Ship names are so boring nowadays

[Jon K]

As we all know, most of the ship names are very boring. Dead politicians, sleazy towns and dead end provinces are making various navy lists more boring than ever. Thus I'm creating a thread about best ship names of various active and planned ships.

My candidate for best name for a long time is Le Terrible (S 619) of the French Navy which was inaugurated today. If the ships supposed mission is to bring death and destruction with SLBM's it's hard to imagine a more suitable name.

 

[Sea Toby]

Unfortunately, as Admiral Rickover said about naming submarines after fish, fish don't vote. If you name a ship after a state, the governor shows up for the christening ceremony. If you name a ship after a city, the mayor appears. The Admirals like local support for their shipbuilding plans and will continue to name ships after cities and states. Sea battles and land battles tend to get political support, but as you said not many support naval heroes no one has heard of.

 

[swerve]

Royal Navy submarines, from the current fleet:

Vengeance, Victorious, Vigilant, Trafalgar, Trenchant, Tireless, Turbulent, Triumph, Superb

Bulding -

Astute, Ambush, Artful, Audacious

Surface ships - current & building include -

Iron Duke, Bulwark, Albion, Ocean, Daring, Dauntless, Diamond, Dragon

The French have or are building Mistral, Tonnerre, Foudre, Siroco, Le Téméraire , Le Terrible, Le Triomphant, Le Vigilant & L'Inflexible.

I'm sure you'll find plenty of other excellent names out there. Look up some of the JMSDF ship names.

 

[kato]

Don't forget Italy.

the eight "wind" fast frigates, the old cruisers Audace and Ardito, the light frigates Artigliere, Bersagliere, Aviere, Granatiere... Vedetta and Sentinella, the OPVs generally named after star constellations, the oilers named after vulcanoes...

 

[crobato]

Unfortunately, as Admiral Rickover said about naming submarines after fish, fish don't vote. If you name a ship after a state, the governor shows up for the christening ceremony. If you name a ship after a city, the mayor appears. The Admirals like local support for their shipbuilding plans and will continue to name ships after cities and states. Sea battles and land battles tend to get political support, but as you said not many support naval heroes no one has heard of.

That's quite interesting. The PLAN appears to name all their major surface combantants (not subs and FACs) based on cities. It also appears the PLAN also gets an honorary donation from the honored city itself.

 

[crobato]

Royal Navy submarines, from the current fleet:

Vengeance, Victorious, Vigilant, Trafalgar, Trenchant, Tireless, Turbulent, Triumph, Superb

Bulding -

Astute, Ambush, Artful, Audacious

Surface ships - current & building include -

Iron Duke, Bulwark, Albion, Ocean, Daring, Dauntless, Diamond, Dragon

The French have or are building Mistral, Tonnerre, Foudre, Siroco, Le Téméraire , Le Terrible, Le Triomphant, Le Vigilant & L'Inflexible.

I'm sure you'll find plenty of other excellent names out there. Look up some of the JMSDF ship names.

Japanese ship names, like those of the Nihon Kaigun, are poetic. For example, destroyers that start their names with an adjective and their names -kaze (wind), -tsuki (moon), or -yuki (snow).

 

[Generalissimo]

American ship names are quite silly. They are named after relatively mundane cities like Toledo, and politicians like Gerald Ford or George Bush Sr. . It's time we brought back the ship names of the great vessels from our history: Hornet, Wasp, Saratoga, Lexington, Midway.

Japanese ship names, like those of the Nihon Kaigun, are poetic. For example, destroyers that start their names with an adjective and their names -kaze (wind) or -yuki (snow).

That's why Japanese ship names are my favorite. They are very beautiful yet go completely with the ship's intended purpose.

 

[Jon K]

Don't forget Italy.

the eight "wind" fast frigates, the old cruisers Audace and Ardito, the light frigates Artigliere, Bersagliere, Aviere, Granatiere... Vedetta and Sentinella, the OPVs generally named after star constellations, the oilers named after vulcanoes...

Excellent suggestions, it seems that not all the navies are following the boring route. I've often wondered, though, isn't it a bad omen to name a ship filled with combustibles after a volcano?

 

[Sea Toby]

American ship names are quite silly. They are named after relatively mundane cities like Toledo, and politicians like Gerald Ford or George Bush Sr. . It's time we brought back the ship names of the great vessels from our history: Hornet, Wasp, Saratoga, Lexington, Midway.



That's why Japanese ship names are my favorite. They are very beautiful yet go completely with the ship's intended purpose.

Unfortunately former President's names get support from their political parties. Former battlefields such as Saratoga and Lexington get support from those states. Midway was a great naval battle, but it isn't in any state. And small cities such as Toledo have much more political clout and support than any fish. Mount Hood or Mount Ranier, in-active volcanoes, also get state support.

Its difficult for Texas congressmen to vote against a ship named Texas. Likewise for Dallas, or Houston, or Corpus Christi. That submarine received such Catholic and religious protests, the navy had to change the name to the City of Corpus Christi, nevermind the entire class of submarines were named after cities. Texans are also fond of the Pecos River, the battles of San Jacinto and the Alamo, Speaker Sam Rayburn, and the Jersey Lily. It burns to the ground and the taxpayers of Texas rebuilds it.

