Ship Names

Ok, so I was wondering, how do you pick names for your ships?

I've had only 3 naming schemes so far:

1. BEER! My starter Light Cruiser was named "Strongbow" Which I happened to be drinking at the time. I also had "Warsteiner" "Guinness" and a few others that don't immediately come to mind

2. Actors who played Captains in Star Trek Series and movies: Shatner, Takei, Stewart, Brooks, etc.

3. words describing determination: Stalwart, Resolute, Steadfast, and so on

I'm trying to come up with a new theme...

I usually use one of the following:

- authors/artists I like (U.S.S. Murakami)
- places I visited (U.S.S. Cadiz, U.S.S. Teide, U.S.S. Gibraltar, U.S.S. Stralsund)
- mythological names (U.S.S. Zephyr, U.S.S. Aurora, U.S.S. Amaterasu)
- favorite fictional characters (U.S.S. Roslin, U.S.S. Akagi)

Sometimes I also use the random name generator to see whether something nice pops up. The very first name that was presented to me this way (back when I started STO), was the name of my hometown - U.S.S. Erfurt! Freaky coincidence.

My science officer's ships are almost all named after my boyfriend with various letters added to the end for the series. So far, my engineering officer's ships are all named "Glorious" in Russian.

Mine is just my hometown with an "-A", "-B", etc. after it.

Dara's ships are mostly mythical heroines, with the exception of her current U.S.S. Atlanta, which I fudged because I live near Atlanta and everyone would assume Atalanta was a typo anyway.

Benton's ships... well... this is ridiculously teenage of me, but they've been the U.S.S.'s Greenwood, Selway, O'Brien, and Yorke. Gonna refrain from explaining that to anyone not nerdy enough to get it on their own.

Quote by DoctorDisaster

everyone would assume Atalanta was a typo anyway.

Well, not EVERYONE... I know a fair bit of mythology and mythological figures.

Well since my main toon's name is Seven of Eleven I named his ships appropriately. Here are couple of them that I can remember:

Slurpee
Bratwurst
Chili Cheese Dog
Nacho
Taquito

My science captain goes with inventors or engineers. So far she's got the USS Jobs and USS Kelly Johnson

I have bounced around so many alts and types that names flip and change frequently. Some will reflect their race and things I believe would affect their choices. Pride of Cait. Cait Warrior etc.

Others have taken the inventors or writers approach. USS Arthur C Clarke. USS Iain M Banks. USS Trevor Bayliss and so on.

Less Canon types would flit between stuff like major cities near me. Or simple playful names like the Sao Paulo class USS Phaser Diplomacy.
I really wanted to make some with proper Iain M Banks/Culture style names but they can not be long enough for really good efforts along those lines.

My only real headache is when tinkering on the KDF side. I want the names to seem genuine and not just human or obviously human derived names. But especially for Gorn/Nausicaan and Ferasan there is no real lore or Canon to back those choices so most end up being named via Random engine and what it suggests and seems to fit.

Captain Brokeback of the USS Grindr
Captain Stonewall of the USS Rebellion
Captain iBoy of the USS Plug N Play

for one toon i did the Burroughs of nyc (except staten island lol)

I use Latin phrases for my ship names; Latin always sounds so much more profound than anything I could come up with in English:

My Multi-Vector Prometheus Escort:
USS Dies Irae (Day of Wrath)

My Intrepid Retrofit Science Vessel:
USS Ars Moriendi (The Art of Dying - refers to texts on how to die with honor)

[attachment=947]ShipSelector.png[/attachment]


Also, for those of you who remember the old, dial-up BBS systems, I used the names of some of those BBS software packages as names for some of my ships, as they just had cool names. Thumbs up if you know what I'm talking about!

USS Iniquity
USS Renegade
USS Oblivion

For my main toon, Ohmsford (Engineering), I mainly use Norse mythology-related names, like the USS Midgard, USS Jotunheim or the USS Laufeyson, which is my current ship.

For my Science alt, Lindstrom, I use Roman/Latin and astronomy related names, like USS Cybele, USS Strata, USS Moonraker, though it's a bit more broad.

My Tactical alt, Teleras (he's Andorian), has ships named after Egyptian and Mayan/Aztec mythology, eg. USS Amun-Ra, USS Quetzalcoatl.

My Klingon just has random Klingon-sounding ship names. :P And for shuttles, I name them after celebs, usually, such as the USS Kylie Minogue, USS Tori Amos or USS Hiddlesworth. (That last one is a mix of Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston, heh.)

Quote by Nova

My science captain goes with inventors or engineers. So far she's got the USS Jobs and USS Kelly Johnson

Hedy Lamarr!

I tend to name my ships after places I've lived or visited, currently I'm on the U.S.S Fairfax, with the next one likely being the Chicago.

I've been trying to name my ships in the manner of the Culture vessels from Iain M. Bank's novels. My current main ship is the USS Appeal To Reason.

My alt, being a Caitian, has all ship that are Longcat derivatives - the current Exploration cruiser being the USS Widecat.

I like sort of mythical names that inspire beauty and wonder and seem to have exploration connotations or my favorite ship names from other genres. My main (Jacien) has had ships named: Copernicus, Prospero, Aurora (Stargate Atlantis), Axiom (Wall-E), and Mobius. And I named my favorite little Luna Class the Oberon. One- because luna class starships are always named after a moon in Earth's solar system (there are 145 moons round these parts) and I thought it fitting to name it after the "Fairy King."

I named my Tac's Tactial Escort The USS Caliburn because that was King Arthur's first sword that was broken into 3 pieces and reforged into Excalibur, a perfect name for a Prometheus class star ship.

I've given my Klingon Tac's ships the names of mythical greek monsters like Manticore, Chimera, Basilisk, Gorgon (I know, I'm biting off of Admiral Dala) and my Orion Slave boy flies the Slovenly Concubine (I'm rather proud of that name.)

Answer is in my new sig. :D

Geography: The Antwerp, the Hokkaido, the Novosibirsk, the Cape Town

Western Mythology: The Ganymede, the Phaeton, the Helios, the Euterpe

Hindu/Buddhist Mythology: The Avalokitesvara, the Matarisvan, the Virabhadra

Historic British naval ships: The Implacable, the Illustrious

My newest toon is all birds-of-prey: So far, the Peregrine and the Osprey.

ETA: Goshawk