On the Opinion Board there's been some discussion about
Star Trek names, as a branch-off of another discussion about the merits--or lack thereof--of made up names. Anyway, ST names being brought up, I was reminded of something I wanted to ask for some time.
Data once created an android daughter, and named her
Lal. At first she's asexual, but then she chooses to be female. After her introduction and her choosing her sex, Picard says in one of his logs that
Lal, he has learned, is Hindi for "beloved". Now, considering that
Lal died after two weeks of life, the meaning is supposedly especially poignant.
But I looked
Lal up here, and it says it means "to play, to caress" in Sanskrit, and that it's a male name.
Is
Lal an actual Hindi name (male, female, or unisex/asexual), and if so, does it actually mean "beloved"? Or did the ST writers screw up (because Data would never screw up naming his own child, I'm sure)?
Miranda