How to Name a Sci-Fi Spaceship
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- Get The Outer Wilds new Artbook here and support Spacedock!
bit.ly/OWSpace...
Spacedock delves into the fine art of naming spaceships.
THE SOJOURN - AN ORIGINAL SCI-FI AUDIO DRAMA:
www.thesojourn...
BECOME A CHANNEL MEMBER:
/ @spacedock
SUPPORT SPACEDOCK:
www.patreon.co...
MERCHANDISE:
teespring.com/...
Do not contact regarding network proposals.
Battlezone II Music by Carey Chico
Spacedock does not hold ownership of the copyrighted materiel (Footage, Stills etc) taken from the various works of fiction covered in this series, and uses them within the boundaries of Fair Use for the purpose of Analysis, Discussion and Review.
Get The Outer Wilds new Artbook here and support Spacedock!
bit.ly/OWSpacedock
Nemesis &
Ark
Talon (from Farscape)
Have you ever seen "Once Upon a Time space" 'H' ?
It a very old French Co Production quasi-anime (though more French than Ulysses 31 - speaking of which "The Odyssey" is a thing isn't she.
Anyway the reason I mention it is that it has space ships made to look like ocean life - thinks like sharks (way before the 1990's did it - though maybe the Flying Submarine counts).
I would say "vehicle names" can have meaning in other senses - that just space ships see anything made by Gerry Anderson.
it IS one of the best games ever!
Gotta give props to the UNSC from Halo naming one of their fast-attack ships the "Two for Flinching"
And "Bum Rush"
UNSC "Say My Name"
Disliked how short the halo section was, UNSC Say My Name, Long Night of Solace, In Amber Clad. Even The Mantles approach makes sense when you think about jt. The mantle dictated advanced species to have stewardship over lesser ones. The forerunners embraced this. Hence the flagship was an embodiment of forerunner will and enforced peace. Hence mantle’s approach
Say my Name is a good one
UNSC Tokyo Rules & UNSC Queen Ann's Revange II
And then there's the Pirate ship name list in Stellaris, featuring such gems as: Your Female Parent, Deathtrap, Disgrunted Worker, What Sorcery Is This. My personal favourite is the My First Ship II
Never played Stellaris but I am stealing those names
My First Ship II is amazing
Culture: Ultimate Ship The Second
My favorite has to be "Inconspicuous Asteroid".
That is "The Unsinkable II" of starship names.
I always love when you can tell which fictional manufacturer made the ship by its designation. Something that Star Wars kinna has with the YT series.
Naming the ship as Kamchatka and making it a torpido boat tender is one of my favorite thing to doo in any sea of space campaight. Although not many get the joke.
The ships motto: "do you see torpido boats? "
"And then things got worse..."
For some reason the place name Dogger Bank comes to mind. Off to play in Google to find out why my brain might be doing that.
Just don't get upset if the rest of the fleet throw a massive party to celebrate the ship getting destroyed
A fan of Uncle Drach I see.
@@joselitostotomas8114 Very much so
The great thing about Rocinante is that in the book the name catches Detective Millers eye. And thats how he tracks down Holden. So its the perfect name for Holden's ship and it actually pushes the story forward too.
Love the “steed of an idiot” line lol. Makes me think of that line in Nemesis Games:
“What did you do?” Fred asked. “There was a button,” Holden said. “I pushed it.” “Jesus Christ. That really is how you go through life, isn’t it?”
As a writer, the real trick is ballancing the magic triangle of Cool/Practical/Meaningful names.
For example, calling a disguised Q-Ship The Deception or Mask, manages to completely throw off the narrative, as the reader's suspended disbelief is cut loose to plumet to its death.
But, calling it something like the Guppy or Carp brings uo further questions about ship naming conventions in that world. Which COULD work for worldbuilding, but not when it's parked next to an identical looking ship that's named after a place.
Another trick is coming up with different naming themes from different factions. The reader doesn't have to know all the intricacies, but you do. In the same way that in WW2, American battleships were named after States, Japanese battleships were named after feudal Japanese provinces, you can build a little subtle cultural cues into your writing. In Star Wars, they discuss this very thing, an X-Wing pilot correctly tags a ship claiming to be a freighter from Contruum as under a false flag because he's from that world and tells the squadron that virtues (the freighter is broadcasting as Contruum's Pride) are reserved for capital warships, transports are named after beasts of burden or rivers. There's also in-universe debate over why the Emperor gave his Star Destroyers and other ships such nasty names (Iron Fist, Agonizer, Venom, etc).
