Kobayashi Maru
 

I understand that "kobayashi" is a Japanese surname. What does "kobayashi maru" mean?

From what I get, Kobayashi (小林) is like "small grove/forest" and Maru （丸） is "round" or "circle."

There is no English counterpart for it but "maru" is frequently added at the end of a ship's name.

Maru = 丸



Note: I cannot read the other person's post because of my settings. If s/he has already answered correctly, please disregard my post.

Thanks for the info! It makes total sense because Kobayashi Maru was the name of a ship in Star Trek.

No, it is not the name of a ship, but the name of a test.

I have no first-hand knowledge of this but the Wiki says:

"The training exercise in Star Trek II describes the Kobayashi Maru as a Class III neutronic fuel carrier-ship commanded by Kojiro Vance with 81 crew members and 300 passengers."

on this page:
Kobayashi Maru - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the series it is an unwinnable training exercise that naturally Captain Kirk wins (if I remember correctly) in the latest movie. I understand it is named after a ship.

You're correct, MMM.

In any case, English lacks a single thing like this, but we do have a series of "ship prefixes" depending on situation that are equivalent to -maru in Japanese: Ship prefix - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think the closest true equivalent is "HMS" (for Her/His Majesty's Ship) in the UK. To the best of my knowledge, the HMS Titanic was not a British naval ship, but it was still prefixed by "HMS."

On the other hand, in the US, the most famous one (and most likely the only US prefix any American would know) is "USS," or "United States Ship," used only by the US Navy.

In fact, before I pulled that Wikipedia page, the only ship prefixes I knew of were USS and HMS. Well, I also know "SS," but I don't even know if that's used in modern times. It stands for "steamship."

Mr. Scott lost that test but was able to take out 47 Klingon battle Cruisers by some how manipulateing the Shield freqencies and teleporting Photon Torpedo's directly to each ship.

Not that that matters to the question.

Y'know, I was gonna say pretty much the exact same thing! :mtongue: Thanks Kyle. BTW People on this forum seem to be well versed in Star Trek :eek: All I know is William Shatner and George Takei are in it. Haha.