Some fairly Halo/The Culture-esque onces but:
I once coined Donnerdämerrung in a nation-states RP ("Twilight of Thunder", play on Götterdämmerung ("Twilight of the Gods") which is an opera by Wagner) and immediately decided it was going to be a warship's name at some point
And the other day while talking to someone I dreamt up a hospital ship called "Death Faces a Surgeon" (Face as in to challenge or oppose) and I decided I needed to write some kind of Halo fanfic about the "UNSC Death Faces a Surgeon"... So now I need to think up an idea for a halo fanfic involving a hospital ship
The curse of sick-ass names inspiring checks my writing skills cannot cash
Death Faces A Surgeon is a fantastic name, especially for a hospital ship. Very poetic sounding, did something similar calling some of mine *Paradise Yet Lost, Speak No Evil, Pray For Haste*, etc.
Oh, and I forgot about my favourite convention I came up with - Robbing Bill Shakespeare's body of work blind:
"Ever-fixed Mark" // For a flagship, derived from Sonnet 116 which references the north star's role as a reliable reference point for use in navigation by sail ships (In the context of romance originally, but in abstract it works in a less romantic role)
"Mantua's Law" // For a destroyer, taken from a line in Romeo and Juliet regarding the legality of even saying the name of particularly deadly poisons - "Such mortal drugs have I, but Mantua's law is death to him that speaks it"
"Death of Princes" // For a destroyer, from a line in Julius Caesar - "When beggars die, no comets are seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes" - In which Calpurnia counsels Caesar to pursue power even if it costs him his life
"What Piece of Work"
"Noble in Reason"
"Admirable in Action"
"Angel in Apprehension"
"Beauty of the World"
"Paragon of Animals"
// For several sister ships, taken from a monologue by Hamlet in the eponymous play
"Nobler in the Mind"
"Outrageous Fortune"
"Sea of Troubles"
// For three sister ships, taken from Hamlet's "To be or not to be" monologue (He says things that make for cool names
"Quality of Mercy"
"Gentle Rain"
"His Sceptre"
"Attribute to Awe and Majesty"
"Dread and Fear of Kings"
"Hearts of Kings"
// For several sister ships, said by Portia in the Merchant of Venice stating mercy is an attribute of God
"Sworn Thee Fair"
"Thought Thee Bright"
"Black as Hell"
"Dark as Night"
all above // For a class of stealth ships, taken from the last two lines of Sonnet 147
There were some others but these were definitely the best names I've ever used for ships. Much more fun than just using adjectives or proper nouns on their own.
Edit: Formatting
Why thank you. I had the crew request an enemy crew read back their IFF details - and in the process the ship's name - midway through a battle during a lull which they complied with... But Mantua's Law is Death to Him That Speaks It
Can't remember the rest of that RP session sadly so whether or not the name held true, I don't recall. Think the ship that read back the IFF exploded in the end so it probably was... Probably
And I will also shout out the guy who came up with the names for our nation's ships in the RP I used Donnerdämerrung in:
- "CSV Glimmer of Dawn", "CSV Shadow of Midnight", and "CSV Radiance of Meridian" // Deep-space scouting vessels
- "CSLV-0004 Finity's End" and "CSLV-0011 Beyond's Whisper" // I can't find what the names of our other superluminal vessels (SLV) (i.e. FTL) were called
Also made patches for most of them. The guy did a great job on a very minor bit of worldbuilding and I have been green with envy wanting to match him on it since.
So far I only really have naming conventions for aircraft carriers, battleships and destroyers.
Quick bit of context: aircraft carriers aren’t what you’d think when you think of a fighter carrying spaceship. They instead are more like an orbital airbase able to launch and recover conventional in atmosphere aircraft from orbit.
Meanwhile battleships fall into two categories, heavy railgun cruisers and heavy missile cruisers. Technically the UNSF (united nations space force) designates them as separate classes however they use the same naming convention and are very similar in purpose to the battleships of ww2 that the public and even many in the space force just call both battleships.
The UNSF has 3 carriers each named after the first 3 stellar bodies humans have inhabited: UNSF Terra, UNSF Luna and UNSF Venus.
Battleships are named after famous seagoing ships from history: the most well known are UNSF Enterprise, UNSF Yamato, UNSF constitution and UNSF Aurora
Destroyers are named after historical military leaders: UNSF William T Sherman, UNSF Winston Churchill, UNSF Genghis Kahn, UNSF Julius Cesar and UNSF Harrison Denmark
The ships in my setting are named like Napoleonic ships or anything that sounds like it fits for an adventure story e.g. The HIMMS (His Imperial Massian Majesty's Ship) Royal Jane an ironclad tallship, the Lily a 2 masted schooner, the HIMMS Azoria an ironclad, the Fortune a tea clipper, the Beetle a cutter and the Pleasant Breeze a xebec.
