Naming your ships

Yeah, I'm big into having individual ships and fleets named. I like naming the first build of a ship as the progenitor for the class, and name the rest of the ships based on that design in a similar fashion. For example, I might have a "Storm" class destroyer, and subsequent ships of that class will be "Tempest", "Maelstrom", "Vortex", etc. Another example would be a "Broadsword" class battleship, with its sister ships being "Longsword", "Flail", and BattleAxe". The similarities in names would better allow me to know what type of ship it is, as long as I remember the base model.

I'll probably use different themes for different games -- TV/movie characters, musicians, stuff like that. I am looking forward to crushing all opposition with my mighty Drengin fleet named after romance novelists, though.

Wikipedia has lots of ship name lists, and I know that there are huge text files out there with potential ship names, based on themes, such as Hellenic Gods, Mythological figures, British Royal Navy ships (my favorite) and others.

In 4X space games I usually name my ships after birds for some reason ie. Albatross, Falcon, Pigeon (troop transtports since they drop their "cargo" on unsuspecting worlds like crap on your car); its just a habit.

I think another of my own themes early on would be my "heroes and villains" list from Roman history (keen amateur historian on the roman late republic, marius to octavian roughly) and having a fleet with names such as "Marius", "Sulla", "Pompeius" and "Caesar" together would be pretty damned cool

i like to make ships whose names make me laugh, like the "GIggle Monster", "Ugly Stick", or "Lockjaw". If individual ships are doing good, I may give them more unique/personal names.

I have to laugh at myself on this one. I have a naming protocol written out which names each design in a way that identifies the class, weapon and defense and keeps them sorted by size/class on the shipyard screen

Well im going with a Texan theme for my first unique "race".. and they will have names like

Texas Ranger
Armadillo
Mockingbird
Lonestar
Cowboy
Longhorn
Yellow Rose

ive got more but you get the idea

You left out "Walker" before "Texas Ranger"

I will probably name my best after my old ship from the TradeWars game: Stoned Koala. Not sure why I chose that name so long ago, but I figure it is a fitting tribute. As for the others, maybe keep the animal line, Mellow Monkey perhaps...

You would find me so boring. My names look like

Col-Sp4R22
Def-Sm-M6A4
Raider-Med-Sp6B4

Etc, etc.

Until I hit endgame, and then I wind up with names like BF Hammer, Anvil, etc.

Well, firstly I divide ships into a bunch of Classes [from smallest/lightest to largest/heaviest]:

Corvette -> Brig -> Galleon -> Frigate -> Destroyer -> Cruiser -> Battleship -> Dreadnought -> Super-Dreadnought

I then name them according to their class. Like, Corvettes would be things likes Sparrow and Cardinal and Wasp and Hornet. Brigs would be, like, Raven and Vulture and Coyote. Galleons would be Wolf and the stuff only gets larger.

I name my ships based on how I feel at the time - I rarely give my ships anything other than generic names - usually hitting things like Endeavour, Liberty, Invincible for my cap ships and things like Endurance, Wind Runner and Courage for my scouts up to light cruisers.

How about naming your ships after your own planets?

Thas actually a good point anhyride - i do that too sometimes.

I like ship names that have something to do with the ship function---for example, a missile cruiser would be named "Ballistic", or "Javelin"; a colony ship would be "Populous"; a supply ship might be "Abundant", or "Replenisher". I also tend to add a prefix, like TAS (Terran Alliance ship) Resplendant, etc.

Heh, generally I name my ships after Greek heroes, (Real and Mythical). I think it comes from playing Rebellion as Rebels, where the Imps always called their ships after Greek Monsters (Medusa, Hydra, Etc.) I also like to do the standard naming thing when I'm feeling creative. (Independance, Liberty, Pride of Xworld, Xenemy's Bane...)

I generally name mine after swords. Go figure, hehe he. Little ships = dagger, dart, sai, tanto Med = short sword, wakizashi Large= Katana, Broad Sword Huge=Dai-Katana, Bastard Sword. Sometimes I might go for names of jets or ships.

Variety, depends on mood mostly.

Generally though for space games, sea animals. Tuna, Barracuda, Swordfish, Dolphin, Orca, Hammerhead, Kraken, etc. Name depending on size/purpose.

Though I also tend to use things along the lines of Vanguard/Sentinel, and Phantasm/Ghost.

Oh yeah, it's a question of immersion. It doesn't feel "real" if it's just Fighter, Cruiser etc.

I usually name them after people or historic ships. For example in my last game, my fast colony ship was a "Colombus Class Colony Ship", and my battlecruiser was a "Hood Class Cruiser". It's stuff like this that, for me at least, takes the game from awesome to super wicked

I'll probably name the individual ships too, if only the capital ones.

I'm big on class names but not on individual ship names. Depends on what the final ship design sequence looks like as to how I name.

Generally speaking, I'll name the class by mission and then by the Speed at which it moves. I was really big on this in SE4.

examples:

DD-5 (speed 5 Direct-Fire or balanced armament Destroyer)
DDG-3A (Speed 3 Guided Missile-Destroyer, First Class Upgrade).
DE-9D (Speed 9 Destroyer Escort - Point-defense primary weapons, Fourth Class Upgrade)
CVE-# (Escort carrier, 1 squadron of fighters)
CVL-# (Light Carrrier, 3 squadrons of fighters).

Etc...

wow great discussion. I prefer Gods, whether eqyptian, greek, norse, mayan, etc. also Saint's names are kinda cool

For good luck I like to give my ships names like Bismark, Maine, and Wasa When I upgrade I do the british fighter plane thing (Spitfire MkI MkII etc.) I also tend to name ships after oligarthic take no {explitive} Americans: Marshal, Hamilton, Lincoln, Teddy, Nixon, and Condi of course.

The saints name thing is cool, if you were fighting the Gorn you could have a St George class, a missle cruiser could be a St Martin class "sure I'll part my cloak with you"

Great thread

Seeing a fleet of "Tuna Class beam ships" wouldn't scare me; it would confuse me. I wouldn't know whether to fire back or get a loaf of bread and some mayonaise. However, if I saw the "Wakizashi" or "Dai-Katana" coming, I might get a little..."Worried". Augustus, fire a broadside!

However, if I saw the "Wakizashi" or "Dai-Katana" coming, I might get a little ... "Worried"

1.laugh at Dai-Katana surely, the reality wasn't up to it.
2.how about "Wasabi"?