Number One (Star Trek) - Her Name

Her Name

Number One's real name was never revealed in either "The Cage" or "The Menagerie" - to date, her only official on-screen appearances, and debate has raged in fandom for years as to whether she is even human. Since the very first Star Trek episode, some have interpreted her title as being a proper name. One Star Trek novel, Vulcan's Glory, mentions her being the top intellect of her generation, hence her name, and that she was from the planet Ilyria.

"Number One" is a common term applied to the Executive Officer of a ship, particularly in the Royal Navy. (In the United States Navy the Executive Officer is typically referred to as "X-O".) In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard frequently uses the title "Number One" to address his first officer, William Riker. Although Captain James T. Kirk never referred on-screen to his executive officer Mr. Spock as "Number One", this is not really an anomaly; the British usage dates from a time when the "First Lieutenant" or number one on board ship was so ranked by seniority of his commission, and later by date of appointment by the captain.

Author Peter David, in his long-running Star Trek: New Frontier series of novels, has hinted that the mother of Robin Lefler, Morgan Primus (an immortal and a regular character in the series), was Number One and resembles other characters played by Majel Barrett. This is loosely supported by Jerry Oltion's Captain's Table Book 6: Where Sea Meets Sky, where the author refers to Number One as Commander Lefler in the first chapter, although this wouldn't make any sense chronologically based on the history of Morgan Primus.

In the Star Trek: Early Voyages comic book series she is called Lieutenant Commander Robbins. A character stating her first name is interrupted, in one issue, and we know only that it commences with "Eur-".

In March 2009, IDW Publishing launched Star Trek: Crew, a comic series written and illustrated by John Byrne that focuses on the early (pre-Pike) career of Number One. In keeping with the ongoing mystery regarding her name, the comic never refers to the character by any name, and often uses tricks of dialogue to avoid identifying her beyond her rank.