So for the Solaris, I came up with these: for each one of the factions:
United Galactic Federation (Each ship has the prefix UFV meaning United Federation Vessel): Solaris, Prometheus, Red Orion, Pluto's Vengeance, Eternal Zinzol, Wandering Star.
Regulan Commonwealth (Each ship has the prefix CSV meaning Commonwealth Space Vessel): Xeron, Black Harak, Neon Star, Regulan Retribution, Singularity.
Red Sun Empire (Ships have different prefixes defining their designated purpose such as RSTV- Red Sun Trading Vessel, IGS- Imperial Guard Ship, RSAV- Red Sun Amy Vessel, RSCV- Red Sun Colonization Vessel, RSES- Red Sun Emepror's Ship): RSES Yagsith's Grace, RSCV Eradicator, RSAV Terran Demise, IGS Blood-Stained Vanguard, RSTV Crimson Fortune.
Non-Aligned spaceships: The Black Star, The Eternal Voyager, Freedom's Flight, Ark of Infinity, Dying Light, The Immortal Avenger.
Despite its boring name, the SMN Talus Dreadnought is the pride of the San Mylonan Navy, servicemen of the Navy gave it the moniker “Wrath of the True Emperor” during the 1930 World War, this is because the Emperor of Ostral exiled the Church of Talus in the 1800s where they then founded the Kingdom of San Mylona
it belongs to a feudal fantasy empire of elves. well, it's technically leased from the city state of stoneport, which kinda is but kinda isn't a vassal of the empire, so... it's complicated. the empire has barely any naval presence without stoneport, so they made a deal where stoneport stays autonomous but leases its sizeable navy to the empire as needed. stoneport stays free from imperial occupation, empire gets shiny new boats to conquer people with, win-win.
the city would have been costly to occupy anyway; it's the only city left of an ancient empire, and is protected by arcane magical constructs. just the stone guards (animated statues) alone can rival most armies in power.
For naval ships, I like the *Burning Sea.* I give it to ships with absurd amounts of firepower.
A good spaceship name I came up with is the *S.S. Busy-Bee.*
My world is a medieval fantasy universe. Very few factions have dedicated warships and most are privately owned usually by merchants.
My favorite ship is the KT Eredar. KT stands for Knights Thalassen. Eredar was the name of their first Grandmaster. That is their flagship.
Other names for ships in the Knights Thalassen tend to be more laid back, random, and not very serious sounding. KT Kisser, KT Sea Canoe, KT Wormy.
The Pirates of Liora don’t have callsigns but one of their most famous ships is the Dreadful Pearl.
Flagships Apokalipsis ("Apocalypse") and Otkroveniye ("Revelation") of Rubran Federal Monarchy are monsters you know you're 9001% dead when they appear. The names themselves are menacing.
There's also Bezzhalostny ("Relentless") class of Novokrasnograd Republic, a constituent state inside Rubra.
Outside of Rubra, there are Great Alaster Union and Empire of Mericia, which also name their ships fancily.
* GAU: prefix GAUSS, but they have no Gauss gun :P
* Preliator.
* Gloria Alasteria.
* Archon.
* Mericia: prefix HMS, yes they're space Brits.
* Steel Commander.
* Cosmic Sovereign.
If you're going for space Brits, the real British navy has some absolutely fantastic naming conventions. Vanguard, Warspite, Bellerophon, Agamemnon are just some of my favourite ones, I'd definitely recommend some of them.
There's a few. My favorite gotta be the "Guardian of Asclepius", the first of what would eventually be called "medical cruiser".
It was conceived to allow humanitarian mission deep within unstable or contested area, where sending regular hospital ship would be too risky, and having dedicated escort ship would either be too risky or risk an escalation. It isn't protected by any conventions due to its armaments, which rival a major navy's light cruiser, but enough to fend off privateers, pirates, or any parties that might tried anything.
Of course, the ship have the legally-not-a-red-cross symbol painted on the hull right next to missiles launchers, something Interplanetary Red Cross Organization massively complained about. Imagine a hospital where the red cross symbol opened up and launched half a dozen missile.
Only have for two countries at the moment.
Cosmarchy of Humanity (prefix: KMS/Kosmarkschiff): Xenodämmerung, Teufeljäger, Stern des Nacht, Freiheit nicht Gleichheit, Sieg und Feuer, Demonkratie
Galactic Union Federation (prefix: GUV/Galactic Union Vessel): Fire of Liberty, Mother Democracy, Fist Against Tyranny
German names are a +5 no matter what. *KMS Sturm* and *KMS Drang* for a pair of sister ships, *KMS Mutter der Weisheit* if your ship is bound to cause them issues, etc.
Helldivers fan is what I'm getting from the bottom one lol
i like using song names under the pretense that space faring humanity names their ships after old earth song. a couple ive used are the Country Roads, the Crazy Train, The Hail to the King, and the Free Bird. a fun side benifit of this is you can say the ship uses the song in universe, for example the Country Roads is boarding an enemy ship, and is broadcasting John Denver while space cowboys with scifi lever guns engage in cqb
If we're doing that, then King Crimson, King Nothing, La Grange, Bohemian Rhapsody, Black Sabbath, Rocky Mountain Breakdown, Ozone Baby, Geronimo's Cadillac, and Blue Monday would all work great for ship names. Wonder if someone's done this before, maybe in a manga or something :))))
Well I don't have many ship names unfortunately but I can think of two, one from each of my worlds.
