Uhura's first name
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Nyota was coined by William Rostler in Star Trek II Biographies in 1982 and was widely embraced by fandom, as well as by Nichelle Nichols. I once saw her as a celebrity contestant on an episode of Super Password in the '80s, and when she was paired with a non-celebrity contestant named Star, she mentioned that Uhura's first name was Nyota, which meant "Star" in Swahili. So she certainly endorsed it as her character's first name. (Although I'm not sure she pronounced it correctly; she said it as three syllables rhyming with "iota," rather than the two-syllable pronunciation Zachary Quinto used in the '09 movie. Although I think Nichols's pronunciation was used in STID.) And Starlog-published tie-in magazines to the movies referred to her as Nyota and Sulu as Hikaru (coined by Vonda N. McIntyre in the novel The Entropy Effect in 1981) as though the names were official.
Before that, I remember an article in the Best of Trek fanzine collections proposing Penda as Uhura's first name and Walter as Sulu's first name. Apparently those suggestions had been making the rounds of fandom for a while before Hikaru and Nyota were coined, but I never saw either of them used in any professional tie-in novel or reference book. But I don't know where the "Upenda" variant came from.
Before that, I remember an article in the Best of Trek fanzine collections proposing Penda as Uhura's first name and Walter as Sulu's first name. Apparently those suggestions had been making the rounds of fandom for a while before Hikaru and Nyota were coined, but I never saw either of them used in any professional tie-in novel or reference book. But I don't know where the "Upenda" variant came from.
Did Roddenberry or some other powers that be at one point suggest that she just had one name? I thought I remembered reading about that.
Not everyone has to have two names. In "The Changeling" they called her Uhura even with her child-like mental state. If she actually had a first name, it would seem odd not to use it then.
Not everyone has to have two names. In "The Changeling" they called her Uhura even with her child-like mental state. If she actually had a first name, it would seem odd not to use it then.
No, it's something from 1980s tie-in novels that the alternate universe adopted as canon, in exactly the same way that The Undiscovered Country adopted Vonda McIntyre's choice of Hikaru as Sulu's first name. (McIntyre also coined George and Winona as the names of Kirk's parents, in Enterprise: The First Adventure in 1986.) It's something that most of fandom and all tie-ins -- and Nichelle Nichols herself -- have embraced as Uhura's first name for the past three decades. The movies just followed the lead of the fans, because they were written by fans.
You can't always read too much into how TV shows use names, though. Like in the first-season finale of the '90s X-Men cartoon, where Scott Summers proposed marriage to Jean Grey and she replied, "Ohh, Cyclops!"
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What is next phase? It was Nyota in all the pocket books.
Hikaru was used in the books for decades before it made it to the screen.
It was always Willie Gilligan. It was just never on screen.
When Gilligan was adopted by the Howells he went by the name "G. Thurston Howell, IV".
Nyota, George and Winona were all around and adopted by fandom, long before the Abrams movies were ever conceived.
I think it was spelled Willy Gilligan, though it was never official. He's the only character in the show who was never given a full name onscreen, although a couple of the names were used very rarely. The others were Captain Jonas Grumby, Thurston Howell III, Lovey Wentworth Howell, Ginger Grant, Professor Roy Hinkley, and Mary Ann Summers. (I suppose "Ginger Grant" could be a stage name, but if so, her real name was never revealed.)
Except it's not really a legitimate Swahili name. It should be Uhuru, but Roddenberry stuck a totally incongruous Romance-language feminine suffix on it. And as far as I know, Swahili-speaking peoples generally use two names -- e.g. Uhuru Kenyatta, the current (male) president of Kenya. Calling her "Uhura," no other name, isn't really African, it's pseudo-Africana filtered through a white person's perceptions. "Uhura" as a surname makes no linguistic sense, but at least giving her a first and last name is more authentic.
Unknown as of this writing.
Sulu and Uhura both should have been given first names and better-chosen last names from the beginning. Even Chapel and Rand had full names. The discrepancy doesn't look good on close examination, especially today.
I think Sulu was arrived at by looking at a world map and seeing the Sulu Sea. It's not a Japanese name.
Uhuru even sounds better than Uhura. It was a silly decision to change it.
I'm sure Uhura had a first and last name but she may have chosen to just go by one name. It worked for Madonna
I also remember seeing one of those Star Trek anniversary specials that had a segment for each of the main crew, and they used "Nyota" on the title card introducing Uhura's section.
Geoffrey Mandel's U.S.S. Enterprise Officer's Manual.
Huh, all this time I just figured that was a term of affection that Thurston used. I didn't realize it was her actual *name*.
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