Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 4 - "No Win Scenario"
In Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 4, "No Win Scenario," Captain Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick) answers the decades-old mystery of why the Borg named Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) 'Locutus of Borg' when they assimilated him in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Picard's brief time was the 'spokesman' of the Borg Collective has haunted him ever since. Jean-Luc has defeated the Borg time and again, yet the trauma of being turned into Locutus, and the shame of the blood on his hands, remain part of Picard's psyche.
Captain Shaw interrupted Admiral Picard's bonding time with his son, Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), in Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 4. Shaw bellied up to the bar of the USS Titan-A's holodeck recreation of 10 Forward and revealed exactly why he hates Picard: Shaw is one of the few survivors of TNG's Battle of Wolf 359. An engineer aboard the USS Constance, Shaw was randomly chosen to live as the Borg, led by Locutus, massacred 40 Federation starships and murdered 11,000 Starfleet Officers. Shaw's riveting monologue was pointed squarely at Picard, the reclaimed, ex-Borg, who he blames for all of those deaths and the trauma Liam has lived with since.
Why Picard Was Locutus - The Only Borg Given A Name
As Captain Shaw tore into Admiral Picard for "setting the world on fire" at Wolf 359, Liam accused Jean-Luc as Locutus of being, "The only Borg so deadly they gave him a goddamn name." This may be mere conjecture on Shaw's part, but it does provide a credible answer for why the Borg called Picard Locutus. When Picard met the Borg Queen (Alice Krige) in Star Trek: First Contact, he learned that she wanted him to be "a counterpart" for herself atop the Borg hive mind. Thus, among the billions of life forms the Borg assimilated, Jean-Luc Picard was always considered special by the Collective.
Another possibility is that Jean-Luc Picard's sense of self was so strong that the Borg allowed him this shred of individuality by giving Locutus a name instead of a mere numerical designation. Indeed, Picard was never intended to be a mere drone. At the very least, Locutus was a spokesman for the Borg, and the Borg Queen later confirmed she had greater aspirations for the assimilated Picard. Captain Shaw's assertion for how "deadly" Locutus was is also correct; Picard was a prize catch for the Borg because through the Captain of the Enterprise, the Borg learned details of Starfleet technology and strategy. Hence, the Borg was easily able to decimate Starfleet at Wolf 359.
Why Seven Of Nine Keeps Her Borg Designation Instead Of Her Human Name
The flip side of Locutus of Borg is Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). As detailed in Star Trek: Voyager, Seven was once Annika Hansen, and she was just a young girl when the Borg assimilated her. Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One, was a mere Borg drone when her humanity was reclaimed by Captain Kathery Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the crew of the USS Voyager. Because Seven spent most of her life as a Borg, she no longer identifies as Annika Hansen, whose brief life is just a memory to her.
Seven of Nine prefers to be known by her Borg designation even as a Starfleet Commander and First Officer of the USS Titan-A. However, her Captain, Liam Shaw, forces Seven to go by the name "Commander Annika Hansen," partly because "Seven of Nine" is painful reminder of his near-death experience at the Borg's hands at Wolf 359. Seven taught Shaw a lesson about "respect" towards her preferred name in Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 4, but Admiral Jean-Luc Picard never wants to be known as Locutus of Borg again, though Picard also must occasionally face the fact that Locutus will always be part of him.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.