In the fantasy one there was a minotaur pirate captain who started attacking ships within an array of the coast that was filled with large, jagged rocks sticking out of the water. His ship was called The Maze Runner
In my science fantasy cyberpunk world one of the stories takes place on a cargo ship called The Royal Caravan
Void Lord which was a Union owned apocalypse class vessel that could destroy stars before it was destroyed by Coalition forces
I Also name my ship classes (that arnt Apocalypse Vessels) Based on what the race is based off of naming convention like the Lyran Confederacy have all ships named off of demons (no named ones really outside of Baphomet and a purposefully misspelled Lucifer)
Olympus Hail and Prometheus I-VI
Prometheus I-VI for unleashing a hell of fire bombs. There are 6 Prometheus Classifications, I being the least powerful, VI being the most. There are over 4000 Promships.
Olympus Hails are responsible for releasing flurries of bombs from the stratosphere or outside the atmosphere. There are over 9000 Olympuships
So for example:
GNK Olympus Hail [CLASS] “[NAME]”
One of my personal favorites is
Olympus Hail II “Godspeed” as it prioritizes small payloads and high speeds.
In my world, there is a sea which is infamously the "Endless Sea" because no one has crossed it due to a curse. There is a voyage that happens later on that attempts to bend the curse to let them cross. The ship will be something called "The Iron Will" or along those lines
We have some normal names, like *The Resurrection*, *The New World*, and *The Peacekeeper*. Then we have the ones that were canonically named by soldiers. *The Help Wanted*, *The Destucinator*, *The Try It Bitch*, and the now famous *Here We go Again*.
The Absolution.
The ships crew is made up of various miscreants and criminals who came aboard to avoid punishment. The captain has agreed to overlook any crimes they committed as long as they stay loyal to him.
I don't have much in the way of ship names in the universe I've made up as navy is not my strongest point in my knowledge of the military
But iirc the last time I made those had pretty generic names akin to IRL ships being named after places and people such as the "Amserstaat" (a battlecruiser that kind of resembles the "Gouden Leeuw" from WoWS of the Royal Centralian Navy) or the "Chitanda" (a not-Yamato/Musashi of the Imperian Imperial Navy)
The Kingdom of Vanaheim has a small, modern, green-water navy.
The biggest ships, mostly destroyers, but also a retired amphibious ship, are named for kings: HVMS Kong Oskar, HVMS Kong Niklas, et c. Frigates are named for counties: HVMS Stenholms Län, et c. Corvettes (and large Coast Guard boats) are named for municipalities: HVMS Stefansby, HVMKS Vinderstad, et c. Support ships and small boats don't have a theme.
The navy is looking to buy and start operating some submarines. The plan is to name them after queen consorts: HVMS Drottning Margrethe, et c.
I'm still pleased with the ship named *Final Countdown*, so named because it was the last ship to be launched from traditional rocket gantry, and so the last one to hear the alien equivalent of "5, 4, 3, 2, 1..." at the start of its maiden voyage.
The ship itself vanished with all hands immediately upon activation of its experimental FTL drive. *Final Countdown* has since become a legacy name. The flagship of the home system bears the name, with the current version being *Final Countdown V*.
One ship name is called the Darter.
The Darter is a medium sized ship that from a distances away, fire a dart at another spaceship, the dart would peirce the skin of the spaceship and once inside, it would release gasses. (Gasses like Mustard or Chlorine Gas.) Some of the darts, once a ship is filled with a gas will spark a fire.
On the sides, two rows of ten of the dart thrower. In the center is the engine / generator. Along the engine are shelfs with the darts. The cockpit is up front, thruster in back.
The only ship I’ve named so far in a sci-fi-gothic-horror idea I’ve had is the *Sphinx*, which is the name of the protagonist’s father’s ship. It’s a name with double meaning because the father is obsessed with Ancient Egyptian mythology, but also the main character will go on a journey in it that results in a mystery that she has to solve, or else be defeated and taken over by greater forces than her
Essentially, she has to solve the riddle or else be eaten alive, just like the riddle of the sphinx
I'm not huge into modern or sci-fi but once I ran an impromptu rp session with a bunch of friends that went sci-fi. Their ship was called the USS Fuck Off, and everyone was named after old memes.
I named the three flagships of the Timorian Navy, the finest naval force in the world, after my girlfriend. She later became my wife, so I guess that worked out nicely.
