According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the starship's registration number "NCC- 170 1" was designed by Matt Jeffries, the artistic director of the first series of Star Trek. Jeffries, a pilot, proposed the first three letters of NCC according to the 20th century aircraft registration code. In the use of the 20th century, the initials "n" stand for aircraft registered in the United States; The second letter "C" stands for civil aircraft; Jeffries added a second "c" just because he thought it looked better.

The name "enterprise" comes from many ships named after it. The first was the French frigate L'Entreprise, which was captured by Britain in 1705. The British renamed it HMS Enterprize for use by the Royal Navy. The first American ship to use "American Enterprise" was a single-masted warship in the American War of Independence. The eighth American ship with this name is the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Because of the popularity of Star Trek, and to commemorate these real spaceships in history, NASA named the earliest experimental flight "Enterprise". In Star Trek 4: Saving the Future, the aircraft carrier Ranger replaced the lens of Enterprise. 1994, the Star Trek convention was held on the real Enterprise, and the ship was full of Star Trek souvenirs. In the novel Hunting Red October, Enterprise is mentioned by its call sign "Starbase".