A Note on the naming of Ships
Some Background
When I first started playing Star Trek Online, I really didn't pay too much attention to the naming of my ships during the first few levels of play. With Sanek I elected to set up a role-play scenario where an actual canon vessel was part of his history, and as such the vessel included was the U.S.S. Nautilus. After that, the next vessel I received after a rank up was the U.S.S. Yukon. That ship was given to me by the game named as such. Since I grew up in Alaska, and love the North and Northern climates, I kept the name of the vessel as it was (later of course I created a biography situation where the vessel had been named by a previous captain). It wasn't until I got my next ship that I began to consider naming my vessels using a more realistic approach.
A Naming Scheme Defined
When Sanek received his third ship, a Long Range Research Vessel that I modified to be a combination of the Hope and Olympic class, I decided to come up with a naming scheme by which to name all my forthcoming ships. Since Sanek was primarily a scientist, I elected to name Sanek's vessels after famous people who were prominent in the study of physics and mathematics, space, and space exploration. This included not only famous scientists involved in cosmic sciences, mathematics, or physics, but also space pioneers and astronauts such as Alan B. Shepard. As such, the first ship named with this theme was the U.S.S. Archimedes, named after the famous scientist and mathematician of antiquity Archimedes of Syracuse. From that point, further vessels followed: the U.S.S. Alan Shepard, the U.S.S. James E. McDonald, and the newest addition, the U.S.S. Carl Sagan.
Combat Vessel Naming Scheme
When I created Kih'Vok however, I realized I needed a different idea. After some thought, I decided to name all my combat related vessels after members of United States military forces who had won the Congressional Medal of Honor. I did this primarily to honor their sacrifice and service to their country in my own way, as I have always regarded people who have served in the military with distinction as heroes and role models.
Like Sanek, I didn't really embark on this new scheme until after Kih'Vok received his Ushaan class frigate. Both of his previous vessels had been named by the game system, and I kept those names: the U.S.S. Huron, and the U.S.S. Kelvin, respectively. However, with his new vessel, I chose as the first individual Robert Lewis Howard, the most highly decorated soldier in United States history.
The Theme Continues
From that point, all of my vessels were named with these two themes. One of Sanek's ships that I used to use a lot was the Excelsior class refit (my favorite Star Trek vessel)... as that was primarily a combat vessel, it was named the U.S.S. Randall D. Shughart after the Medal of Honor recipient of the same name who sacrificed his life to save helicopter pilot Mike Durant during the Battle of Mogadishu. Sanek's latest vessel, that he will soon take command of, is a Vesta Class Multi-Mission Exploration vessel that has been named the U.S.S. Carl Sagan in honor of the famous scientist for his achievements in astronomy and astrophysics, as well as bringing cosmic science into mainstream consciousness with his television show Cosmos.
Federation Registration Numbers
With the registration numbers of Federation ships, I wanted to make them unique somehow as well - even if it might not necessarily be 'realistic' per se, since vessels typically are registered randomly regardless of their name. However, I decided to make the registration numbers important dates in the history of the individuals in question for whom the vessels were named after.
For example, the U.S.S. Alan Shepard's registration number is NCC-551961... which is the date on which Alan Shepard flew his historic Freedom 7 spaceflight (May 5th, 1961). For the U.S.S. James E. McDonald, it's registration is NCC-571920 - which is the date of his birth (May 7th, 1920). Another example is the U.S.S. Randal D. Shughart's registration number of NCC-100393... it is the date of the Battle of Mogadishu, the date upon which Sergeant First Class Shughart was killed (October 3rd, 1993).