The Enterprise or USS Enterprise (often referred to as the "Starship Enterprise") is the name of several fictional starships, some of which are the focal point for various television series and films in the Star Trek franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The majority of these vessels share "NCC-1701" as part of their registry, with later ships appending a letter to the registry to differentiate them. The name Enterprise comes from a long series of ships.
The first was the French frigate L'Entreprise, captured by the British in 1705. The British rechristened the ship HMS Enterprise for use by the Royal Navy. A further nine Royal Navy commissioned warships carried the name "Enterprise".
The first United States ship to use the name USS Enterprise was a Revolutionary War-era sloop-of-war. The eighth American ship to bear this name was the world's first nuclear aircraft carrier. According to The Star Trek Encyclopedia, the registry number "NCC-1701"