When I’m naming shuttles, I like to use mostly ?around 2/3rds) famous scientists, etc., from human history… and then the rest as alien names implied to be similar notables from other Federation cultures.
That said, I quite like the Lower Decks idea of all shuttles on one ship having names themed with the ship’s name: the U.S.S. Cerritos (California-class, ships each named after a town in California) has shuttles named after California national parks.
Yeah. I know Lower Decks has garnered it’s fair amount of haters from this site, but I have fun with it. And I do like the idea of theme naming shuttles.
Got to thinking of starships from other species and the non-human federation species we know most about are the Vulcans. It seems the T’Pol, T’Pau, Syran, and Surak would be great contenders. Also the Vulcan word for a ‘Khatric Arc’ would be great as a metaphor, a device designed to be a repository of knowledge would be a good science ship name. Sadly, I don’t think we learn the full Vulcan term for this.
My players are aboard the USS Lyonesse (homegrown Arcadia-class, named for mythical lands), shuttles so far are Morgana and Nimue. They’re deliberately looking at the women from the Arthurian canon, so I suspect we’ll get Ygraine, Guinevere (or one of its variants), Elaine, Morgause and Isolde before too long.
I don’t have access to ‘below decks’ and after watching the 1st one when it was on YouTube I more than likely would not watch it (I can understand people likening it, but it isn’t my cup of tea).
That said, I had no idea about the themed named shuttles. I’d never thought of it before, but after hearing it here I LIKE it. It makes sense, would bring unity to the ship and support ships .
Thanks for point it out, consider it yonked and going to be used in my games (and not just Star Trek) from now on!
I would suggest giving Lower Decks a second chance. Like most Trek shows, it’s taking a while to find it’s footing, but it is getting better. The latest episode (eight) was probably my favorite so far. Well written, and you kinda have to work to infer what the B plot was from the A plot. Plus it introduces the concept of “Q Bulls***” and how no one has time for it.
As the series has gone on it has become a lot less “Rick and Morty” and a lot more “What if the crew of the Enterprise was about half as competent, a third as professional, and twice as genre aware?”
Which would be a great double reference. Lief Erickson was also the gold-coloured submarine in the delightfully subversive SF novel, The Illuminatuus! by Robert Shae and Robert Anton Wilson. (A novel read by quite a few Trek and genre writers.)
In reference to themed shuttles.
Riker’s Titan, has a number of shuttles, including a Delta class. All of his are named after Jazz Musicians.
Sisko has a base ball fetish, not only for his Galaxy class ship (Post DS9), but even the registry and what not.
Dito. the USS Coleman (“Bessie” to the crew) is the player ship in my game (with it’s sister ship USS Earhart)
Cool! What classes and mission profiles to the ships have (if already defined)? I expect at least one with the technical testbed profile? 
I think that the namens of persons who fit into one of these categories can be used:
Even if they were big ■■■■■■■■!
We’ve got her as a Constellation class, Multirole explorer. the game is set in 2292 and has her doing mid range exploration along the edge the Federation and klingon’s sphere of influence.
I dont think anybody has twigged yet what else happens that year and i’m going to take great joy in forcing them to work with all their established klingon NPC enemies when Praxis explodes
USS Tannhäuser Gate.
For Rutger Hauer and the poetry of it all.
have you read “Department of Temporal Investigations: Forgotten History”? one of the flashbacks in that book involves a starship getting pulled into an alternate reality where something similar occurred. (humanity not existing causing the old Vulcan high Command to still exist, since the KirShara was never found. Vulcan became a militant expansionist empire. it is an interesting sequence in the book.)
You know Praxis goes boom in 93, not 92, correct?
A whole class of ships all named after comic characters you’d see in the newspaper. The garfield, odie, charlie brown, marmaduke, etc.
it’s not really a problem. i can pad the time between adventures to make it fit
An SS Inflation, as a bunk helium carrier, would be even funnier… the crew all speaking in squeaky voices.
Keep in mind a lot of Earth history has been lost. Much of what happened before and just after the Eugenics Wars remains only in pieces. In MTU the events of Twilight 2000 took place.
In any case, “modern” Earth thinking Andy Capp was somebody important might very well happen.
…or thinking “Odie” was President Garfield’s first name, and thus the “USS Odie Garfield”…
@tanksoldier, Maybe I am the only one who doesn’t know but what the blazes is MTU???