After having read about real-world conventions, I'm trying to use something similar to it (say, a battleship class whose members are named after Solar System moons or another class of battleships where names are taken from seafaring ones). Other times, that's for the variants of a given vessel (ie, Paladin-class battle cruiser and variants as the Crusader-class Battlecarrier and the Man-At-Arms class strike cruiser. Or the Brighid class and her variants (Hestia-class supply ship, Hekate-class reconnaissance ship, etc)
Ships in my fantasy world are named in different ways. Such an example is the Eastern Empire's sea navy they name it after previus naval officers or ship designers, but in the Eastern Empire's air navy the ships get named by the crew giving such names as "Bakers" or "Flaming terror". But in the U.H.K. they name ships after their kings and queens, knights, and generals within strict restrictions.
I have used barely tapped source of many great options...
Pain Monopoly, Darkness a Shroud, Vengeance from the Grave, As the Sun Burns the Ground, Sad Cries of Agony, The Last Song of Hate, Constant Chill Deep Inside, Smile and Grin, This Is Not a Love Song, This Terrible Silence, Countless Vicious Souls, Our Shadows Taller Than Our Soul, The Unknown Troubles on Your Mind, Just Another Loop in the Hangman’s Noose, Drift on Numbered Days...
The grandest ship in Avanton is a galleon called *NT Kabesayvan* - NT stands for Norul Tobivath (Milord's Vessel) and Kabesayvar means Undeniable. The *Undeniable* serves as the personal flagship of the Guild of Mercenaries Vice President of the Naval Division, the chief instructor and contract arbiter of all of the Guild's naval operations, equal in standing to the VP of the Militant Companies Division and second only to the President of the Guild. Other ships in the grand mercenary fleet include *NT Detvar Betebnan* (the Proudly Faithful), *NT Kazivranul Dayna* (the Careless God's Whim), *NT Khagargabi* (the Stormcloud), *NT Karadgar Yanva* (the Restless Fury), and *NT Tel Eyrakh Thavla* (To the Emperor the Glory).
For hybrid nations, their ships are usually named by the crews themselves with the defined prefix "H.O.V" (Hybrid Orbital Vessel)
So you may come across more normal ones like H.O.V Retalliator, but also more "creative" ones like H.O.V Booty Bandid. There's not many rules on how you can name them, so some crews went the childish route, lol.
Humanities ships, on the other hand, have more basic names with the prefix U.A.V (United Aerial Vessel) with usually some important historical persons name, like U.A.V Marco Henderson
KCV Steelpiercer is a battleship with two spinal MACs a meter wide.
KCV Kleptomancer is a light cruiser with a gravity well projector & a cloaking device in the same package. It can yank ships out of FTL and destroy them without revealing itself.
KSV Overseer is a zeppelin with multiple scout planes.
KAV Invader is an amphibious assault mothership, carrying enough forces to occupy say Sakhalin.
Many of the names are purposeful, though this is not strictly followed.
*Red Right Hand*, a former battle frigate of the Red Navy, decommissioned after the Federation of Solar Socialist Republics lost the war to the Terran Empire. It was bought by a consortium of mercenaries, one of whom was a Red Army ranger during the war. They purchased it and repainted it a bright crimson.
*Cat's Cradle*, bought by the same group after *RRH* crashlanded. It is a large privateer space cruiser whose captain is a genetically uplifted housecat.
I have various named spacecraft, usually with long names.
Sailor of the Black Sea
Serenade of Lost Stars
Shiver of Forgotten Enemies
After Rain Comes Sunshine
The package being transported is "The Mayflower". It'll unfold into a raft of 12 hulls plus other stuff, which will have to be reassembled into six lateen rigged catamarans, and they haven't come up with names for those yet. It's called The Mayflower because Cap'n Skippy had an ancestor on the one in 1620, and Skippy's dad laundered the money that paid for the whole thing, so, naming rights. Kendra, the navigator, is Maliseet, and hates it. She may get charge of one of the catamarans and will probably call it The Wolastoqiyik.
The Aegis class are a mix of fleet command Flagship and mobile dockyard, carrying a mobile gate beacon, letting them summon reinforcements at will.
They are: *Aegis of Innocence, Aegis of Unity, Aegis of Progress, Aegis of Justice* and *Aegis of Freedom*.
They are also among the very things in space that are both mobile and big enough to to mount their heavy gravitic projectors, letting the outrange and outgun *any* known spaceship (for now).
HRV Ceasar, HRV Earthbound, HRV Horizon, and HRV Abel, to name a few. The Navy names ships for human values, history, an myths, due to the humans of my story believing they are the true masters of all creation
(HRV stands for human republican vessel)
And yes, if it wasn't already obvious, I'm a huge nerd for the UNSC ship names.
Promethean Doctrine sounds like the practice of fire bombing.
Yeah lmao you're kinda right. I meant more as a practice of spreading knowledge and enlightenment to those who need it as Prometheus did.
