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star trek - Why was the character of Captain Kirk given the middle name "Tiberius"?


There is a question about why Kirk's middle name was Tiberius from an in-universe perspective. The answers explain that Kirk was given the name after his grandfather (Tiberius Kirk) and that his grandfather had an interest in the Roman emperors.


But why, out of universe, was Kirk's character given the name Tiberius? Did one of the show's producers have an interest in the Roman emperors? There's some information on the choice of Kirk's last name on Memory Alpha and Wikipedia, but no explanation about his middle name. Memory Alpha makes the connection to the historical Tiberius, but it doesn't have any citations and merely provides speculation. It also says



The name might also possibly have been influenced by the maverick Roman politician Tiberius Gracchus.



If Kirk's character was given the name because of a fascination with Roman emperors like Tiberius (which seems to be the case), then why Tiberius instead of another emperor (a more influential/famous one such as Augustus, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Constantine, etc.)?



Answer



Writer David Gerrold claims credit for "Tiberius" as Kirk's middle name. It first appeared in the Animated Series episode "Bem"



http://www.startrek.com/article/david-gerrold-recalls-more-tribbles-and-bem



Gerrold: Yes. I’ll tell you how that happened. I got the name from a book I’d read about the history of torture. So, Dorothy and I were at a Star Trek convention in 1973 and somebody asked “What does the T in James T. Kirk stand for?” And without really thinking, I said “Tiberius.” It got a big laugh and it became a running gag. Then, when I was writing that episode I decided to put it in. Dorothy ran it by Gene Roddenberry, and he said, “Sure, let’s go ahead.” Then I recapped it in a Star Trek novel I wrote a year or so later, and I showed where the name Tiberius came from. The funny thing is if anyone really knew (back in 1973) where the name came from, I never would have been able to use it.



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