You can rename ships?  How do you rename ships??

When you select your capital ship, click on the little button above the picture of the capital ship. It should bring up a little box allowing you to rename it.

or just highlight the ship and press the "n" key while holding down the shift key.

edit: same goes for the Planets and the Starbases.

I stick to TEC.

Kol: Sun Tzu or Tsar

Sova: Osiris or October

Marza: Mjollnir or Grond

Radiance: Luminescent (best name)

Halcyon: Arbiter

Rapture: Vengeance

Revelation: Aurora

Advent is best

i name my flagship the titanic and my second ship the exxon valdez

That's an ominous name...

My Current fleet in my latest game:

Battleships: BTS New York, BTS Nagasaki, BTS Tokyo, BTS Jerusalem, BTS Atlantis,

Carriers: CRR Edinburgh, CRR Moscow, CRR Berlin, CRR Melbourne

Battlecruisers: BCR London, BCR Ithica II, BCR Turin, BCR Chicago, BCR Rekjavik

Dreadnoughts: DDN Sparta, DDN Toronto

(previous) Ithica was a battlecruiser, unfortunately during the Euracles defeat her maneuvering engines were disabled and she was lost with all hands to the Vasari.

My home planet is Mnemonse, and one planet adjacent to the star Sterope has 7 phase lanes, is my capital and is named "Nexus". Due to it's defensive position it also is home to the starbase Stratonev and part of my maxed out ship force, known as the Nexus Fleet. Some other cool names in the Sterope system include Apollo and Zion.

In the recently captured Maia system, I have many more custom named planets, including Saeglopur, Herculea, Amadeus and Drestes (though maybe the last is in-game, I think it's cool so I don't remember lol). Maia is home to the Atlantia Fleet and the Daedalus Fleet.

Finally is the Al Niyat system I am currently moving all three fleets into. My tactics this game have relied on overwhelming force and shock & awe, also scorching earth with two Novaliths per system. I've been relying on my other TEC ally to fight off the enemy, though Nexus seems to be the only prize they are interested in. Anyway, as soon as I lose enough forces due to attrition I will begin construction of the Demeter Fleet at the planet of the same name.

Well, I usually have two carrier capital ships, I have since the very first release of the game (not just because of the new over powered versions in the latest release) and I have always named one Yummy, and the other Kitten.

My home planet is always, "Don't Hurt Me!" I figure it might give the enemy pause. *shrugs*

I don't bother renaming my ships, but I do rename all my planets. I rename them with a co-ordinate so I can find where a planet on a status notice is, rather then trying to remember where I last saw Gethsemane or something.

If anybody is interested, here's how I do it-

First thing every game I do is line my home planet with the star. If there are more stars, I position my home star(runner lul) system so that it's at the very bottom, and everything else is neatly in place so I can see as much as possible without having to zoom as far out.

Next I imagine a line going across the top, this is the letter line, and the line going down on each side is the number line. Both go as high as there are stars which need to be measured. For instance, a star in the upper left hand corner would be A 1.

Next I list the planet type with one letter. If you do nothing else, I'd suggest at least adding this to all the planet names so you know what type to look for. This is also probably the most useful of the entire name.

The last part is a boring x and y axis grid. I think I remember my boring algabra teacher droning on about something like it called a kuteeshan (I will not bother guessing the right spelling of that word) co-ordinate system. With the star in the middle, I imagine the x and y lines, and then give each planet a number. I only go up to five for each, which is more then enough for me to keep track of.

I pretty much play TEC exclusively, and depending on if I'm playing as Imperial Command or Free System Alliance I'll either use INV (Imperial Navy Ship) or FSV (Free System Vessel,) respectively.

Kol Battleship: Spartan, Viking, Apache, Roman, Phalanx, Gladiator, Eversor, Vindicare, Alestorm, and Surtson.

Sova Carrier: Garuda, Enterprise, Pearl, METAL BOX, LITANY OF, MAXIMUMFU, Wasp Nest, and Hornet.

Akkan Battle Cruiser: SayMyName (flagship of my first fleet) Holmgard, Gardar, Aldeigju, Miklagard, and O'Neill (flagship of my second fleet.)

Dunov Battle Cruiser: Ymir, Atlas, Promethius, Aegis, Sentinel, Fulcrum, Rampart, Chaperone, O'Neil.

Marza Dreadnought: Fat Man, LittleBoy, Bockscar, Enola Gay, Bertha, Tiny Tim, Leviathan, Mjolnir, Fenir, and Governator.

We need a bigger character limit so those of us who use naval prefixes don't have to omit letters and misspell our own ship names.

I couldn't really be bothered renaming ships... But one I will rename is the Jarrasul Evacutator. I like to call it "The Egg"