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A minor bit of head-canon inspired by being reminded that Quark’s cousin shares a name with Uhura’s Orion room-mate in the reboot-verse.
With no Battle of Vulcan in the Prime timeline, Gaila’s counterpart there survived to graduation, and eventually became an officer on one of the Constitution-class starships. Her status as one of the highest ranking Orions in Starfleet gave her some degree of fame among the Orion diaspora, and the name Gaila went from relative obscurity to become one of the more popular choices for naming baby Orions by the late 23rd century.
A generation of Gailas had reached adulthood when the Orions made first contact with the Ferengi. The two peoples, both with a history of being traders and merchants, got on famously, and Orion culture and fashions were briefly extremely fashionable on the Ferengi homeworld. For Ferengi, ‘Gaila’ was one of the stereotypical Orion names, as almost every Orion trading vessel they encountered had at least one crewmember with that name.
As a result, the name became moderately popular among middle-class Ferengi wanting to give their child an exotic sounding name; ‘Gaila’ called to mind the wealth of the Orion trading families, the power of the Orion syndicate, and the mysterious ‘Federation’ that lay beyond their space.
Nog once tried to bring this history up to his uncle, pointing out that even one of their own family was indirectly named after a Starfleet officer, as proof that a career in Starfleet could bring a person immense respect, but all Quark said was “You can’t sell respect.”
With no Battle of Vulcan in the Prime timeline, Gaila’s counterpart there survived to graduation, and eventually became an officer on one of the Constitution-class starships. Her status as one of the highest ranking Orions in Starfleet gave her some degree of fame among the Orion diaspora, and the name Gaila went from relative obscurity to become one of the more popular choices for naming baby Orions by the late 23rd century.
A generation of Gailas had reached adulthood when the Orions made first contact with the Ferengi. The two peoples, both with a history of being traders and merchants, got on famously, and Orion culture and fashions were briefly extremely fashionable on the Ferengi homeworld. For Ferengi, ‘Gaila’ was one of the stereotypical Orion names, as almost every Orion trading vessel they encountered had at least one crewmember with that name.
As a result, the name became moderately popular among middle-class Ferengi wanting to give their child an exotic sounding name; ‘Gaila’ called to mind the wealth of the Orion trading families, the power of the Orion syndicate, and the mysterious ‘Federation’ that lay beyond their space.
Nog once tried to bring this history up to his uncle, pointing out that even one of their own family was indirectly named after a Starfleet officer, as proof that a career in Starfleet could bring a person immense respect, but all Quark said was “You can’t sell respect.”