Sonequa Martin-Green’s Michael is the latest character in Bryan Fuller’s longtime tradition of female leads with masculine names.
CBS All Access’ much-anticipated Star Trek reboot, Star Trek: Discovery, takes place a decade before Kirk and Spock’s adventures and is told from the perspective of a female Starfleet officer. Her name? Michael Burnham.
No, I don’t mean Michaela Burnham or Michelle Burnham. Played by The Walking Dead‘s Sonequa Martin-Green, the protagonist of Discovery is named Michael. While female characters with masculine names aren’t exactly unheard of, this particular moniker has caused some confusion. Enough that according to TheWrap, it was addressed at the show’s TCA panel last night.
“That was Bryan’s idea, actually,” explained executive producer Alex Kurtzman, who created Star Trek: Discovery with Fuller. “I think he just felt that name.”
Another EP, Aaron Harberts, added that giving female characters male names is just Fuller’s style. “It’s a motif,” Harberts said. “It’s his signature move to name his lead women with names that would typically be associated as male.”
Among them are Pushing Daisies‘ Chuck, Dead Like Me‘s George, and the androgynously-named Jaye of Wonderfalls.
And it’s not only Fuller’s shows that feature women with traditionally male or gender-ambiguous names. How I Met Your Mother‘s Robin was named after her father—and her middle name is Charles. On Scrubs, cracks were often made about Elliot having a man’s name. There’s also Fred on Angel, Jessica Jones‘ Jeri Hogarth, and Rory on Gilmore Girls.
Oh, and it goes the other way around, too. Let us not forget that Gilmore Girls‘ Jess is, in fact, a dude.
As for Martin-Green herself, she feels that her character’s name will help her create a back story for Michael—and contextualize what it would be like to live in a futuristic, less binary culture.
“I appreciated the sort of statement it makes all on its own,” Martin-Green emphasized. To have a woman with a male name, speaking of … how we see men and women in the future.”
She elaborated: “I also just decided for my creation and for my background and whatnot, that I was named after my father. So again, you sort of get a little bit of exploration of the father-daughter dynamic … I think it’s a lovely symbol.”
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Star Trek: Discovery will have a special premiere on CBS Sept. 24. The series’ second episode will be available on CBS All Access, the network’s subscription streamer, as soon as the first episode ends. Subsequent episodes will drop Sundays on CBS All Access.