Gene Roddenberry had intended his new female communications officer to be called "Lieutenant Sulu". Herb Solow pointed out how similar this was to "Zulu" and thought it might act against the plan for racial diversity in the show, so the name Sulu remained with George Takei's character. "Uhura" comes from the Swahili word ', meaning "freedom". Nichols states in her 1994 book "Beyond Uhura" that the name was inspired by Robert Ruark's 1962 book "Uhuru", which she had with her on the day she read for the part. When producer Robert Justman explained to Roddenberry what the word "uhuru" meant, he changed it to Uhura and adopted that as the character's name. Coincidentally, the end credits of the film ' incorrectly refer to Uhura as "Uhuru".