James T. Kirk/Appendices/Background information/Naming Kirk

The name for Kirk wasn't decided until . In a memo written by Gene Roddenberry to researcher Kellam de Forest on , sixteen names were under consideration. These names were:
# January
# Flagg
# Drake
# Christopher
# Thorpe
# Richard
# Patrick
# Raintree
# Boone
# Hudson
# Timber
# Hamilton
# Hannibal
# Neville
# Kirk
# North
This memo was reprinted in The Making of Star Trek and Inside Star Trek: The Real Story.
"James Tiberius Kirk" was the final choice of name chosen to adorn the new TV show's hero.
Originally, according to Gene Roddenberry's , Kirk was named "James" after his mother's "first love instructor" as well as "an uncle" (his "father's beloved brother"), and "Tiberius" because the Roman emperor fascinated his grandfather Samuel. 
Kirk's middle name came later, as can be ascertained by the "James R. Kirk" tombstone, created by Gary Mitchell in , Kirk's middle initial was R, not T. According to D.C. Fontana in the introduction for Star Trek: The Classic Episodes 1, when the mistake over the middle initial was discovered, Gene Roddenberry decided that if pressed for an answer on the discrepancy, the response was to be "Gary Mitchell had godlike powers, but at base he was Human. He made a mistake."
The origin of Kirk's established middle name has several possible, if not potentially conflicting, origins, including the "official" claim that David Gerrold spontaneously blurted out the name in response to a question regarding what Kirk's middle initial stood for at a 1973 Star Trek convention, and subsequently conferred with D.C. Fontana and Gene Roddenberry, who approved the name, and it became forever part of Star Trek lore.David Gerrold recalls "More Tribbles" and "Bem" In another instance, the name was referenced by Fontana in a Q&A with her and Majel Barrett, in an audio recording dated from a 1972 convention, which suggests that Fontana may have been the first to mention the name to the public. Majel Barret and DC Fontana 1972 Whereas a third case can be made, and consequently has been by various reference works, that Roddenberry himself was responsible for the name, as his "fondness" for "Tiberius" predates Star Trek, having had already used it in his prior series, , for that lead character: "Willam Tiberius Rice". (; The Encyclopedia Shatnerica, p. 90; Star Trek Magazine Special 2016, pp. 23-24)
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