Thinking about it Gagarin is probably better since you could use names from both sides of the space race, like also having Collins and Armstong classes.
It was the NX Project, I think what probably happened is that the name NX was so publicized that they couldn't really change it, even though it was just meant to be a generic designation rather than a class name.
Oh yeah, as far as I've looked into it when I just got corrected last page, the class is literally 'NX-Class'.
Well if that was the case then we have already broken this "rule" inside the quest lol. We have the Stingray-Class, not the NS(tingray)-Class, or the NStingray-Class. Of course, it could have been pulling from Royal Navy tradition of assigning a class a letter and using names that start with it. EX: The Renown-Class had the Renown (shocker), and the Repulse. Or the Revenge-Class had the Revenge, Resolution, Royal Oak, Royal Sovereign, and the Ramillies.
It probably has some separate short designation for use in inventory stuff, NP(atrol) maybe.
The Stingray is designated "NY-01," which I think means it's a "'something' gun ship" if the wikipedia page on hull classifications is accurate.
Can't find much that seems to fit NY, I think it would make more sense for Star fleet to come up with it's own, the N is Navy, marking it as a Military ship, and the Y is for Patrol/gunships. The X can be Exploration.
NX is experimental, NY is [somewhat] proven.
NY should be experimental, N(avy)Y(oyodyne). This makes the most sense to me!
To be fair, these are the minor things that would get missed in a real life multi-stellar state, and by the time someone noticed, it had already been in the public consciousness for too long maybe? But NX is still one of the worst class names out there, even if it was meant to be something else.
