Starship Registry Numbers

[Eronai]

I was talking with a friend earlier about starship registry numbers (it was a slow day) and we couldn't decide how they were assigned.

I know USS is "United Star Ship" (or some variant depending where you look). But has it ever been established officially what the "NCC" stands for?

Secondly, assuming the Enterprise NX-01 was the first true 'starship' and the Enterprise 1701 was the one-thousand, seven-hundred and first starship ... was the USS Voyager 74656 the seventy-four thousand, six-hundred and fifty-sixth starship?

If so, that seems a bit of a leap = 1,700 starships between Archer and Kirk's time compared to 72,955 starships between Kirk and Janeway. Are Starfleet really that careless with their starships?

Or do the numbers mean something else?

 

[BillJ]

The numbers are gibberish. Just like stardates.

To try and figure it out: that way lies madness.

 

[Eronai]

To try and figure it out: that way lies madness.

Then there's no hope for me! Save yourselves!

 

[Albertese]

NCC has variously been defined as "Naval Construction Contract, or Navigational Contact Code. Mike Okuda has claimed the letters are basically random, like on a license plate. And yet ALL Starfleet ships are NCC. Or NX. Other services have other prefixes, so I figure the NCC means it's a non-experimental starfleet ship.

--Alex

 

[Starborn Dragon]

Not Currently Corrected
Never cease charging
Native clandestine church.

 

[martok2112]

Novice Course Corrector

 

[Phantom]

I've always favored "Naval Construction Contract", "Naval Experimental" and "Naval Auxilliary Reserve" for the predominate three prefixes.

Numbers generally increase sequentially over time. "Outliers" like the Constellation in "Doomsday Machine" are explained as refits of older vessels that retain their original registry. Excelsior would be a ship that had an exceptionally long development period (being the Transwarp testbed).

It's also important to understand that the first appearance of a new ship (the new ships in First Contact, for example) does not imply that the ships are new ships.

 

[MacLeod]

As others have said the registry numbers are meaningless. NX Seemes to indicate a prototype vessel, such as the NX-2000 which later became NCC-2000.

 

[Dukhat]

I know USS is "United Star Ship" (or some variant depending where you look). But has it ever been established officially what the "NCC" stands for?

No.

Secondly, assuming the Enterprise NX-01 was the first true 'starship' and the Enterprise 1701 was the one-thousand, seven-hundred and first starship ... was the USS Voyager 74656 the seventy-four thousand, six-hundred and fifty-sixth starship?

No again, because it has never been canonically established that registry numbers equate to the exact number of ships built.

If so, that seems a bit of a leap = 1,700 starships between Archer and Kirk's time compared to 72,955 starships between Kirk and Janeway. Are Starfleet really that careless with their starships?

No again.

Or do the numbers mean something else?

There has never been a canonical reason behind the logic (or lack thereof) of starship registry numbers. Sometimes they seem to be chronological, sometimes not.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I've always favored "Naval Construction Contract", "Naval Experimental" and "Naval Auxilliary Reserve" for the predominate three prefixes.

Me, too.

Secondly, assuming the Enterprise NX-01 was the first true 'starship' and the Enterprise 1701 was the one-thousand, seven-hundred and first starship ... was the USS Voyager 74656 the seventy-four thousand, six-hundred and fifty-sixth starship?

If so, that seems a bit of a leap = 1,700 starships between Archer and Kirk's time compared to 72,955 starships between Kirk and Janeway. Are Starfleet really that careless with their starships?

Two things, both just my theories, obviously:
1. Some numbers may have been skipped in order to try to group ships of the same class. As an example, I find it unlikely that Constitution would have gotten the even NCC-1700 or that Excelsior would have gotten the even NX-2000 if each ship was just assigned the next number as they came. It seems much more likely that someone reserved a block of, say, 100 registries for the Connies, a smaller block of 10 for the Excelsior class, since she was originally intended as a experimental testbed for the transwarp drive. Then if it becomes obvious that some of that allocation isn't going to be used by that class, maybe they break the reservation on a block out of that - so maybe a block of 20 from 1780 - 1799 would get reassigned to Sato-Class ships. And if they run through all the numbers in their block and still need more - like seems to have happened with Excelsior-Class, a few times - then they get an additional block, which may be far divergent from the original one.

2. They give starship registries in the NCC series to runabouts, to transports like the Jenolan, and who knows what all else. So maybe by Voyager there really ARE approximately 74,656 ships that have been assigned registries (not counting reused designations with alphanumerical extenders like the 1701-B through E, or the Nash at NCC-2010-5).

 

[T'Girl]

The separation in NCC numbers between USS Challenger and the USS Venture (both Galaxy Class) is 755 digits. I doubt Starfleet has that many Galaxy's.

My take. With a few exception, the hull number is randomly generated when construction is ordered.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Nothing in Continuity or Canon,

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

NX does seem to indicate an experimental vessel...except in Enterprise's time frame, when it's just another class. In that period of history, starship classes are just groups of letters, like DY, Y, J, NX, etc. It's not until much later that starship classes acquire actual NAMES (i.e. the class name is the name of the first starship of that class to be built), and NX becomes an experimental designation.

As for what NCC stands for? Nobody knows.

 

[Phantom]

As others have said the registry numbers are meaningless. NX Seemes to indicate a prototype vessel, such as the NX-2000 which later became NCC-2000.

Not meaningless...just not well-defined on screen. There is a general progression from TOS through Movies and into TNG/DS9/VOY from low to high. The best evidence is that they are chronological.