There's two that stand out in my mind here. Halo and The Clone Wars. While the former is the often wordy and overly poetic names that we've all come to love, the latter is short, simple, and often very generic. I love both the same, as I can appreciate the classics as well as the bold and unique.
Names like Pillar of Autumn, In Amber Clad, Forward Unto Dawn, those are seared into my brain as badass examples of a great naming convention, as are the lesser known ones like All Under Heaven or Say My Name. Even the Covenant have some wonderful ships in the list as well. Shadow of Intent, Cleansing Fire, Long Night of Solace, and Pious Inquisitor just to name a few.
On the other hand, the names of Venator class cruisers (some of them serving as Jedi flagships) have such simple names as Resolute, Liberty, Endurance, Redeemer, Steadfast, and of course, the Negotiator. They don't have a lot of nuance to them, not much beyond the surface, but there's nothing wrong with a simple word that describes a simple thing.
I love the how the naming conventions from the Venators carried on to the later Star Destroyers but in a twisted way with names like Accuser, Agonizer, Conquest, Interrogator, Malice and of course the Devastator, like sometimes you want to cry out "Agonizer? Was puppy rapist too on the nose?"
I would say that halo generally having references to Shakespeare is kind of interesting.
Midsummer night from fall of Reach Comes to mind.
Pillar of autumn is iconic.
Mass effect also had some cool names. With the Normandy representing the Galaxy coming together to fight a great evil. Kind of how the world came together on D-Day to fight to Great evil on the beaches of Normandy.
In my sci-fi novel, I poked fun at the Enterprise thing. Big exploration-focused ship about to be launched, and the following discussion.
"I don't see why they didn't name it Enterprise."
"The committee decided it was too religious."
"What? Did they ever watch the show?"
"They went to a convention."
"... Fair point."
In the same story, I have firm naming conventions for ships. The first line are do-anything cruisers that were thrown together for an anticipated threat, and all named after mythical weapons ("Durandal-class," with Excaliber, Kusanagi, Gugnir, etc...).
Love that dialogue snippet. Excellent work.
Halo UNSC and Culture ship names are my favorite. "Pillar of Autumn"/ "In Amber Clad", "Frank Exchange of Words"/"Post Check Loan".
Wasn't that last one from Schlock Mercenary? Which also had some great ship names. Eg. UNS battleplates named after major impact events (Tunguska, Chicxulub), Ob'enn ships all having incredibly pretentious names like Sword of Indomitable Righteousness, and Petey naming all his ships with the initials PD
There was also the Very Dangerous Array, which uses torpedoes for interferometry.
A piece of advice I've given a lot of my friends when it comes down to naming things: The name doesn't matter all that much, as long as it's not *aggressively stupid*. The things the ship/character will do will elevate the name far more than agonizing over the perfect name. Without all the context of Star Wars at it's back, Darth Vader is just some menacing-sounding nonsense.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's Galactic Fleets Battleships definitly have the best names:
GSS Daring,
GSS Audacity, and
GSS Suicidal insanity
Just awsome
UNSC Two For Flinching is an amazing name for anything with multiple MACs
All the pirate starships in my novel get death metal names. My personal favorites are _Spiteful Epitaph,_ _Ahimsa's End,_ _Justified Arrogance_ and _Celebrant of Obscenity._
The other factions have pretty good ones too if I say so myself: The _Runaway Bride,_ _Birdsong at Midnight,_ _Tennessee Lamb,_ and _Saint Grissom's Fire._
Justified Arrogance slaps as a name damn
You might want to look to Warhammer 40k for inspiration, if needed.
Vengeful Spirit, Terminus Est, Conquerer, Litany of Fury, Destiny's Hand...the list goes on.
@@Gerendiell You have no idea how far ahead I am on that front.
5:02 I haven't seen all of The Expanse, but I've seen the part where he names his ship. "Rocinante. It's Spanish for 'workhorse'." Any well-read viewer would know instantly that Holden's about to get his crew into a shitload of trouble they never signed on for.
