It could also be a butchered understanding of their name, ex. Qin as kim, Nguyen as noonien (Whos to say they werent from down sound with Viet family), song as singh. Etc.
Add to that using the wade-giles or mathews or whatever old timey pronunciation/spelling system, the passage of time, and a bit of 1940s racism in not bothering to get foreign sounding names correct and you could easily end up at Kim Noonien Singh.
It’s just hard to know whether or not it’s a real story. Even if Gene himself told it (which I’m not sure if he did) as he was kind of known for embellishing stories.
It could also be a butchered understanding of their name, ex. Qin as kim, Nguyen as noonien (Whos to say they werent from down sound with Viet family), song as singh. Etc.
Add to that using the wade-giles or mathews or whatever old timey pronunciation/spelling system, the passage of time, and a bit of 1940s racism in not bothering to get foreign sounding names correct and you could easily end up at Kim Noonien Singh.
It’s just hard to know whether or not it’s a real story. Even if Gene himself told it (which I’m not sure if he did) as he was kind of known for embellishing stories.