Xtmprsqzntwlfb

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According to D.C. Fontana in a letter to Spockanalia, Spock's family/last name is Xtmprsqzntwlfb.

The exact wording D.C. Fontana used in her letter to Spockanalia was:

Both his mother and father have been married only once... to each other... Spock is an only child... there are absolutely no other siblings... I have projected Spock's last name as XTMPRSQZNTWLFB.

"In the canon, Spock is formally addressed as Mr. Spock. In the TOS episode "This Side of Paradise", when he is asked if he has another name, he replies "You couldn't pronounce it." In "Journey to Babel", Amanda, when addressed as Mrs. Sarek, says "I'm afraid you couldn't pronounce the Vulcan name." D.C. Fontana, who wrote the script, decided that Spock's family name was Xtmprsqzntwlfb, and fans dutifully worked out the etymology and pronunciation thereof." [1]

In 1984, Betsy B, wrote of this name: "I think it's funny that it's practically carved in stone that Spock's family name is Xtmprsqzntwlfb. If you go back and look, this came up in a letter from D.C. Fontana to Spockanalia, and her general wording was that his name was something like that, not that that was what it was.[2] It was an example. But fans latched onto it, and there you have it. Personally, I think we should be free to believe or disbelieve what we want.[3]

Another fan, Larry N, responds to Betsy B: "The reason "Xtmprsqzntwlfb" has become "etched in stone" is because a) D.C. Fontana said it and b) in lieu of anything else on film or from A Creator, it's all we have. And basically, until I hear or see differently on film, that's it as far as I am concerned—for those very two reasons just stated." [4]

In fan fiction, he is sometimes called Spock cha Sarek ("son of Sarek"[5]).

The final page of the pro book Ishmael proposes that the Vulcan family name of Spock and his father Sarek is S'chn T'gai.

An early use of this last name by fans was in 1970 in the Dorothy and Myfanwy story, "A Letter," in T-Negative #8.

References

  1. ^ Boldly Writing, a Trekker Fan and Zine History, by Joan Verba, second ed., p1.
  2. ^ Actually, Fontana's words were "I have projected Spock's last name as XTMPRSQZNTWLFB."
  3. ^ Interstat #79
  4. ^ Interstat #80
  5. ^ Diane Duane, Spock's World , official tie-in novel published 1989. See also this page at TV Tropes, about halfway down the page.