Spaceship Naming System

[SirTrollZor (OP)]

I want to name my ships/classes something so they are easily recognizable but I also want to roleplay.  Nothing like "[ship name] 001" or "[class name] Mk. I".
What I want is something that branches out.  For example every time I modify a ship design (even if it's to modify it for a fighting role) the class will be the same but with a specific prefix or something.
Do you guys have any ideas?


Example: My first ship (GS ship) is modified so it has the GS sensor but it also has missiles.  I would name the class something like "Battle [previous class name]".

[TheRowan]

I tend to name my classes thematically or alphabetically, especially for smaller ships (eg. HMS Yorkshire, HMS Kent and HMS Norfolk are all County-Class, HMS Zulu and HMS Nubian are Tribal Class, HMS Bellerophon, HMS Battleaxe and HMS Broadsword are all B-Class). For larger ships, I name the classes for the first of class but tend to stick to a theme within a class where possible (eg. HMS Duke of York, HMS Prince of Wales, HMS King George V as the "Duke of York" Class themed around royalty).

For upgrades of a class, I tend to refer to them by RN nomenclature, so if I improve the County class I'll rename the originals to "County (Batch 1)" and the upgraded version as "County (Batch 2)". Variant designs are indicated with an alphabetic suffix - so County Class Cruiser, County-L Class Cruiser Leader, County-V Class Strike Carrier etc. That's the system I use, anyway!

[SirTrollZor (OP)]

I really like the theme idea.
What does the HMS mean?

[TheRowan]

I really like the theme idea.
What does the HMS mean?

His/Her Majesty's ship... I tend to roleplay as the British

[Wolfius]

I don't really have a system for military ships beyond thematic, tho for commercial I teamd towards something like SCV-53-F for ship classes. SCV being Standard Commercial Vessel(Tho I've used Imperial Standard Utility(ie, ISU) and others in the past, whatever sounds good at the time), number being the year that design was made, and F represents Freighter or whatever the role is(T for Troop, C for Colony, etc). Year designation is retained for variants(say updated cargo handling or a troop transport or colony ship variant of the freighter), and updated for major changes to the standard (generally an update in engine technology). They're also as similar as reasonably practical to make sure a shipyard tooled to produce one can also manufacture atleast one other class.

Naming ships is fairly unimaginative. I generally keep the number after the class or add my own hull number system, so ships are neatly grouped and ordered and easy to pick out in the Ships F6 Ships window, then add a short manufacturer tag (3-5 characters ) based on the shipyard that produced them, followed by whatever feels like an aproperate name at the time. I'll often name commercial ships after their first captain, unless I have a better idea - ideally something signifigant in-game or something they've done, like one game I'd name my explorers after the first new system they discover, tho I might do it the other way around in the future and name systems after those that discover them.

So I get things like the troop transport SCV-53-T [NonY] Perry, or the freighter SCV-53-T [Drake] Reed - the troop transport was designed a few reays after the freighter, but to the same standard with minimal alterations, so it kept the year number.

[Theodidactus]

Here are some categories to help kickstart your brain. I find that I have a lot more fun when I'm using ship names that are unique because it makes their story more interesting and gives them a more distinct flavor. There are a lot of campaigns and real science fiction settings with ships that have names like New York, Enterprise, Ticonderoga...why not Sao Paulo, Clarion, or Red Cliffs:

my very large missile cruisers are all of the "statesmen" class and named after famous statesmen from all over the world: The Winston Churchill, Sun Yat Sen, James Madison, Pericles

my very large carriers are similarly named after great military leaders: alexandre, augustus, kuzmin, coronado (two of these are leaders that came about after the game started)

my battlecruisers are named after planets I have colonized: Terra, Tiamat, Ares, Monticello, Vadim, Mediterrania,...

my main battle line battleships are named after notable stars: Algol, Polaris, Sirius, Capella,....

my laser frigates, also on the main battle line, are all given female names (including as an in-joke several ex girlfriends): Amanda, Alceste, Xuan, Adi Puteri, Courtney...

my scout cruisers are all given names for magical practitioners: Magicienne, Wushi, vr?jitor, bajalica....

my light carriers are all given synonyms for "constitution": Concordance, Accord, Alliance, Constitution, Resolution...

my old fleets of beam frigates were given northern hemisphere cities: new york, london, belfast, taipei, shanghai, omsk

my old fleets of missile frigates were given southern hemisphere cities: sao paulo, singapore, melbourne, rio de jinero



other name sets I've used:
- characters from a single particular epic (gilgamesh or beowulf or the kalevala)
- ships used by explorers (endurance, victoria, santa maria...)
- meterological phenominon (typhoon, meteor, aurora, umbani)



Remember that if you're doing a "traditional setting" your empire is going to be hundreds of years in the future and composed of people from all races, cultures, and religions. It wouldn't make sense for a space empire to name everything after stuff from US history (ticonderoga, robert e lee, George Washington, ect) even if the united states was in absolute control of the whole world...just look at what happened when the modern US nation took over land formerly controlled by native americans...half our stuff is named after their stuff (nebraska, kansas, chicago, tuxedo, ohio, ogallalla, dakota,ect). Also remember that names of things that seem big and important are not always given to the names of big or important ships. If I asked you to name the most powerful military leaders in US history, you probably wouldn't name Chester Nimitz, but currently he's the guy we named our most powerful ships after. Similarly, for a long time our mightiest battleships weren't of the "Texas" class or "New York" class but the Iowa Class

I think it's fun to give a lot of thought to which cultures have risen and fallen in the interim, which military leaders have been so notable as to merit ships named after them, and which cultures would be represented even if they are extinct or trivial. in my game, Brazil and China control most of the old planet earth, and colonies have unique geography and identity, so that effects a lot. I use a lot of Hawaiian, mandarin, Hungarian, and spanish names as well.



 

[SirTrollZor (OP)]

That's kinda what I'm doing with my projects.   All my engines have the name of those who developed them or the name of a famous scientist.   How would you name a modified design?

EDIT: In my game the Axis won the war but 100 years later a group of scientists from the allies discovered the Trans-Newtonian minerals and using small amounts to build weaponry were able to overtake those who ruled Earth.

[Theodidactus]

that depends on how heavily modified it is. I recently did a major redesign of several ships and just changed the name of the class (alceste mk. II) and kept each ship the same (alceste, courtney, adi puteri, ect)

If I changed the hulls a lot, I might rename them, there's certainly historical precedent for that. You could try remixing the names a bit if you wanted to have some creative fun. If you're class is named after famous sea battles, change them to land battles. If your class is named after notable scientists, change them to notable explorers, ect.