Ship Naming

[Jhamin]

An idea I've been kicking around for my Star Hero fleet was to use the US Navy practice of picking a scheme for each type of ship and sticking with it, then trying to find a nice international feel for united earth ships.

Options:
Military Leaders - Hannibal, Alexander, Rommel, Ghengis, Sun Tzu, etc.

Of course, I perfer myth as a source for future names:

Mythical Warriors - Galihad, Hiawatha, Sigurd, Gilgamesh, etc

Mythical Creatures (really appropriate for uber-battleships) - Kraken, Grendel, Fafner, Windigo, Kinie Ger, etc

Legendary Scientists/Wisemen (good for science ships) - Daedelus, Myrlin, Imhotep, etc

Mythical Weapons - Mjolner, Excalibur, Gae Bolg, etc

[Kzinbane]

Just type in your search engine: Brightest stars and you'll get lists of good names. Some are commonly heard all over (Rigel, Deneb, Capella) but many have alien sounding names and barring making up something from scratch could be good for both Earth based or alien ship names. Here are just a few:
Adhara, Achernar, Mimosa, Sargas, Nunki.

[Toadmaster]

Probably nothing originl at this point (already many good suggestions) but what I typically use in MOO2 is

Exploration / scout ships - explorers / explorers ships: Columbus, Beagle, Kon tiki, Sir Francis Drake etc

Destroyers - Famous military figures / warriors: Patton, MacArthur, Rommel, Beowulf

Cruisers - Cities: San Francisco, Kiev, London

Battlecruisers - States / national leaders: California, Nevada, Quebec, George Washington, Lenin

Battleships - Countries: United States, Scotland, China

Dreadnaughts - Planets / Stars / Mythic gods (depending on how many I build): Earth, Mars, Apollo, Athena, Thor, Sol, Betelguise

Superdreadnaughts? (the deathstar looking things) - Galaxies: Andromida, Alpha Centari

Other popular names are action words Invincible, Titanic, Endeaver or Cultural names Apache Warrior, Viking, Zulu, Knight

Often ship names will identify the type and class (battleships named after states, class grouped by region California Class (California, Nevada, Oregon, Arizona), New York Class (New York, Pensylvania, New Jersey) etc

Typically I'll split the classes into specific themes of the above, for example 3 classes of Batlecruisers (American Presidents) George washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, (States) California, Oregon, New Jersey (European Leaders) DeGaul, Churchill, Hindenberg

Or armed scouts vs science vessels Darwin, Powell, Lewis & Clark vs Coronado, Drake etc

This way at a glance I know which class of Battlecruiser I am looking at and its capability. If my first battle cruisers are the American Presidents and my most recent is Communist leaders I know which of my ships are the most modern and capable, similar groupings can identify armament as well missle cruisers will have their own theme to identify them as differant from phaser armed ships.

There are endless ways of naming ships the main thing to me to make them "realistic" is to use some kind of system and stick to it.

[xgotghrrl]

I did a space opera game once where we had 7 "Classes" of ships each named after one of the continents. you know

Africa class fighter,
Asia class carrier
Europe class cruiser
etc etc
and each ship in that class was named after a particular country or city on that particular continent.

Flagships of each fleet were named after countries and the fleet ships were cities.

love always
xgoth

[Major Tom]

Alternatively, you could name the high-firepower battlecruiser
type ships after volcanoes (St. Helens, Rainier, Mauna Loa
and Olympus Mons, just to name a few), and the battle-
ship/dreadnought type ships after swords of ancient legend/
myth (Excalibur was already mentioned in another post,
but there are other sword names that could be used --
Ar'ondight, Balisarda, Colada, Durandal, Flamberge,
Nagelring, Philippan and Sauvagine, for example).

Major Tom

The Poster formerly known as Space Cadet

[The Owl]

A landscaper, I'm fond of the Latin names for plants. Not so much for Earth stuff, but good for alien planets and their warships.

"Captain, the Tajates warships just uncloaked! They've formed an alliance with the Echinops and are going to massacre Primula!"

Nobody has to know I just said the marigolds have teamed up with the thistles and are going after the primroses.