I believe the Aussies have it in law that they name their capital ships after their major cities. The US navy likes to name their ships after naval heroes, especially Nimitz, Decatur, Preble, and John Paul Jones. One destoyer is named after five brave sons of the Sullivan family.

 

[kato]

isn't it a bad omen to name a ship filled with combustibles after a volcano?

Seems to be a tradition though, not just in Italy. The USN used to name its ammunition transports (AEs) after vulcanoes too - when it still had any AEs.

 

[Waylander]

I also tend to like the names of some of our 143A Gepard class FACs.

Names like Hyäne, Puma and Gepard reflect the role of these small, fast and hard hitting bastards.

 

[AegisFC]

One destoyer is named after five brave sons of the Sullivan family.

The whole Burke class follows the tradition of naming ships after brave souls who proved themselves in battle (Arleigh Burke, Stout, ect) or received a MoH (James E. Williams, Cole and others) but their are the occasional Burkes with names that do not make sense (Hopper).

My only complaint about how they name ships these days is naming carriers after politicians, naming a ship (especially a large deck) should have some sort of rules, like waiting 20 years after that persons death so sentimentality or pity doesn't factor into naming that ship.

 

[kato]

I also tend to like the names of some of our 143A Gepard class FACs.

Sadly the exception in Bundeswehr naming scheme though.

That was (and is):
- Destroyers: unnamed (Z1 to Z6), generals (Lütjens, Mölders, Rommel)
- Frigates/Corvettes: states (only for classes that replaced destroyers), cities (general escorts)
- submarines: unnamed
- FACs: animals (and not only hunters of small prey, also birds etc)

- Mine-warfare craft and subchasers: small cities/towns; older units mythology and astronomical constellations
- Landing craft: unnamed (LCM), fish (LCU)
- Auxiliaries: cities (AOR), rivers (tenders), forest/mountain ranges, lakes

- training ships: traditional (pre-WW2) cruiser names

Not that the Volksmarine was any more imaginative :shudder

 

[Ozzy Blizzard]

The whole Burke class follows the tradition of naming ships after brave souls who proved themselves in battle (Arleigh Burke, Stout, ect) or received a MoH (James E. Williams, Cole and others) but their are the occasional Burkes with names that do not make sense (Hopper).

My only complaint about how they name ships these days is naming carriers after politicians, naming a ship (especially a large deck) should have some sort of rules, like waiting 20 years after that persons death so sentimentality or pity doesn't factor into naming that ship.

States or cities make good names, people tend to get more attached to a vessel named after their home town or state. Peoples names allways seem (as funny as it sounds) impersonal, i.e. a name of some person the average joe on the street has never heard of compared to a place they've been to or born. I know cities are currently used by B2's, but again theres more public love for an individual ship than a aircraft.

 

[SlyDog]

As we all know, most of the ship names are very boring. Dead politicians, sleazy towns and dead end provinces are making various navy lists more boring than ever. Thus I'm creating a thread about best ship names of various active and planned ships.

My candidate for best name for a long time is Le Terrible (S 619) of the French Navy which was inaugurated today. If the ships supposed mission is to bring death and destruction with SLBM's it's hard to imagine a more suitable name.

I agree with you. Sweden have the same "boring habbit" to name the vessels after provinces, cities, islands. Even classes are often named in that way. :roll:

I guess you recognize some name of the provinces in sweden.

LINK

 

[supermachiner]

i dont really understand the usn use of politicians its weird. my favourite ship name will always be hms warspite pretty scary

 

[Jon K]

I agree with you. Sweden have the same "boring habbit" to name the vessels after provinces, cities, islands. Even classes are often named in that way. :roll:

I guess you recognize some name of the provinces in sweden.

Yes, it's always a pleasant place to visit! Sweden, like Finland, used to have good names for ships, I think "Tre Kronor" and "Göta Lejon", for example, were well suited for national capitol ships. From old Finnish Navy ships the best names were "Vesihiisi" (The mean spirit in the water and "Iku-Turso" (An evil spirit trying to drag ships into depths). Both names were for subs.

 

[Sea Toby]

Well New Zealand with its Anzac frigates used Maori words te kaha and te mana which means powerful and strength, I believe. Of course, with their OPVs they returned to the state, county, or province names; I not sure what they are called. And they returned to their Lake names for the IPVs.

While the new Maori names sound great, they weren''t strong or powerful enough to buy a third ship of that class.

 

[eliaslar]

Greek navy had named it's Cannon class destroyers, served from 1951 to 1992, as
D-54 Leon (in Greek it means lion), D-31 Ierax (hawk in Greek), D-01 Aetos (eagle) and D-67 Panther (the same word in Greek).
Also i think the most beautiful names in our navy belongs to the gunships, which are named as niki (victory), doxa (glory), eleftheria (freedom), tolmi (dare), ormi (rush), mahitis (warrior), nikiforos (victorious), aittitos (undefeated), krataios (mighty).

 

[swerve]

The RN can probably keep recycling old names forever, having had so many ships over the last 500 years. The new carriers are being given recycled names, for example - though dull ones.

Some of our old warship names are quite sweet, e.g. Mary Rose - one of the most heavily-armed ships of her time. Henri Grâce à Dieu might not go down too well for a British warship right now, but her nickname might - Great Harry. Sovereign of the Seas could do with being revived, as could (e.g.) Royal Oak, Devastation (for an SSBN?), Dreadnought & Furious.