how do you name your ships

Lloyd16 · Post by **Lloyd16** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:29 am

wondering how everyone comes up with all these names for their custom ship designs

i can never come up with anything

Fuiste · Post by **Fuiste** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:46 am

Eh, I'm not much of a ship namer, but usually think of the ship's general purpose, and find a suitably epic name that reflects that.

Examples:
All by battleships in the Iryian fleet are named after the 7 deadly sins.
So I got a Wrath battleship with excessive firepower, but lower defence,
a Gluttony battleship, with crazy armor, but lower attack,
a Sloth battleship, with lots of power, but ludicrously low speed,
and so on...

In general, Greek gods/goddesses and other deities work well for names, but are a bit cliche.

Hope I helped...

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:48 am

Popular subjects for ship class names include mythical/legendary figures, gods and creatures, real animals, classical words (Latin or Greek), and locations (cities, for example,) weapons (or other military terms), astronomical terminology, or just noble- or badass-sounding descriptions, terms or concepts.

My fleet's designs and names are stolen from Games Workshop, but to give some examples of where they come from...

Lunar: astronomical term ("of the moon")
Defiant: descriptive
Retribution: noble/badass-sounding concept!
Ravager: descriptive
Void-dragon: Mythical creature
Eclipse: astronomical term
Scythe, Sword: Scythe is not technically a weapon, but close enough
Cobra: creature
Stronghold, Bastion: Vaguely military terms
Desolator: descriptive
Rampage, Devastation: badass-sounding concept!
Kill Kroozer: ...the less said about this the better

Some games have ships named thing like Hercules (mythical figure), and a lot of real-world naval ships are named after places (HMS Exeter) or people (large US naval vessels tend to get named after presidents and admirals, if I remember correctly.)

The FreeSpace computer games named all human vessels after classical gods, Vasudan ships after Egyptian gods, and Shivan (even the race were named after a Hindu god (of destruction?)) ships after demons etc. from various religions.

DeathsHand · Post by **DeathsHand** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:50 am

Wikipedia

Hmmm..........so many choices.....look up mythology for an endless plethora of choices( yay! kamaitachi!). I like strange bird names(anhinga, kestrel, etc.),
also names of warship classes(russian akula class, british warships for examples). Wikipedia is your friend when short on ideas.

Comus · Post by **Comus** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:19 am

Depends on the fleet. I've got three 'current' fleets at the moment. One uses terms from music (Stanza, Chord, Doloroso, etc). The second uses the scientific classification of various insects. The third just has Mark I, Mark II, Mark III... etc. Each fits with the 'theme' of the fleet - a Symphony, an all-devouring swarm of bioships, and autonomous weapons launched like cruise missiles at a target.

Normandy · Post by **Normandy** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 3:05 am

I think of a random word. I take the phonetical spelling of one of the sounds in the word. I take a second word, and take the phonetical spelling of one of the sounds of that word. So on and so forth until I'm happy with the name.

ArcaneDude · Post by **ArcaneDude** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 3:16 am

I usually try sticking to a theme, mostly somthing religious/anti-religious. Sometimes, I just take the name of something real-world that has a famous/ infamous reputation.

Not that I'd be calling a ship the Nazi, of course.

antisocialmunky · Post by **antisocialmunky** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 3:29 am

I know ltos of useless facts so I figure a theme appropriate for the ships and name them according to them. For example, my fleet for the fleet tournement is named after meteological terms relating to storms.

osilus · Post by **osilus** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:20 am

I bang my head against the wall/desk until I think of something, resort to wikipedia and random serach terms, or just desribe the ship in the name.(like a heavy defender or something.)

DarkenShroud · Post by **DarkenShroud** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:24 am

I like using D and D refrences, and clever names that apply to what the ship does or carries.

Arona Daal · Post by **Arona Daal** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:30 am

Names have to correspond with the type of fleet. For a human fleet, a name like St. George works out well, but with an alien you have to give it something weird sounding.

pwhk · Post by **pwhk** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:26 am

Simply mixing consonants and vowels

Atrum · Post by **Atrum** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:14 am

Latin.

Tempestas, Telum, Atrum, Carnifex, Regis, Duco, Etc. Etc.

Latin names sound nicer. =0

Post by **th15** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:41 am

Pantheon.org

AllStarZ · Post by **AllStarZ** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:41 am

I name my Kelanis ships according to the corporation that manufactured the class, and the Avalonians utilize medieval/germanic terms.