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Federation Ship Names L-Z

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

M
Name and registry	Class	Namesake	Annotations
USS Madison		James Madison (1751-1836), fourth president of the United States, also name of the capital of Wisconsin
USS Magellan NCC-3069	Constellation	Fernão Magalhaes (1480-1521), Portuguese explorer	Also the name of a space probe launched to Venus
USS Magellan	Galaxy
USS Majestic NCC-31060	Miranda	RMS Majestic (built 1914 as Bismarck), the largest ship of its time
USS Malinche NCC-38997	Excelsior	Mexican princess, who was originally a slave given as a peace offering to the Spanish conquistadors by the Tabascan Indians	There may be different interpretations about Malinche's role in history. It seems that she is still loathed by the native population of Mexico. On the other hand, there is a La Malinche National Park, as well as La Malinche Crater in Mexico.
USS Malone		Unknown	Malone, Peterson and Clavyn (Clavin), the three ship names listed in Lt. Anaanda Ziff's personnel file, are all characters from "Cheers".
USS Matte Fringe NCC-12898		Unknown
USS Maryland NCC-45109	Renaissance	State of the USA
USS Max Planck NCC-28573		Max Planck (1858-1947), German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate	The name is misspelled "Plank" on the display in TNG: "Conspiracy", but according to EAS policy the misspelling is ignored.
USS Mayflower		Ship that carried the first colonists to North America in 1620
USS Mayflower NCC-1621 (alt.)			The registry is NCC-1621, although the Mayflower's journey was in 1620. Perhaps this takes into account that upon their arrival the settlers spent the winter aboard the ship?
USS Mediterranean	Mediterranean	Region around the Mediterranean Sea
USS Mekong NCC-72617	Danube	River in Southeast Asia that flows south to the Chinese Sea
USS Melbourne NCC-62043	Excelsior	City in Australia
USS Menehune NCC-52142	Steamrunner	Hawaiian mythological figures ("dwarfs")
SS Merchantman		-
USS Merced	Merced	Uncertain	There is a small river and a city of that name in Central California, but more likely the name refers to Lake Merced near Starfleet Headquarters.
USS Merrimack NCC-61827	Nebula	Ironclad warship (later CSS Virginia) that fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War	1) This particular ship is actually spelt "Merrimack" (and not "Merrimac"), after the river Merrimack in northeastern USA. 2) Starfleet named the ship with a definite "Northern" bias, not choosing the name CSS Virginia that the ship bore during the battle with the USS Monitor.
SS Milan NDT-50863		City in Italy	Curiously, in the North Italian dialect the city of Milano is actually called Milan, just like the English version.
USS Minnow NCC-19585			A reference to Gilligan's Island.
USS Miranda	Miranda	Uncertain	Presumably named for Prospero's daughter, a character in William Shakespeare's last play "The Tempest". This is the explanation given in the Star Trek Encyclopedia, although it seems too obscure. Miranda is also the name of a moon of Uranus, but this one was also named for the character.
USS Monitor NCC-61826	Nebula	Ironclad warship that fought for the Union in the American Civil War	Note that USS Merrimack and USS Monitor have adjacent registries as a reconciling gesture (although in such a case they should have properly named the other ship "USS Virginia" instead of USS Merrimack).
USS Musashi		Miyamoto Musashi, a legendary Japanese samurai and swordsmith from the Tokugawa era, also name of a Japanese dreadnought of WW II that sunk during the Battle of Leyte Gulf on October 25, 1944
USS Mustang NCC-85343		-