The golden-age epic Lensman series of novels has the ship known officially as Z9M9Z but also given the name _Directrix_ to indicate her status as fleet flagship and command centre. Her sole purpose is to house a three dimensional CIC tank SEVEN HUNDRED METRES ACROSS, plus all the communications systems needed to command and control the immense fleets (literally millions of _task forces_ ) that she is built to handle.
Surprisingly, names can be pretty straightford and utilize history as a motivation. For example, I have warship classes in my story writing where one class of ships (Drone Carriers) named after famous naval aircraft carriers in the past (yes, the Enterprise can be included). Another case is having a class of ships named after famous explorers. Another case is having a class of ships named after moons or famous leaders, etc. We do that right now with our navies as it is.
Another case is using famous commanders and ships of the past that reflect the current nature of the ship. For example, I have a case where a ship was built from cobbled together parts and later renamed the Theseus. Another case is a ship called the Rampage based off of Lawson Ramage (Ramage's "Rampage") that managed to use his submarine in daring raids completely outnumbered and outgunned to sink multiple ships at once. History likes to repeat itself and there's nothing run with history being that motivator for your stories, including characters naming their ships in hopes of recreating those successes. :)
Ive always loved that "we cant call it the Enterprise" "WHY NOT?!" scene from SG1. In the bloopers she probably said "Because its copyrighted!"
In Star Trek TOS, Roddenberry used names of actual war ships: Intrepid, Constellation, Exeter, Defiant, Potemkin
Craig Alanson deserves a mention for his Jeraptha ship names... For example the Heavy Cruiser : "Come Over Her and Say That Again"... Or the Stealth Frigate :"It was like that when we got here"
Always assumed they were a nod to the Culture and enjoyed them for it.
Whatever you do: Warspite never sinks no matter...
_Spaceship McShipface_
Wow funniest guy ever over here
it’s over, there is no better name than this
Shippy McShipface!
@@battleoid2411 Someone had to type that.
It's tradition.
Or spacy mcshipface
A rebel ship called the "return to sender" sounds very fun to me
A ton of world buildings in it's context. Rebels were attacked, they won, they took the ship and now they're using it
When I made my UNSC frigate in Starfield, I kept with their naming convention with Volley and Thunder.
The _Weeping Somnambulist_ is recognized as cool in-universe. “If I have to board one more ship named after some kid or girl who got left behind after a magic weekend on Titan, I might just shoot some people for general lack of creativity.”
This one was just a nice little treat to listen to. All the fun little names we know and love. Like Babylon 5 from my childhood.
The Enterprise deserves extra points for being so influential that it had a real life spacecraft (ok an orbiter prototype technically) named after it.
Which is extra funny because now the ships in the show are named after at least one ship named after the show. 😅
Personally I'm a big fan of the Halo style or the classic "Name it after a navy ship" approach.
Technically that includes the Enterprise (multiple US navy vessels including two aircraft carriers.)
@@4mobius280 Yes, but I meant that the Orbiter is named in reference to Trek in real life.
@@4mobius280 USS _Enterprise_ wasn’t the only _Constitution_ Class ship named for a historic one. USS _Potemkin_ NCC-1675, USS _Hood_ NCC-1703, and USS _Lexington_ NCC-1709 are all mentioned or appear in TOS along USS _Enterprise._
It took me awhile to realize that since the second NX class was named "Columbia", they were definitely naming them after the space shuttles. Boot strap paradox?
@@battlesheep2552 and after _Colombia_ was the _Discovery._
I can't believe there was no mention of The Andromeda Ascendant! Who is a Glorious-Heritage class heavy cruiser.
I love how the phrasing just conveys a more specific emotion. "Andromeda Ascendant", "Wrath of Achilles", "Pax Megellan".
Came here to say the same, but you beat me to it 😂
I personally like ship names that either have no immediate meaning (just something the author thought was cool) or names that have a reference you can figure out relatively easily. Not everything needs to make sense, it just has to look and sound cool. Even if it would be nice if everything of a sci-fi franchise made sense
In the indie game Avorion, my flagship is the massive warship "And Silence Rang Out". I named her that because of the deafening silence that follows her final volley of torpedoes in combat. It's also a grim reminder not only to myself but to any who'd dare attack me that, if we go through with the fight, no matter who wins, the outcome is the same.
The Archangel from Gundam SEED is one of my favorite sci-fi ships ever! It really deserves it's own ship breakdown video!
