Need some advice...

Xanithor · Post by **Xanithor** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:37 am

Hey everyone! Well, I've got a question for you guys (and girls)! How do you name your ships? Because frankly, I suck at naming stuff.

Cerebrus · Post by **Cerebrus** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:40 am

I usually just name them with whatever pops into my head, though it'd have to make sense.

IE I wouldn't name a shield-based ship Zweihander.

Post by **Anna** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:44 am

Sometimes I name a ship based on its shape (like my Serrated Flechette), or I name it based on how it fights, or the reason why I built it... and sometimes, I name my ships after fictional characters. (The "Anasazi", "Harper", "Valentine", "Telemachus", "Gaheris" and "Trance Gemini" ships I've made, for example, are all named after characters from Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda)

You don't really need to be creative to come up with cool sounding names. Steal 'em from elsewhere, if you have to.

Xanithor · Post by **Xanithor** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:51 am

Hehe, for some reason, I always build ships with a function I want to designate it with and name it with something pertaining to it, but it usually totally turns out different and I have to think up of a new name. bleh... well, thanks for the help.

Lizzie · Post by **Lizzie** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:52 am

I just come up with random junk that makes sense.

Artman40 · Post by **Artman40** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:58 am

Names may be weird too. For an example, I named one of my small butterfly-like ship "ButterflyAbs".

Normandy · Post by **Normandy** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 7:14 am

I basically just think of a word that describes the ship.

Then I either hop on to www.thesaurus.com or the wikipedia.

From there I navigate the words until I find a word I like.

An example is my Cruiser, "Intrepid".
Intrepid means adventurous, and it's the first ship I've made in a while, so it's sort of an explorer of sorts.

Also my WIP Dreadnought, "Sovereignty"
Sovereignty basically is a synonym of power.

SoberStickman · Post by **SoberStickman** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 7:23 am

Knowing some ancient mythology or history helps.
For some of the ships that I make, I think of a characteristic of the ship, then find the ancient deity/character that suits it!

Hoplite would be a name fit for a cruiser or a heavy destroyer, which does not have much agility, but is resilient and packs quite a punch.

Otherwise I do what Normandy does. Think of a word or position that best describes the ship.

Or you can go for nonsensical short phrases. "The Column of Summer."

The Boz · Post by **The Boz** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:23 pm

Programming languages for the good guys, computer worms for the bad guys. Yeah, I'm white and nerdy.

Post by **Arcalane** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 3:42 pm

SoberStickman wrote:Or you can go for nonsensical short phrases. "The Column of Summer."

*coughpillarofautumncough*

I usually try to stick to a naming theme for my ships. The unknown enemy from my Titan/etc. storyline will have all their ships named after American Cavalry Generals (and thus, American tanks). Their main warship is the Sheridan-class Armoured Cruiser, and their Flagship is the Abrams-class Juggernaut.

The Europans from my storyline use Battlemech names (Catapult-class Armoured Missile Cruiser) - the Callistans would use the names of Rebel ships from Star Wars (Viscount-class Dreadnaught), and the Titan Yards obviously (as I have said before) use the names of Star Destroyers (Executor-class Dreadnaught).

Other than that, for random ships I either use something appropriate (The Myrmidon-class Supercruiser is named such because it's HUEG* - the other Myrmidon-class Supercruisers would be named stuff like "Leviathan" and such) or nifty sounding (Venom-class Gunboat, etc.).

(*This appears to be a mistake on my part, however. I connect the word "Myrmidon" with "large", for reasons unknown to myself.)

Temujin · Post by **Temujin** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:14 pm

I made a Hoplite ship. It is small and fast, lightly armored, and has 6 pulse cannons. Yay for hoplites.

Post by **Aralonia** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 6:20 pm

Ship class is generally German, British, or French.

Frigates: Animals
Destroyers: Towns
Cruisers: Provinces
Monitors: Admirals.

Da_Higg · Post by **Da_Higg** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:07 pm

Arcalane wrote:(*This appears to be a mistake on my part, however. I connect the word "Myrmidon" with "large", for reasons unknown to myself.)

Myramidon are people the god Zeus made from ants when the city had been decimated by plauge. Yay for Age of Mythology history pages!

Post by **Arcalane** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:51 pm

Myrmidons.

And yes, that's why I edited the post to include that "appears to be a mistake" part.

T-002 · Post by **T-002** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:56 pm

I usually name mine after birds, or other airborne creatures, and sometimes add something. Things like Phoenix, Doomhawk, Dragonwing, etc. You could go for something in a certain theme.

Or just rip names and call one 'The Shadow of Intent' or something.