N
Name and registry	Class	Namesake	Annotations
USS Nash NCC-2010-5	Sydney	Unknown	The ship was named for Eric Nash, motion control technician at Image G. Unless he is starting a great political career, Starfleet probably wouldn't remember him despite all his merits. Read about the strange registry here.
USS Nautilus NCC-31910	Miranda	Nautilus, Captain Nemo's vessel in Jules Verne's novel 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and/or USS Nautilus SSN-571, the first submarine to reach the North Pole
USS Nebula	Nebula	-
Neptune	Neptune	Roman god of the seas (Greek equivalent: Poseidon), also name of the eighth planet of the Sol system
USS New Orleans	New Orleans	City in Louisiana, USA	The "City of New Orleans" legend
USS Newton NCC-1727		Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727), English physicist, described the three laws of motion and laid the foundation for classical mechanics
USS Niagara	Niagara	Niagara Falls, at the border between USA and Canada, also name of a brig that defeated the British Navy at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812
USS Neil Armstrong NCC-31806		Neil Armstrong (1930-2012), American astronaut and first man to set his foot on the Moon in 1969	See also USS Armstrong
USS Niels Bohr		Niels Bohr (1885-1962), Danish Physicist, Nobel Prize Winner
USS Nightwing NCC-8342		Uncertain
USS Non Sequitur NCC-12999		Uncertain
USS Northridge		City in California, USA
USS Norway	Norway	European country	If it was meant as a homage to Norway (rather than to the passenger ship Norway which happened to be named France previously), it was counterproductive to use the English name instead of the native Norge.
USS Nobel NCC-55012	Olympic	Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), Swedish industrialist and initiator of the Nobel Prize
SS Norkova		Uncertain
USS Nova	Nova

O
Name and registry	Class	Namesake	Annotations
USS Oberth	Oberth	Hermann Oberth (1894-1989), German scientist and rocket pioneer
USS Odyssey NCC-71832	Galaxy	Homer's famous work about the journey of Odysseus, also name of the command module of Apollo 13	The dedication plaque reads: "Its origin and purpose, still a total mystery." This is a clear homage to the movie "2001 - A Space Odyssey". Nevertheless, I think the ship rather has a real-world namesake.
USS Odyssey
SS Odin NGL-12535		Germanic god, also known as Wodan
USS Okinawa NCC-13958	Excelsior	Japanese island in the Chinese Sea
USS Olympia		Place in Greece, site of the ancient Olympic Games
USS Olympic	Olympic	RMS Olympic, sister ship of the ill-fated Titanic
USS Omaha, Nebraska NCC-5252		Largest city of Nebraska
SS Oregon		State of the USA
USS Orinoco NCC-72905	Danube	River in Venezuela

P
Name and registry	Class	Namesake		Annotations
USS Pasteur NCC-58925	Olympic	Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), French biologist		It is uncertain whether the dedication plaque eventually really looked like this. Here, the ship has the false registry NCC-58928 and belongs to the Hope class.
USS Pearson NCC-61956	Saber	Uncertain		One possible candidate is Lester B. Pearson (1897-1972), former Canadian Prime Minister, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to resolve the Suez Crisis.
USS Pegasus NCC-53847	Oberth	Creature from Greek mythology, a winged horse
USS Peregrine	Peregrine	Peregrine falcon (falco peregrinus)		Although there are still other possibilities, it would be very fitting to name a small ship after a bird.
USS Peterson		Unknown		Malone, Peterson and Clavyn (Clavin), the three ship names listed in Lt. Anaanda Ziff's personnel file, are all characters from "Cheers".
USS Philadelphia		City in Pennsylvania, USA
USS Phoenix NCC-65420	Nebula	Creature from Greek mythology, a bird raising from the ashes, also name of Cochrane's first warp ship (2063)		I rather don't think the name refers to the city in Arizona.
USS Portland NCC-57418	Chimera	City in Oregon, USA, or city in Maine, USA
USS Potemkin NCC-1657	Constitution	Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin (1739-1791), Russian officer under Catherine II, also name of a Russian dreadnought of movie fame
USS Potemkin NCC-18253	Excelsior
USS Princeton NCC-59804	Niagara	City in New Jersey, USA, famous for its university, also a battle site of the American Revolution, name of a sloop-of-war built in 1843, the world's first warship to be powered by a steam-driven screw propeller, and name of a Ticonderoga-class cruiser (CG-59)		The name for the USS Princeton of 1843 comes from Princeton, West Virginia, the hometown of Captain Robert F. Stockton, who first suggested her construction.
USS Prokofiev NCC-68814	Andromeda	Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), Russian composer
USS Prometheus NCC-71201	Nebula	Titan in Greek mythology, stole the fire from the gods and gave it to the humans		While the registry NX-74913 on the dedication plaque suits the Prometheus class lead ship much better, it could never be identified on screen and is superseded by the clearly visible hull registry.
USS Prometheus NX-59650	Prometheus
USS Proxima NCC-61952	Nebula	Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sol system
USS Pueblo		Uncertain		A pueblo is a traditional dwelling of several Native American tribes in the southwest USA, also a collective name for this nation. In addition, there is a city called Pueblo in Colorado. But it seems the intended namesake was the USS Pueblo, a US Navy intelligence vessel that was hijacked by North Korean forces in 1968.
USS Puget Sound NCC-85343		Sound in Washington State, home to a major US naval yard

