# Alien names in Star Trek **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909 "2016-04-02T14:34:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/1 "2016-04-02T14:34:05Z")
Does anyone know whether the _Star Trek_ writers had any main theme or source of inspiration for the names of the various individual aliens? I’ve thought for some time that some alien names in _Star Trek_–particularly Cardassian names–bear a striking resemblance to real-life Turkish names. I’m linking to this article, not because of the subject of it, but because this is one of the best examples I’ve seen. > **[DANIEL PIPES: Recep Tayyip Erdogan gambles on refugee threat and loses](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/31/daniel-popes-recep-tayyip-erdogan-gambles-on-refug/)** > > The Republic of Turkey, long a democratizing Muslim country solidly in the Western camp, now finds itself internally racked and at the center of two external crises, the civil war in next-door Syria and the illegal immigration that is changing... These are names of actual Turkish people mentioned in the article–Can Dundar; Erdem Gul; Burak Bekdil. Don’t those sound just like Cardassian names? ---
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/2 "2016-04-02T17:09:23Z")
As a race, the Ferengi must be from Batu Ferringhi on Penang, Malaysia. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/3 "2016-04-02T17:11:01Z")
Dunno. Looking at [this](http://www.peiraeuspubliclibrary.com/names/scifinames/startrek.html) list of Bajoran, Cardassian, Ferengi and Klingon names, i’d be hard pressed to sort them back into groups by race if the were mixed up except probably some of the Klingon ones that have apostrophes in them) Seems like they just went for names composed of syllables that were alien/uncommon to English. Maybe that just coincidentally aligned with Turkish or other name sounds. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/4 "2016-04-02T17:48:42Z")
The word _firangi_ is used in both the Persian and the Hindi/Urdu languages to describe a European/Western/white foreigner. [Persian](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%86%DA%AF%DB%8C#Persian): > [@](#): > > فرنگی • ‎(Farangi) ‎(_plural_ فرنگیها ‎(Farangi-hâ)) > > 1. _(dated)_ French > 2. _(dated)_ Christian > 3. European, westerner [Hindi/Urdu](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/firangi): > [@](#): > > firangi ‎(plural firangis or firangi) > _(India, Britain, Pakistan)_ A foreigner, especially a British or a white person. According to [an internet answer](https://www.quora.com/Why-are-foreigners-called-Firangi-in-Hindi-Urdu-and-several-North-Indian-languages%5B/URL) (which doesn’t allow itself to be linked to from an external site, for some reason), the term “seems to have emerged in Arabic during the Crusades. It was specifically used to represent the Roman Catholic world originating from the word Frankish, meaning French”. It also mentions associated words in other languages: _frangos_ in Greek and\* al-Faranj\* in Arabic. Then, of course, there’s Khan and _[khan](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/khan)_: > [@](#): > > _khan_ > > 1. (in the Altaic group of languages) a title held by hereditary rulers or tribal chiefs. > > 2. the supreme ruler of the Tatar tribes, as well as emperor of China, during the Middle Ages: a descendant of Genghis Khan. > > 3. a title of respect used in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and other countries of Asia. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/5 "2016-04-02T17:53:23Z")
“Khan” doesn’t need any more explanation than “Jim” does. It’s a pretty common, real-world name, albeit usually a surname. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/6 "2016-04-02T18:00:06Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > “Khan” doesn’t need any more explanation than “Jim” does. It’s a pretty common, real-world name, albeit usually a surname. \*Star Trek II: The Wrath of Jim. \* 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/7 "2016-04-02T18:02:18Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > \*Star Trek II: The Wrath of Jim. \* 😃 [Arguably the more accurate title!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajsNJtnUb7c) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/8 "2016-04-02T18:23:46Z")
TOS established a few conventions that TNG and later mostly gve up – Vulcan male names all starting with S, Klingon male names all with K; Vulcan female names starting with T’ did stick around longer. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/9 "2016-04-02T19:42:49Z")
Anyone else find it interesting that aside from humans, Star Trek _race_ names are all capitalized? Cardassians, Bajorans, Klingons, Romulans. But in, say, the _Mass Effect_ universe and _Dungeons and Dragons,_ they’re all lower-case. There’s asari, turians, krogan, quarians, elves, dwarves, et cetera. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/10 "2016-04-02T20:05:13Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Anyone else find it interesting that aside from humans, Star Trek _race_ names are all capitalized? Cardassians, Bajorans, Klingons, Romulans. But in, say, the _Mass Effect_ universe and _Dungeons and Dragons,_ they’re all lower-case. There’s asari, turians, krogan, quarians, elves, dwarves, et cetera. That’s because all the races in Star Trek have the same name as their home planet - Cardassians come from Cardassia, Vulcans come from Vulcan, Bajorans come from Bajor, etc. Klingons are the only exception I can think of. Well, and humans, of course. The aliens in _Mass Effect_ don’t follow that naming convention - turians are from Palaven, asari are from Thessia, and so on. Same with elves and dwarves in most better quality D&D settings - their homelands are usually something with a bunch of extra "y"s and extraneous apostrophes, not “Elfland” and “Dwarfland.” ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/11 "2016-04-02T20:07:51Z")
Also, the Ferengi are ruled by a “Grand Nagus”, which may or may not have been inspired by the Ethiopian Semitic royal title [_negus_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negus). According to wiki: > [@](#): > > It denotes a monarch such as the Bahri Negus of the Medri Bahri in pre-1890 Eritrea and the Negus in pre-1974 Ethiopia. The title has subsequently been used to translate the words “king” or “emperor” in Biblical and other literature. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/12 "2016-04-02T20:42:35Z")
