Of Names of Ships
This article originally appeared in Science Fiction & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter # 176, May 1996.
Most writers give a fair amount of consideration to the names of the characters in their stories, and usually do some thinking about names for the places where the characters go. But how many writers really think about the names of the ships that carry their characters from land to land or world to world? However the names people give their ships also tell something about the sort of cultures they belong to.
In the United States Navy, certain classes of ships receive certain types of names so that one can tell what a given ship probably is just by its name. However one must be careful, since these patterns have changed over time and some ships that were named under older naming schemes are still in service. Aircraft carriers are named after public officials (Eisenhower, Carl Vinson), although in earlier times they were named for historic ships (Enterprise) or battles (Midway, Saratoga). Battleships were named after states (Missouri, Iowa). Traditionally crusiers were named for cities (Honolulu, Northhampton), but current cruisers are named for famous battles (Ticonderoga). Destroyers and frigates are named after famous persons, particularly Navy officers who served with distinction or were killed in the line of duty (Spruance, Kidd). Minesweepers are named after birds or various qualities (much as ships of the Royal Navy were often named for qualities, such as Inflexible). Formerly submarines were generally named for various denizens of the sea (Nautilus, Dolphin) or were merely numbered, but with the advent of the nuclear submarine and in view of the strategic role of the ballistic missile submarine, it was decided to give more dignified names to them. Ballistic missile submarines are now named for states, and attack submarines (those that carry torpedoes and actually fight ship-to-ship combat in defense of carrier battle groups) are named for cities.
How can this be applied to a fictional world? In my future history I have a space fleet that fields carriers, battleships, crusiers, destroyers and frigates, as well as various kinds of small, specialized craft. Carriers are generally named for famous persons or ships, while battleships are named for planets (a fairly reasonable carryover from the practice of naming them for states, since in a federal space civilization the planet is the natural unit of federation), crusiers are named for cities and orbital installations, while destroyers are named for people. Landing frigates are named for famous service personnel in all branches of service of all the planets of the federation, while electronics frigates (which do much the same job as an AWACS plane) are named for famous battles.
There are a few ship names that you'll probably want to steer clear of in deference to their historical significance. Such strong emotions are attatched to them that naming your fictional hero's ship for one of them is likely to raise cries of "desecration" from those who hold sacred the memory of what happened aboard those ships. To an officer of the Royal Navy, Victory will always be the ship on which Lord Nelson fought his final battle at Trafalgar and died in his moment of victory, and to give that name any fictional ship would be a mockery. Similar emotions attatch to the name Arizona for those who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor. So long as the broken battleship lies as a shrine in the mud of the harbor there will never be another Arizona.
You'll probably also want to avoid using the name Enterprise unless you are clearly writing about either the "Big E" of WWII or the current nuclear-powered seagoing carrier. You may claim that your spacegoing ship was named for one of the historic ships, but do you want to have to tell Paramount's lawyers that in a court of law with thousands of dollars of copyright infringement suit money riding on convincing the judge that you're right?
By giving some thought to the names that you give the ships your characters ride or encounter in the course of their adventures, you can create a more fully developed world.
Last updated November 4, 2010