[Nolgroth]

In the SciFi campaign I'm trying to kick off, I'm using an exploration/journey theme. Right now I have the Exodus and the Odessey. In the campaign, several combination sleeper/generation ships have been launched towards nearby class "G" stars. This is the backdrop of the campaign and only one ship is going to be detailed to any extent, but I need more names for "filler."

Anybody have an Asian, South American, or African name that would fit the theme? I was tempted to use Trail of Tears, but I'm looking for a more hopeful sounding title.

[McCoy]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade
In addition to the above, the names of historical heads of state is another source of ship names -- Presidents and Prime Ministers from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Indonesia... Imagine a couple of Liberty-class dreadnaughts named the Karzai and the Musharraf.

Past UN Secretary Generals.

Nobel prize winners.

Battle sites, Shilo, Gettysburg, Lexington, Normandy, Alamo; may want to skip over the USS Pearl Harbor.

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by nolgroth
Anybody have an Asian, South American, or African name that would fit the theme? I was tempted to use Trail of Tears, but I'm looking for a more hopeful sounding title.

Kate Monk's Onomastikon is one of the best sources for personal names around, on the Web or elsewhere. Some areas even include the meanings of the names; in other cases an inexpensive (or online) language dictionary can help. You could take some of these.

[Nolgroth]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade
Kate Monk's Onomastikon is one of the best sources for personal names around, on the Web or elsewhere. Some areas even include the meanings of the names; in other cases an inexpensive (or online) language dictionary can help. You could take some of these.

I was actually hoping for anything not Western culture related that corresponds to the "arduous journey with a worthy goal at the end" theme as stated in the other two names that I had come up with. Which reminds me to remind myself Odyssey not Odessey. Knew it looked funny at the time...

[Kolava]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade
Schwartzenegger cannot become the US President; the Constitution states that the President must be a natural-born citizen, and Arnold is naturalized. (Though your basic point is a very good one.)

Actually....

[Kristopher]

Here's one: name ships after science fiction authors:

Niven
Asimov
Bradbury
Heinlein
Clark
Anderson
Pohl
Bujold
McCaffrey

You get the idea.

[LordGhee]

From history and memory

States,
Cities,
Areas,
Famous leaders (Bismarck, Wellington (oops bomber)
Famous warriors, (lots of Naval warriors like nelson or Andre Doria.)
Battles (usually ones your side won),
Animals
Predators examples fish (trigger, sturgeon) cats (tiger, panther, lion)
Lots name on the theme of victory, Glory, Honor, Justice, Discovery.
The Japanese had a destroyer class named after wind (divine wind, wind before a storm ect) remember the Eskimos have 20 plus names for snow,
Mythical figure or things griffin, Apollo,
Important dates (the October revolution,)
Well know things that the people like (snoopy and Woodstock our space ships)

Made up names Sea cow,

The First ship launched would be the lead ship of that class and set the tone

Example the rebels launch the revolution followed by the rebellion, revolt, mutiny, insurrection and uprising.

In a space game I played in I got to name the escort vessel I commanded, The Tempest of the Storm class escort ships and my fellow players promptly named our shuttle the teapot.

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by nolgroth
I was actually hoping for anything not Western culture related that corresponds to the "arduous journey with a worthy goal at the end" theme as stated in the other two names that I had come up with. Which reminds me to remind myself Odyssey not Odessey. Knew it looked funny at the time...

Ah! Somehow I'd missed that you were looking for something specific.

I did a little digging and found one that might work for you: Long March, after the journey of Mao Zedong and his Communist forces in the 1930s.

[Nolgroth]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade
Ah! Somehow I'd missed that you were looking for something specific.

I did a little digging and found one that might work for you: Long March, after the journey of Mao Zedong and his Communist forces in the 1930s.

No problem about missing something. This was a general purpose idea area that I thought was appropriate for a question like that.

As far as the Long March, sounds like a splendid ship name. Evokes about everything I was looking for. Now what's the Chinese name? (Just kidding. I can look that up myself, now that I have a lead. Thanks for the time and effort.)