The separation in NCC numbers between USS Challenger and the USS Venture (both Galaxy Class) is 755 digits. I doubt Starfleet has that many Galaxy's.

My take. With a few exception, the hull number is randomly generated when construction is ordered.

No one is saying that numbers are always contiguous, which is what you are suggesting. Starfleet might let one contract for a Galaxy, and the next x number of contracts might be reserved for any number of other ships, most of them smaller.

There is NOTHING to indicate that they are randomly generated. The best evidence is that they rise over time, making them chronological.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

the hull number is randomly generated when construction is ordered.

I'm OK with that.

There's no conclusive proof that registry numbers are, or have ever been, in any kind of order. Look at the Constitution (NCC-1700), which is the class ship, yet the Constellation is NCC-1017...

True, there's no proof that the Constellation is of the same class, but there's no proof that it is NOT, either. If it LOOKS like a Connie, why not assume that it is one? Otherwise, what meaning does "class" even have?

 

[C.E. Evans]

It seemed at the start of TNG, the registry numbers for most ships fell somewhere between NCC-2500 and NCC-2900, enough to indicate a fairly moderate increase of ships after the introduction of the Excelsior, IMO.

And then the door was kicked open not long afterward with registries all over the place.

 

[The Wormhole]

Secondly, assuming the Enterprise NX-01 was the first true 'starship' and the Enterprise 1701 was the one-thousand, seven-hundred and first starship ... was the USS Voyager 74656 the seventy-four thousand, six-hundred and fifty-sixth starship?

If so, that seems a bit of a leap = 1,700 starships between Archer and Kirk's time compared to 72,955 starships between Kirk and Janeway. Are Starfleet really that careless with their starships?

Or do the numbers mean something else?

First of all, Enterprise NX-01 has nothing to do with the other ships. Earth Starfleet numbered things differently than the Federation Starfleet did. Earth Starfleet's registries were unique to the class of ship. Enterprise was the first NX class ship, therefore it was NX-01, then comes Columbia NX-02 and so on. There was also an NY class with registries like NY-01 and so on. It wasn't until the Federation Starfleet came along that registries were unified among all classes with NCC of a standard ship and NX for an experimental.

 

[t_smitts]

I was talking with a friend earlier about starship registry numbers (it was a slow day) and we couldn't decide how they were assigned.

I know USS is "United Star Ship" (or some variant depending where you look). But has it ever been established officially what the "NCC" stands for?

Secondly, assuming the Enterprise NX-01 was the first true 'starship' and the Enterprise 1701 was the one-thousand, seven-hundred and first starship ... was the USS Voyager 74656 the seventy-four thousand, six-hundred and fifty-sixth starship?

If so, that seems a bit of a leap = 1,700 starships between Archer and Kirk's time compared to 72,955 starships between Kirk and Janeway. Are Starfleet really that careless with their starships?

Or do the numbers mean something else?

First of all, I believe it's understood that the NX-01 (and NX-02) don't fit into the registry scheme. Earth Starfleet used a different numbering system than the Federation Starfleet.

We still don't know for certain what the first FEDERATION starship commissioned was named, though it would presumably have a registry of NCC-01 or NCC-001, etc.

And it's not necessarily a case of being "careless". As explored space expands, and presumably as does Federation territory (either by new members joining or by settling on uninhabited worlds), the need for more ships would increase. Not just explorers, but also ones with more routine duties like freighters, supply ships, transports, science vessels, and training vessels. And not all of them are big ships either. We've seen ships as small as a runabout get an NCC number, and considering ships that small would take much less time to build, there may be many thousands of past and present ships with NCC registries.

NCC has variously been defined as "Naval Construction Contract, or Navigational Contact Code. Mike Okuda has claimed the letters are basically random, like on a license plate. And yet ALL Starfleet ships are NCC. Or NX. Other services have other prefixes, so I figure the NCC means it's a non-experimental starfleet ship.

--Alex

I'm of the school that NCC doesn't stand for anything. An experimental prototype ship carries an NX registry until it becomes operational and switched to an NCC registry. This was the case with the Excelsior and the Galaxy, but for whatever reason, not the Defiant.

The separation in NCC numbers between USS Challenger and the USS Venture (both Galaxy Class) is 755 digits. I doubt Starfleet has that many Galaxy's.

My take. With a few exception, the hull number is randomly generated when construction is ordered.

What makes you think every intervening ship was a Galaxy class?

 

[Starborn Dragon]

Naval ships of the earth traditionally have their ship's prefixes after their country or ruler. The two great examples are:

USS for United States Ship

And

HMS for His Majesty's Ship.

So, Star Trek pretty much breaks the mold on this one with NCC. I think that if the Federation used a more traditional means, then the prefix letters just might possibly be:

UFPS 1701 (as just one example).

Then there's that UESPA stuff they eventually discontinued in flacor of star Fleet.

Now everybody wants to have a Star Fleet.

Yeesh.

 

[BillJ]

Naval ships of the earth traditionally have their ship's prefixes after their country or ruler. The two great examples are:

USS for United States Ship

And

HMS for His Majesty's Ship.

So, Star Trek pretty much breaks the mold on this one with NCC. I think that if the Federation used a more traditional means, then the prefix letters just might possibly be:

UFPS 1701 (as just one example).

The "USS" or "HMS" goes before the name not the registry. So it would be UFPS Enterprise. The registry for the last USS Enterprise was CVN-65, I believe.