The story
From Vulcan (“inhabitant of the fictional planet Vulcan in the television series Star Trek”) + salute. The gesture was devised by the American actor Leonard Nimoy (1931–2015), who portrayed the half-Vulcan character Spock in the television series Star Trek (originally broadcast 1966–1969); he first used it in “Amok Time”, the first episode of the second season aired on September 15, 1967.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.