R
Name and registry	Class	Namesake		Annotations
USS Rabin NCC-63923	Akira	Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995), Israeli prime minister
USS Raman NCC-29487	Oberth	Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888-1970), physicist, Nobel Prize in physics 1930
(U)SS Raven NAR-32450		-		Raven may refer to the novel by Edgar Allan Poe, but more likely the ship is just named for the bird.
USS Relativity NCV-474439-G	Wells	Theories of special and general relativity, conceived by Albert Einstein		The ship's motto is, "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." (Albert Einstein)
USS Reliant NCC-1864	Miranda	-
USS Renegade NCC-63102	New Orleans	-
USS Renaissance	Renaissance	Epoch in European history (ca. 1400-1600)
USS Republic NCC-1371	Constitution	-
USS Repulse NCC-2544	Excelsior	British battlecruiser in WW II
USS Revere NCC-595		Paul Revere (1734-1818), American participant in the Independence War
USS Rio Grande NCC-72452	Danube	River in North America
USS Rhode Island NCC-72701	Nova	State of the USA
USS Rigel	Rigel	Brightest star in the constellation of Orion
SS Robert Fox NFT-1327	Whorfin	Federation ambassador of the 23rd century		I wouldn't have named a ship for Robert Fox, but maybe most of his work was more successful than in TOS: "A Taste of Armageddon".
USS Robert Louis Stevenson NCC-1281		Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (1850-1894), Scottish writer
USS Roosevelt NCC-2573	Excelsior	Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) and/or Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), Presidents of the United States
USS Rubicon NCC-72936	Danube	River in Italy that became famous when Julius Caesar’s army crossed it in 49 B.C.
USS Rutledge NCC-57295	New Orleans	Edward Rutledge (1749-1800) and/or John Rutledge (1739-1800), American politicians