The original series – no. They weren’t very good with names, anyway: Uhura was based on the Swahili word for freedom, and was chosen primarily because there was a best seller “Urhuru” that came out a year or two. The guy from Scotland was called “Scott,” the guy from Ireland was “Riley” (close to “O’Reilly,” the vaudeville name for any generic Irishman), the guy from Russia was named after one of Russia’s greatest writers. There couldn’t have been a lot of thought put into it and there are many examples of lazy names throughout the show – Khan, Elaan of Troius (for God’s sake). The “Romulans” clearly came from “Romulus,” the founder of Rome. I’ve also heard stories that the name was chosen because they meant Klingons, but forgot what they had called the Klingons (or vice versa). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/13 "2016-04-02T20:50:42Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > Turkish people mentioned in the article–Can Dundar; Erdem Gul; Burak Bekdil. Don’t those sound just like Cardassian names? It feels like someone should mention Kim Kardashian. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/14 "2016-04-02T21:19:11Z")
I’ve noticed the Ferengi in **Deep Space Nine** all have names that sound like common English words. Quark, Rom, Nog, Brunt. Well except for the Grand Nagus, Zek. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/15 "2016-04-02T22:05:47Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > That’s because all the races in Star Trek have the same name as their home planet - Cardassians come from Cardassia, Vulcans come from Vulcan, Bajorans come from Bajor, etc. Klingons are the only exception I can think of. Well, and humans, of course. There were a few instances of, if I recall, Klingons calling humans “Earthers”. Frankly, given the times I’m surprised the Old Series did as well as it did with names and races. Later series have less excuse. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/16 "2016-04-02T22:12:36Z")
Babylon 5 also used “Earthers” for humans. Well, at least some nonhuman characters did-- I can’t remember if it was a general convention. And some works use “Terrans” (which means the same thing) in the same way. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/17 "2016-04-03T00:07:49Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > There were a few instances of, if I recall, Klingons calling humans “Earthers”. > > Frankly, given the times I’m surprised the Old Series did as well as it did with names and races. Later series have less excuse. Also, when Spock was a child on Vulcan, the Vulcan children called him “Earther.” Not in the actual series, but in TAS episode “Yesteryear” and in the first Abrams movie, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/18 "2016-04-03T00:50:18Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The original series – no. They weren’t very good with names, anyway: Uhura was based on the Swahili word for freedom, and was chosen primarily because there was a best seller “Urhuru” that came out a year or two. The guy from Scotland was called “Scott,” the guy from Ireland was “Riley” (close to “O’Reilly,” the vaudeville name for any generic Irishman), the guy from Russia was named after one of Russia’s greatest writers. There couldn’t have been a lot of thought put into it and there are many examples of lazy names throughout the show – Khan, Elaan of Troius (for God’s sake). > > The “Romulans” clearly came from “Romulus,” the founder of Rome. I’ve also heard stories that the name was chosen because they meant Klingons, but forgot what they had called the Klingons (or vice versa). Scott and Riley are common surnames in Scotland and Ireland, respectively. They actually ordered some Scott tartan (from Scotland) for Scotty’s dress uniform. They misspelled Chekov’s surname. The author’s is Chekhov. In more than 40 years of dealing with the Russian language, I have yet to encounter any native speaker who spells it with a _k_ instead of a _kh_. Romulus and Remus formed the double planet system first mentioned in “Balance of Terror,” early in the first season. We didn’t get to see any Remans until one of the _ **TNG** _ movies. IIRC, they evolved somewhat differently from the Romulans, who were an offshoot of the Vulcan race. In one of James Blish’s books, it was mentioned that no one in the Federation was sure what their own name for themselves was. I believe the Klingons were created by Gene Coon, late in the first season. They first appeared in “Errand of Mercy.” IIRC, it was noted in _ **Star Trek Creator** _ that the name came from Robert Klingon, an officer who served with Gene Roddenberry in the LAPD. In “Charlie X,” McCoy refers to own race as “Earthlings,” rather than “Earthers” or “Terrans.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/19 "2016-04-03T01:04:05Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Romulus and Remus formed the double planet system first mentioned in “Balance of Terror,” early in the first season. We didn’t get to see any Remans until one of the _ **TNG** _ movies. IIRC, they evolved somewhat differently from the Romulans, who were an offshoot of the Vulcan race. In one of James Blish’s books, it was mentioned that no one in the Federation was sure what their own name for themselves was. It was also indicated in _ **The Making of Star Trek** _ that the names Romulus and Remus were bestowed on them because their culture bore similarities to that of Ancient Rome. (How this was determined in an era when no human or ally had ever seen a Romulan either up close or ship-to-ship was not explained.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909/20 "2016-04-03T01:22:55Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I believe the Klingons were created by Gene Coon, late in the first season. They first appeared in “Errand of Mercy.” According to David Gerrold, the makeup used for the Klingons was inconsistent the second time they appeared (in “The Trouble with Tribbles”). Ruth Berman explained this in one of her short stories by saying they obviously belonged to different races of the same species, which is entirely logical. The cranial ridges used in and after _ **TNG** _ could likewise have easily been explained by the Empire being made up of many different species, all of whom are considered Klingons. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alien-names-in-star-trek/750909.md?page=2)