprise (or was, at least!). Livingston (who has never actually been named on screen) is named after one of Star Trek's producers, David Livington.

Thomas Eugene Paris - No prizes for guessing the source of inspiration for Tom Paris' middle name!

Jean-Luc Picard - Yet another member of the regular cast featured. This time, it is someone outside of the production team who acted as inspiration for the character, in the form of French underwater explorer Jacques Picard.

Q - John de Lancie has managed to protray the unknown entity brilliantly since "Encounter At Farpoint", but the origin of the character's name is far more down to earth. For many years, Gene Roddenberry maintained a friendship with a Star Trek fan from Scotland, Janet Quarton, and when ST:TNG was being developed, he decided to name the character after her. As a side note, Gene also drew upon Janet for a character in his novelisation of the first movie, with a character in Engineering on the Enterprise called Engineer Quarton.

Janice Rand - Purely conjecture this one, but I would hazzard a guess that Kirk's yeoman back on the original Enterprise was named after the US Scientific body the Rand Corporation, who assisted in technical advice on the series.

Alien Races

Bolians - The blue-skinned Bolians are something of an enigma in Star Trek. Although we have seen a lot of them, we don't really know that much about them. Their name? They were named after one of Star Trek's leading directors, Cliff Bole.

Ships

Shuttlecraft Hawking - One of the numerous shuttles that used to be on board the USS Enterprise 1701-D before it's destruction, the Hawking is named after leading theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, and follows the trend of shuttles being named after scientists.

USS Bozeman - The ship commanded by Captain Morgan Bateson (Kelsey Grammar from "Frasier") which was seen in the episode "Cause And Effect". This was named after the town of Bozeman, Montana, which was the hometown of Brannon Braga who wrote the episode.

USS Bradbury - This ship mentioned in the TNG story "Menage A Troi" was named after the late SF writer and friend of Gene Roddenberry, Ray Bradbury.

Miscellaneous

Jefferies Tubes - The engineering corridors that have been seen in Star Trek right since the original series were named after the art director and designer of the original Enterprise, Matt Jefferies.

More names will be added soon. Please let us know if there are any name origins you know that are not listed here.