S
Name and registry	Class	Namesake		Annotations
USS Saber	Saber	-
SS Santa Maria BDR-529		Flagship of Christopher Columbus on his first journey 1492		The registry BDR-529 of the Santa Maria is an in-joke. It's the number plate of the Bluesmobile!
USS São Paulo NCC-75633	Defiant	City in Brazil		1) This ship was renamed to USS Defiant NX-74205. 2) Sisko's line "Hello, ship." is taken from the book and film The Sand Pebbles about the fictional gunboat San Pablo.
USS Sarajevo NCC-38529	Istanbul	Capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina
USS Saratoga NCC-1887	Miranda	US Navy aircraft carriers USS Saratoga CV-3 and USS Saratoga CV-60
USS Saratoga NCC-31911	Miranda
USS Saratoga
USS Sarek		Vulcan ambassador (2165-2368)
USS Scovil NCC-1598		Jack Scovil, American astronaut		Perhaps Scovil will make a famous flight that will be still remembered in the 24th century...
USS Seaquest		Unknown		Well, I doubt that the TV series "SeaQuest DSV" will be *that* popular in the 24th century.
USS Seaview		-		Seaview is the name of the submarine in the TV show "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".
USS Sentinel		-
USS Sequoia	Sequoia	Sequoia trees and Sequoia National Park, California, USA
Shenandoah		River in North America
USS Shenandoah NCC-73024	Danube
USS Shepard	Oberth	Alan B. Shepard (1923-1998), American astronaut, first American in space
USS Sherlock Holmes		Fictional character in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels
USS Shiku Maru		Uncertain		Maru is a suffix appended to many Japanese ship names and also swords.
USS ShirKahr NCC-31905	Miranda	City on the planet Vulcan		ShirKahr was only mentioned in TAS: "Yesteryear" as Spock's home city. The re-use of the name makes it canon.
USS Silversides		US Navy submarines USS Silversides SS-236 and USS Silversides SSN-679
USS Sitak	Miranda	Unknown		Obviously named for someone or something Vulcan. It is very unlikely that the name honors active Starfleet admiral (at that time) Sitak.
USS Sovereign	Sovereign	-		The notion that the lead ship should actually be named "Royal Sovereign" is fandom bogus, although that name would be historically correct.
USS Soyuz	Soyuz	Soviet/Russian spacecraft from the late 20th and early 21st century
USS Spector NCC-63898	Akira	-		Assuming the registries of Spector and Thunderchild were switched.
USS Springfield	Springfield	Uncertain		There are many Springfields, but I am sure the class was named for Homer Simpson's hometown. Really.
USS Stargazer NCC-2893	Constellation	-		The dedication plaque supposedly says: "To bring light into the darkness."
USS Steamrunner	Steamrunner	Uncertain		There is no clue what this weird name could refer to. Designer Alex Jaeger intended to name the class “Streamrunner,” after a song by his favorite band Fold Zandura (obscure enough). However, someone later dropped the “r”.
USS Strata		Uncertain
USS Sutherland NCC-72015	Nebula	Horatio Hornblower's ship in the novel Ship of the Line by C. S. Forester
USS Sydney	Sydney	City in Australia
USS Syracuse		City in Sicily, Italy or city in New York state		Although it was probably not the intention, it may rather be the ancient city on Sicily (better: Siracusa) than the industrial city in New York.

T
Name and registry	Class	Namesake		Annotations
SS T'Pau NSP-17938		Influential person on Vulcan in the 23rd century
USS T'Kumbra	Nebula	Unknown		Obviously named for someone or something Vulcan
T'Vran		Unknown		Obviously named for someone or something Vulcan
USS Tannu Tuva NCC-64924	Norway	Mountain region between Mongolia and Russia
USS Tecumseh NCC-14934	Excelsior	Shawnee Indian chief (1768-1813), directed Indian resistance to white rule in the Ohio River valley
USS Thomas Paine NCC-65530	New Orleans	Thomas Paine (1737-1809), American politician
USS Thunderchild NCC-63549	Akira	HMS Thunder Child, fictional vessel from H.G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds		Curiously, it is indeed "Thunder Child" (two words) in the novel.
USS Tian An Men NCC-21382	Miranda	Site where the Chinese democracy movement ended in a massacre in 1989
USS Ticonderoga NCC-87270		Fort Ticonderoga in New York state
USS Titan		Group of Greek mythological figures, also name of the largest moon of Saturn		This may also refer to the missile used to launch Cochrane's warp ship, but unlike the Phoenix the name Titan isn't that prominent in the Trek Universe.
USS Tolstoy NCC-62095	Rigel	Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), Russian author
USS Tombaugh		Clyde William Tombaugh (1906-1997), American astronomer, discovered the planet Pluto in 1930
USS Tranquility Base NCC-19585		Landing site of the Apollo 11 mission
USS Trial		-
USS Trieste NCC-37124	Merced	Bathyscaphe of Jacques Piccard and Italian harbor city
USS Trinculo NCC-71867	Galaxy	Uncertain		Trinculo is a character in Shakespeare's The Tempest (see also Miranda).
USS Tripoli NCC-19386	Hokule'a	Capital of Libya, site of a first battle of the US Marine Corps
USS Truman	Renaissance	Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), President of the United States
USS Truman (alt.)
USS Tsiolkovsky NCC-53911	Oberth	Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), Soviet-Russian space pioneer		Embarrassingly, the plaque reads "K.Z. Tsiopkovskiy".
USS Tycho NCC-85103		Craters on the Moon and on Mars, named for Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), Danish astronomer