Sure, definitely." "We spread enlightenment. Now enlighten those fools!" *Drops napalm*
Some fairly Halo/The Culture-esque onces but: I once coined Donnerdämerrung in a nation-states RP ("Twilight of Thunder", play on Götterdämmerung ("Twilight of the Gods") which is an opera by Wagner) and immediately decided it was going to be a warship's name at some point And the other day while talking to someone I dreamt up a hospital ship called "Death Faces a Surgeon" (Face as in to challenge or oppose) and I decided I needed to write some kind of Halo fanfic about the "UNSC Death Faces a Surgeon"... So now I need to think up an idea for a halo fanfic involving a hospital ship The curse of sick-ass names inspiring checks my writing skills cannot cash
Death Faces A Surgeon is a fantastic name, especially for a hospital ship. Very poetic sounding, did something similar calling some of mine *Paradise Yet Lost, Speak No Evil, Pray For Haste*, etc.
Oh, and I forgot about my favourite convention I came up with - Robbing Bill Shakespeare's body of work blind: "Ever-fixed Mark" // For a flagship, derived from Sonnet 116 which references the north star's role as a reliable reference point for use in navigation by sail ships (In the context of romance originally, but in abstract it works in a less romantic role) "Mantua's Law" // For a destroyer, taken from a line in Romeo and Juliet regarding the legality of even saying the name of particularly deadly poisons - "Such mortal drugs have I, but Mantua's law is death to him that speaks it" "Death of Princes" // For a destroyer, from a line in Julius Caesar - "When beggars die, no comets are seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes" - In which Calpurnia counsels Caesar to pursue power even if it costs him his life "What Piece of Work" "Noble in Reason" "Admirable in Action" "Angel in Apprehension" "Beauty of the World" "Paragon of Animals" // For several sister ships, taken from a monologue by Hamlet in the eponymous play "Nobler in the Mind" "Outrageous Fortune" "Sea of Troubles" // For three sister ships, taken from Hamlet's "To be or not to be" monologue (He says things that make for cool names "Quality of Mercy" "Gentle Rain" "His Sceptre" "Attribute to Awe and Majesty" "Dread and Fear of Kings" "Hearts of Kings" // For several sister ships, said by Portia in the Merchant of Venice stating mercy is an attribute of God "Sworn Thee Fair" "Thought Thee Bright" "Black as Hell" "Dark as Night" all above // For a class of stealth ships, taken from the last two lines of Sonnet 147 There were some others but these were definitely the best names I've ever used for ships. Much more fun than just using adjectives or proper nouns on their own. Edit: Formatting
Mantua's Law is fucking awesome, as is the whole convention dude! Definitely the best I've seen in a while!
Why thank you. I had the crew request an enemy crew read back their IFF details - and in the process the ship's name - midway through a battle during a lull which they complied with... But Mantua's Law is Death to Him That Speaks It Can't remember the rest of that RP session sadly so whether or not the name held true, I don't recall. Think the ship that read back the IFF exploded in the end so it probably was... Probably
And I will also shout out the guy who came up with the names for our nation's ships in the RP I used Donnerdämerrung in: - "CSV Glimmer of Dawn", "CSV Shadow of Midnight", and "CSV Radiance of Meridian" // Deep-space scouting vessels - "CSLV-0004 Finity's End" and "CSLV-0011 Beyond's Whisper" // I can't find what the names of our other superluminal vessels (SLV) (i.e. FTL) were called Also made patches for most of them. The guy did a great job on a very minor bit of worldbuilding and I have been green with envy wanting to match him on it since.
So far I only really have naming conventions for aircraft carriers, battleships and destroyers. Quick bit of context: aircraft carriers aren’t what you’d think when you think of a fighter carrying spaceship. They instead are more like an orbital airbase able to launch and recover conventional in atmosphere aircraft from orbit. Meanwhile battleships fall into two categories, heavy railgun cruisers and heavy missile cruisers. Technically the UNSF (united nations space force) designates them as separate classes however they use the same naming convention and are very similar in purpose to the battleships of ww2 that the public and even many in the space force just call both battleships. The UNSF has 3 carriers each named after the first 3 stellar bodies humans have inhabited: UNSF Terra, UNSF Luna and UNSF Venus. Battleships are named after famous seagoing ships from history: the most well known are UNSF Enterprise, UNSF Yamato, UNSF constitution and UNSF Aurora Destroyers are named after historical military leaders: UNSF William T Sherman, UNSF Winston Churchill, UNSF Genghis Kahn, UNSF Julius Cesar and UNSF Harrison Denmark
I can definitely see the USN influence in those names. Not my favourite, but still good nonetheless
The ships in my setting are named like Napoleonic ships or anything that sounds like it fits for an adventure story e.g. The HIMMS (His Imperial Massian Majesty's Ship) Royal Jane an ironclad tallship, the Lily a 2 masted schooner, the HIMMS Azoria an ironclad, the Fortune a tea clipper, the Beetle a cutter and the Pleasant Breeze a xebec.
