Star Trek has always been successful at rewarding fans with consistent comforts they’ve come to identify with the brand. Decade after decade, Star Trek has kept essential parts of its universe consistent, including what things are called. But the origin story of where the Enterprise got its name and why Star Trek keeps using it is steeped in a proud tradition, legacy and symbolism. So, it is no accident that one of the most famous fictional starships is just as hallowed as its many real predecessors -- but it almost didn’t happen at all.

In Star Trek lore the USS Enterprise is a name most associated with Captain Kirk and Picard. But the name has been a constant throughout the more than half-century-old brand. In the Star Trek universe, all major flagships have been called Enterprise, including the first pre-Starfleet vessel. More recently, the Star Trek: Enterprise put the ship's name right in its title.

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Enterprise's opening features real footage of NASA’s Enterprise space shuttle. It was the first space vehicle of its kind (although it never flew to space). In 1976, the shuttle earned its name because the "hundreds of thousands" of letters the U.S. government said represented millions of passionate Star Trek fans. The shuttle was originally going to be called Constitution, but President Gerald Ford directed NASA to make the change due to the huge public wave of support. However, the name was familiar to the government. Enterprise has a long tradition in U.S. military history, dating back to confederation.

In 1775, a group of revolutionary forces led by Benedict Arnold raided a British shipyard in Quebec and stole a sloop-of-war, Liberty, and renamed it, Enterprise. Since then, the name has adorned significant American ships of war for nearly 250 years. Something military veterans like Star Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry would surely know.

Roddenberry served his country in the pacific theater during World War II. In that time, two very prominent American aircraft carriers, the U.S.S. Enterprise & U.S.S. Yorkton (which tragically sunk), earned distinguished places in history. Roddenberry initially wanted to call his Star Trek starship the S.S. Yorktown. But a big pop culture influence changed his plans and, ultimately, influenced history for generations.

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During the mid-’60s when Star Trek was being created, the U.S. Navy had recently unveiled its first-ever nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, Enterprise, which attracted lots of public and media attention. Roddenberry was also proud of its predecessors' legacy and wanted to use the name. Eventually, the Yorkton became the Enterprise. In a fourth-wall head-spinner, the actual carrier would later have its own cross-over into the Star Trek universe.

In 1989’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, members of Kirk’s fictional USS Enterprise starship crew travel back in time to the 1980s. While there, they sneak aboard the real USS Enterprise aircraft carrier to steal energy from its nuclear reactor to help get them home. It's an ironic twist considering the ship's atomic power was the very thing that helped name the first fictional Star Trek Enterprise.

In real life, the Enterprise name made another re-emergence in the U.S. Naval fleet, with a brand-new class of aircraft carriers expected to begin operations in 2028. As for Star Trek's fictional universe, the name Enterprise remains as integral to its future as it does to its past.

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