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Ten Forward is, of course the inconic lounge/bar/gathering area on the Enterprise-D. It is named after the fact that it is located at the forward extreme of the tenth deck, making it the most forward part of the ship and thus an ideal place for spectacular views.

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I am interested in whether this name was invented for Star Trek: The Next Generation or whether there is any precendent for this type of name in Star Trek or in an other sci-fi or real-world vessel?

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    I always assumed the name was based on "ten four" in radio communication. When a policeman receives instructions over the radio, he would reply "ten four" indicating the message has been received, understood, and will be carried out. See 1) dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ten-four 2) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-code
    – Pete
    Mar 4, 2022 at 22:00
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    @NKCampbell: I am not sure how to make this more clear, although I am open to suggestions. There's no question about the fact that it's called Ten Forward because it's the forward section of deck 10. The question is how it was decided that the lounge on the Enterprise-D should be named this.
    – ThePopMachine
    Mar 4, 2022 at 22:24
  • Comments moved to chat. I've left one comment from the OP which clarifies the question; there were a bunch of misunderstandings and tangential remarks in the comments, which you can find in the chat linked above.
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Mar 6, 2022 at 20:49
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    Can you clarify why my answer does not address the part of this question that says, "or whether there is any precedent for this type of name in Star Trek or in an other sci-fi or real-world vessel?" The person quoted in my answer asserts that real world ships have names like this. Obviously the exact name was "invented" for TNG just like everything else in the show was, but the idea of naming a place on a ship based on its location on the ship was not invented for TNG. If that’s not an answer, perhaps you can give us more detail about why not.
    – Todd Wilcox
    May 22 at 18:11
  • @ToddWilcox: "Ten Forward" is the name of the lounge, not just the location. Is it a proper noun or a description of the location? If we had a specific case (not just the word of some redditor) where someone asserted "Well, actually, on the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, then really do have a lounge that's referred to as Seven Aft, that would be useful Moreover, nothing here is explaining whether the writers knew about such a case or invented it themselves for TNG.
    – ThePopMachine
    May 23 at 15:46

2 Answers 2

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Same question was asked on Reddit. Here is one answer:

Sometimes ship areas have actual names (the Promenade), and sometimes their names are simply the description of their location (just like, Town Center, or The Green). So 7 Fwd, 6 Aft, etc, can all be used as locations on a ship. Sometimes, if it's an area that only crewmembers go, it ends up being the only name for a place. Sometimes it doesn't get named because the space is multi-functional (Recreation area, where the anchor lives, where training happens, etc).

(p.s. The places with actual names also have locations that run the same way, ie Promenade might be located Deck 7 Midships, the Lido Buffet is Deck 12 Aft, etc.)

source: Lived on a (real) ship with names like this.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/2kbmhp/where_did_the_term_ten_forward_come_from/

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  • I posted that link in the third comment on the thread. I didn't think it justified an answer when I posted it and don't think it does now :)
    – NKCampbell
    Mar 5, 2022 at 18:07
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    @NKCampbell Sorry, I hope you can understand why I didn’t assiduously read every comment. Perhaps I don’t understand the question, to me this seems like exactly the kind of thing the asker is looking for.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Mar 5, 2022 at 18:23
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    Yes, the original question asked if there's a precedent in any "real-world vessel", and the reddit poster is saying that in their experience living on real ships, some ship areas would be described with terms like "7 forward", so I think this does qualify as an answer to what the OP was looking for.
    – Hypnosifl
    Mar 5, 2022 at 20:17
  • I'd take this answer, but perhaps the OP wants a cast/crew/scriptwriter answer, OR an example of a bar or restaurant on a ship with such a name, and considers only such answers "reputable"?
    – nebogipfel
    May 22 at 17:22
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If you are looking for real word uses then yes, 10 forward can be seen on many large ships, 10 means deck ten and forward literally is used in maritime as the front of the ship, so ten forward means the front of the 10th deck. This phrase comes from Earth maritime vocabulary and seems to have just been transferred to interplanetary vocabulary.

If you mean was the deck itself invented for next generation or was this deck pre-named before next generation then I have discovered the deck did exist in the original show, it was simply unseen by the viewers, as revealed by the creators in the article below.

Sources:

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Ten_Forward

https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/3tfdb0/is_there_yet_a_space_word_equivalent_to_maritime/

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=3030#

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