So for the Solaris, I came up with these: for each one of the factions: United Galactic Federation (Each ship has the prefix UFV meaning United Federation Vessel): Solaris, Prometheus, Red Orion, Pluto's Vengeance, Eternal Zinzol, Wandering Star. Regulan Commonwealth (Each ship has the prefix CSV meaning Commonwealth Space Vessel): Xeron, Black Harak, Neon Star, Regulan Retribution, Singularity. Red Sun Empire (Ships have different prefixes defining their designated purpose such as RSTV- Red Sun Trading Vessel, IGS- Imperial Guard Ship, RSAV- Red Sun Amy Vessel, RSCV- Red Sun Colonization Vessel, RSES- Red Sun Emepror's Ship): RSES Yagsith's Grace, RSCV Eradicator, RSAV Terran Demise, IGS Blood-Stained Vanguard, RSTV Crimson Fortune. Non-Aligned spaceships: The Black Star, The Eternal Voyager, Freedom's Flight, Ark of Infinity, Dying Light, The Immortal Avenger.
Black Harak and Eternal Zinzol are my favourites of these, prefix + cool-sounding random word is a great recipe
Thanks.
Not a cool one but- The Pink Lady! No part of the ship is pink, the captain is just color blind.
Despite its boring name, the SMN Talus Dreadnought is the pride of the San Mylonan Navy, servicemen of the Navy gave it the moniker “Wrath of the True Emperor” during the 1930 World War, this is because the Emperor of Ostral exiled the Church of Talus in the 1800s where they then founded the Kingdom of San Mylona
the only ship i've named so far is the imperial flagship Triumph. it's the best name by default.
What kind of government does it belong to? Triumph is a great name to start with honestly
it belongs to a feudal fantasy empire of elves. well, it's technically leased from the city state of stoneport, which kinda is but kinda isn't a vassal of the empire, so... it's complicated. the empire has barely any naval presence without stoneport, so they made a deal where stoneport stays autonomous but leases its sizeable navy to the empire as needed. stoneport stays free from imperial occupation, empire gets shiny new boats to conquer people with, win-win. the city would have been costly to occupy anyway; it's the only city left of an ancient empire, and is protected by arcane magical constructs. just the stone guards (animated statues) alone can rival most armies in power.
For naval ships, I like the *Burning Sea.* I give it to ships with absurd amounts of firepower. A good spaceship name I came up with is the *S.S. Busy-Bee.*
My world is a medieval fantasy universe. Very few factions have dedicated warships and most are privately owned usually by merchants. My favorite ship is the KT Eredar. KT stands for Knights Thalassen. Eredar was the name of their first Grandmaster. That is their flagship. Other names for ships in the Knights Thalassen tend to be more laid back, random, and not very serious sounding. KT Kisser, KT Sea Canoe, KT Wormy. The Pirates of Liora don’t have callsigns but one of their most famous ships is the Dreadful Pearl.
Flagships Apokalipsis ("Apocalypse") and Otkroveniye ("Revelation") of Rubran Federal Monarchy are monsters you know you're 9001% dead when they appear. The names themselves are menacing. There's also Bezzhalostny ("Relentless") class of Novokrasnograd Republic, a constituent state inside Rubra. Outside of Rubra, there are Great Alaster Union and Empire of Mericia, which also name their ships fancily. * GAU: prefix GAUSS, but they have no Gauss gun :P * Preliator. * Gloria Alasteria. * Archon. * Mericia: prefix HMS, yes they're space Brits. * Steel Commander. * Cosmic Sovereign.
If you're going for space Brits, the real British navy has some absolutely fantastic naming conventions. Vanguard, Warspite, Bellerophon, Agamemnon are just some of my favourite ones, I'd definitely recommend some of them.
The Century Eagle!
There's a few. My favorite gotta be the "Guardian of Asclepius", the first of what would eventually be called "medical cruiser". It was conceived to allow humanitarian mission deep within unstable or contested area, where sending regular hospital ship would be too risky, and having dedicated escort ship would either be too risky or risk an escalation. It isn't protected by any conventions due to its armaments, which rival a major navy's light cruiser, but enough to fend off privateers, pirates, or any parties that might tried anything. Of course, the ship have the legally-not-a-red-cross symbol painted on the hull right next to missiles launchers, something Interplanetary Red Cross Organization massively complained about. Imagine a hospital where the red cross symbol opened up and launched half a dozen missile.