V
Name and registry	Class	Namesake		Annotations
SS Val Jean	Ju'day(?)	Jean Valjean, character from Victor Hugo's Les Misérables
USS Valdemar NCC-26198	Ambassador	Unknown		The intended namesake was Valdemar Poulson (1869-1942), inventor of the tape recorder. But aside from severe doubts that Starfleet would name one of its biggest ships for him, since when do they use people's first names? It seems more fitting to assume that the ship was named in honor of a King of Denmark, the most notable of whom would be Valdemar the Great (1131-1182).
SS Valiant		HMS Valiant, Royal Navy battleship, 1916-1948
USS Valiant NCC-1223
USS Valiant NCC-74210	Defiant
USS Valiant NCC-75416
USS Valkyrie NCC-2590	Constellation	Figures in Germanic mythology		It is also a name of a ship in Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
USS Valley Forge NCC-43305	Excelsior	Site in Pennsylvania where General George Washington’s troops spent a bitter winter during the American Revolutionary War, also a US Navy aircraft carrier USS Valley Forge CV-45		This is also the name of the starship in the movie "Silent Running".
USS Vengeance		-		This is said to be a "Dreadnought-class" vessel, but I take it "dreadnought" is just a generic designation.
USS Venture NCC-71854	Galaxy	-
USS Veracruz		City in Mexico
SS Vico NAR-18834	Oberth	Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), Italian philosopher
USS Victory NCC-9754	Constellation	HMS Victory, flagship of Admiral Horatio Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
USS Volga NCC-73196	Danube	River in Russia
USS Voyager NCC-74656	Intrepid	Series of NASA planetary probes

W
Name and registry	Class	Namesake	Annotations
USS Wambundu	Wambundu	Uncertain	The probably most mysterious ship name ever. Read here.
SS W.E.B. DuBois		American civil rights leader
USS Wellington NCC-33821	Niagara	Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), British politician, also name of New Zealand's capital
USS Wells	Wells	H.G. Wells (1866-1946), author of The Time Machine
USS White Sands NAR-0002		White Sands National Monument in New Mexico
SS Whorfin	Whorfin	John Whorfin, captain of the historical vessel SS Buckaroo Banzai	John Whorfin was listed as the captain of the SS Buckaroo Banzai on an Okudagram in TNG: "Up the Long Ladder". This was an in-joke referring to John Lithgow’s character in the film "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension". The in-joke was picked up in "Star Trek VI" as well as "Star Trek VII" by naming ships for Whorfin.
USS Whorfin NCC-1024
SS Woden		Woden, also known as Wodan or Odin, Norse/Germanic god	Woden is also a small city in Iowa.
USS Wolcott (alt.)		Uncertain
USS Wyoming NCC-43730	Mediterranean	State of the USA, also name of the battleship USS Wyoming BB-32

Credits

Some information taken from The Mighty Monkey of Mim's Ship List and Spike's Star Trek Page. Thanks to Maarten Diesen, Jan-Patrick Ziegler, Kyle Hill, Juan Carlos Holmes, Jeff, CJ Sitter, Dan Carlson, Thorsten, G2K, Marcin Synak, James Wade, Gregory Sheets, Raskol, Jonathan Doorse, GARba, Triton, Eugene Chan, Benjamin Recchie, Joseph Guendert, Ruben Hilbers, Micah Haber, Martin Blakey, Tyler, Bob Durie, Brian, Shik, Matt Chin and Weili Wang for additional hints and to Stacy Smith for two dedication plaques (from the Christie's auction catalogue).

Ships @ Spike's Star Trek Page

Dedication plaques @ Memory Alpha

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	Last modified: 08.06.13
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/name_origins2.htm