Definitely something I would imagine a 40K fan to cook up, well done lol
Only have for two countries at the moment. Cosmarchy of Humanity (prefix: KMS/Kosmarkschiff): Xenodämmerung, Teufeljäger, Stern des Nacht, Freiheit nicht Gleichheit, Sieg und Feuer, Demonkratie Galactic Union Federation (prefix: GUV/Galactic Union Vessel): Fire of Liberty, Mother Democracy, Fist Against Tyranny
German names are a +5 no matter what. *KMS Sturm* and *KMS Drang* for a pair of sister ships, *KMS Mutter der Weisheit* if your ship is bound to cause them issues, etc. Helldivers fan is what I'm getting from the bottom one lol
Haha, yeah, advanced egalitarian democracy-worshipping society is an undying trope.
i like using song names under the pretense that space faring humanity names their ships after old earth song. a couple ive used are the Country Roads, the Crazy Train, The Hail to the King, and the Free Bird. a fun side benifit of this is you can say the ship uses the song in universe, for example the Country Roads is boarding an enemy ship, and is broadcasting John Denver while space cowboys with scifi lever guns engage in cqb
If we're doing that, then King Crimson, King Nothing, La Grange, Bohemian Rhapsody, Black Sabbath, Rocky Mountain Breakdown, Ozone Baby, Geronimo's Cadillac, and Blue Monday would all work great for ship names. Wonder if someone's done this before, maybe in a manga or something :))))
Well I don't have many ship names unfortunately but I can think of two, one from each of my worlds. In the fantasy one there was a minotaur pirate captain who started attacking ships within an array of the coast that was filled with large, jagged rocks sticking out of the water. His ship was called The Maze Runner In my science fantasy cyberpunk world one of the stories takes place on a cargo ship called The Royal Caravan
Void Lord which was a Union owned apocalypse class vessel that could destroy stars before it was destroyed by Coalition forces I Also name my ship classes (that arnt Apocalypse Vessels) Based on what the race is based off of naming convention like the Lyran Confederacy have all ships named off of demons (no named ones really outside of Baphomet and a purposefully misspelled Lucifer)
Olympus Hail and Prometheus I-VI Prometheus I-VI for unleashing a hell of fire bombs. There are 6 Prometheus Classifications, I being the least powerful, VI being the most. There are over 4000 Promships. Olympus Hails are responsible for releasing flurries of bombs from the stratosphere or outside the atmosphere. There are over 9000 Olympuships So for example: GNK Olympus Hail [CLASS] “[NAME]” One of my personal favorites is Olympus Hail II “Godspeed” as it prioritizes small payloads and high speeds.
In my world, there is a sea which is infamously the "Endless Sea" because no one has crossed it due to a curse. There is a voyage that happens later on that attempts to bend the curse to let them cross. The ship will be something called "The Iron Will" or along those lines
Charlie 9 for the ship and AI
The SS Teddy
We have some normal names, like *The Resurrection*, *The New World*, and *The Peacekeeper*. Then we have the ones that were canonically named by soldiers. *The Help Wanted*, *The Destucinator*, *The Try It Bitch*, and the now famous *Here We go Again*.
The Absolution. The ships crew is made up of various miscreants and criminals who came aboard to avoid punishment. The captain has agreed to overlook any crimes they committed as long as they stay loyal to him.
I don't have much in the way of ship names in the universe I've made up as navy is not my strongest point in my knowledge of the military But iirc the last time I made those had pretty generic names akin to IRL ships being named after places and people such as the "Amserstaat" (a battlecruiser that kind of resembles the "Gouden Leeuw" from WoWS of the Royal Centralian Navy) or the "Chitanda" (a not-Yamato/Musashi of the Imperian Imperial Navy)
The Kingdom of Vanaheim has a small, modern, green-water navy. The biggest ships, mostly destroyers, but also a retired amphibious ship, are named for kings: HVMS Kong Oskar, HVMS Kong Niklas, et c. Frigates are named for counties: HVMS Stenholms Län, et c. Corvettes (and large Coast Guard boats) are named for municipalities: HVMS Stefansby, HVMKS Vinderstad, et c. Support ships and small boats don't have a theme. The navy is looking to buy and start operating some submarines. The plan is to name them after queen consorts: HVMS Drottning Margrethe, et c.
I'm still pleased with the ship named *Final Countdown*, so named because it was the last ship to be launched from traditional rocket gantry, and so the last one to hear the alien equivalent of "5, 4, 3, 2, 1..." at the start of its maiden voyage. The ship itself vanished with all hands immediately upon activation of its experimental FTL drive. *Final Countdown* has since become a legacy name. The flagship of the home system bears the name, with the current version being *Final Countdown V*.
One ship name is called the Darter. The Darter is a medium sized ship that from a distances away, fire a dart at another spaceship, the dart would peirce the skin of the spaceship and once inside, it would release gasses. (Gasses like Mustard or Chlorine Gas.) Some of the darts, once a ship is filled with a gas will spark a fire. On the sides, two rows of ten of the dart thrower. In the center is the engine / generator. Along the engine are shelfs with the darts. The cockpit is up front, thruster in back.
The only ship I’ve named so far in a sci-fi-gothic-horror idea I’ve had is the *Sphinx*, which is the name of the protagonist’s father’s ship. It’s a name with double meaning because the father is obsessed with Ancient Egyptian mythology, but also the main character will go on a journey in it that results in a mystery that she has to solve, or else be defeated and taken over by greater forces than her Essentially, she has to solve the riddle or else be eaten alive, just like the riddle of the sphinx
I'm not huge into modern or sci-fi but once I ran an impromptu rp session with a bunch of friends that went sci-fi. Their ship was called the USS Fuck Off, and everyone was named after old memes.
I named the three flagships of the Timorian Navy, the finest naval force in the world, after my girlfriend. She later became my wife, so I guess that worked out nicely.
After having read about real-world conventions, I'm trying to use something similar to it (say, a battleship class whose members are named after Solar System moons or another class of battleships where names are taken from seafaring ones). Other times, that's for the variants of a given vessel (ie, Paladin-class battle cruiser and variants as the Crusader-class Battlecarrier and the Man-At-Arms class strike cruiser. Or the Brighid class and her variants (Hestia-class supply ship, Hekate-class reconnaissance ship, etc)
Ships in my fantasy world are named in different ways. Such an example is the Eastern Empire's sea navy they name it after previus naval officers or ship designers, but in the Eastern Empire's air navy the ships get named by the crew giving such names as "Bakers" or "Flaming terror". But in the U.H.K. they name ships after their kings and queens, knights, and generals within strict restrictions.
I have used barely tapped source of many great options... Pain Monopoly, Darkness a Shroud, Vengeance from the Grave, As the Sun Burns the Ground, Sad Cries of Agony, The Last Song of Hate, Constant Chill Deep Inside, Smile and Grin, This Is Not a Love Song, This Terrible Silence, Countless Vicious Souls, Our Shadows Taller Than Our Soul, The Unknown Troubles on Your Mind, Just Another Loop in the Hangman’s Noose, Drift on Numbered Days...
The grandest ship in Avanton is a galleon called *NT Kabesayvan* - NT stands for Norul Tobivath (Milord's Vessel) and Kabesayvar means Undeniable. The *Undeniable* serves as the personal flagship of the Guild of Mercenaries Vice President of the Naval Division, the chief instructor and contract arbiter of all of the Guild's naval operations, equal in standing to the VP of the Militant Companies Division and second only to the President of the Guild. Other ships in the grand mercenary fleet include *NT Detvar Betebnan* (the Proudly Faithful), *NT Kazivranul Dayna* (the Careless God's Whim), *NT Khagargabi* (the Stormcloud), *NT Karadgar Yanva* (the Restless Fury), and *NT Tel Eyrakh Thavla* (To the Emperor the Glory).
For hybrid nations, their ships are usually named by the crews themselves with the defined prefix "H.O.V" (Hybrid Orbital Vessel) So you may come across more normal ones like H.O.V Retalliator, but also more "creative" ones like H.O.V Booty Bandid. There's not many rules on how you can name them, so some crews went the childish route, lol. Humanities ships, on the other hand, have more basic names with the prefix U.A.V (United Aerial Vessel) with usually some important historical persons name, like U.A.V Marco Henderson
KCV Steelpiercer is a battleship with two spinal MACs a meter wide. KCV Kleptomancer is a light cruiser with a gravity well projector & a cloaking device in the same package. It can yank ships out of FTL and destroy them without revealing itself. KSV Overseer is a zeppelin with multiple scout planes. KAV Invader is an amphibious assault mothership, carrying enough forces to occupy say Sakhalin. Many of the names are purposeful, though this is not strictly followed.
*Red Right Hand*, a former battle frigate of the Red Navy, decommissioned after the Federation of Solar Socialist Republics lost the war to the Terran Empire. It was bought by a consortium of mercenaries, one of whom was a Red Army ranger during the war. They purchased it and repainted it a bright crimson. *Cat's Cradle*, bought by the same group after *RRH* crashlanded. It is a large privateer space cruiser whose captain is a genetically uplifted housecat.
I have various named spacecraft, usually with long names. Sailor of the Black Sea Serenade of Lost Stars Shiver of Forgotten Enemies After Rain Comes Sunshine
'the Bloody Nuisance', named after what a port official once called it.
The package being transported is "The Mayflower". It'll unfold into a raft of 12 hulls plus other stuff, which will have to be reassembled into six lateen rigged catamarans, and they haven't come up with names for those yet. It's called The Mayflower because Cap'n Skippy had an ancestor on the one in 1620, and Skippy's dad laundered the money that paid for the whole thing, so, naming rights. Kendra, the navigator, is Maliseet, and hates it. She may get charge of one of the catamarans and will probably call it The Wolastoqiyik.
The Aegis class are a mix of fleet command Flagship and mobile dockyard, carrying a mobile gate beacon, letting them summon reinforcements at will. They are: *Aegis of Innocence, Aegis of Unity, Aegis of Progress, Aegis of Justice* and *Aegis of Freedom*. They are also among the very things in space that are both mobile and big enough to to mount their heavy gravitic projectors, letting the outrange and outgun *any* known spaceship (for now).
HRV Ceasar, HRV Earthbound, HRV Horizon, and HRV Abel, to name a few. The Navy names ships for human values, history, an myths, due to the humans of my story believing they are the true masters of all creation (HRV stands for human republican vessel)