Then you have her sister ship, the Dominion. based on the names, we can guess the other ships in the class have angelic names like Throne or Seraphim.
Truth and Reconciliation is an absolutely phenomenal name for a scary warship. There is something about making a good thing sound sinister (sinisterizing, if you will) that just hits the ship naming spot.
One ship class name that i really like is that of the hyena droid bomber, because although we don't know of any hyena species in star wars, they're called thst by the creators of the franchise because the way they communicate sounds like a cackle of hyenas
In 40k, the Imperial Navy has three main naming categories. First is the traditional names, of which they have a long list, and are assigned to ships made in central Imperial shipyards. Ship names can be reused once the previous ship is destroyed or is MIA for more than 50 years. Names of this kind include Iron Duke, Invidious, Green Lake, Kingmaker etc.
The other two categories come from the other ways of ship acquisition - either finding a hulk that can be rebuilt as a ship, or if a smaller planet or shipyard contributes ones. The second naming category is a form of feeling or emotion around the ship - such as His Will, Lord of Light, Flame of Purity etc.
The final category is when a high-ranked person has the naming rights, and they name it after themselves or some other famous person: Cardina Xian, Duke Helbrecht, Lord Daros etc.
I'm a fan of the basic US Navy style. Where different classes of ships are named after different Amwrican things. Aircraft carriers now take the name of president's, battleships and larger ships had state names, other classes had city/location names, and so on. It's simple, but it gives the fleet vibe better than the metaphor names do.
Single word names are great for ship CLASSES: 'Resolution/infinty/Acclamator class' etc. But the most memorable ship names are the ones that are quirky or unusual. My personal favourite: the two UNSC Orion class assault carriers: "Speak Softly" and its sister ship: "Big Stick"
Pro-Tip: Name 3 sister ships "Eeny" "Meenie" and "Mo" so that your enemy will be too distracted trying to figure out where "Miney" is to counter your tactics.
I’d go with a more formalized approach.
Science ships: Exploratory (Pioneer, Discovery, Luminary)
Frigates: Animals (Orca, Lion, Kestrel, Megacrab)
Destroyers: Cities (Cahokia, Samarqand, Irvine)
Cruisers: Stars and Constellations (Centaurus, Antares, Ursa)
Battleships, Carriers, and Dreadnoughts: Famous figures (Sun Yat-Sen, Hiawatha) or Mountains (Kunlun, Denali, Kilimanjaro)
Special ships get random, Culture-esque names (“Get Off My Lawn”, “As Per My Last Email”, “Strongly Worded Letter”) or characters from mythology, or other special names (Enterprise is specifically avoided, because Star Trek tainted it.)
In Sword of the Stars I tended to name ships for their general role, usually with a historical or media reference
For example a missile cruiser I named the Archer Class, a command ship I named the Churchill class and a repair vessel I named The Montgomery Scott class
In this regard, I like Mass Effect's approach to formalized naming conventions for human warships. As the ME wiki puts it: Dreadnoughts are named for mountains on Earth; cruisers are named for cities on Earth; frigates are named for great battles in human history; and carriers are named after great leaders, artists, and intellectuals from human history.
Loved the prometheus gag. Also worth mentioning that the next ship in Stargate is the Daedalus, after the famous historical inventor giving Mankind wings and also continuing the fire trend (passing the torch) via Icarus. Prometheus may be a bit tacky but at least it's appropriate, i genuinely do not understand why anyone would willingly name their ship Icarus after the famous tragedy that befell Icarus. It would be a bit like naming your ship Pandora. Or Hector.
i've occasionally wondered if Prometheus was a Goa'uld, and if so how he'd take earth naming an anti-goa'uld warship after him. and props to the SGC for mostly continuing the naming trend.. their next two BC-304's after the Daedalus were the Apollo and the Phoenix. though the latter got renamed to the George Hammond shortly before commissioning. something i suspect happened (in setting) in part because someone realized that earth maybe didn't have enough mythology names that weren't goa'uld. it also made the ship conform to the naming of the non-american SGC members ships.. the Korolev and the Sun Tzu. and honestly, as neat as the mythology names were for the first 3 ships, i think the SGC switching to an approach of naming earth's ships after more modern historic figures fits better.
@@glitterboy2098 The Phoenix got renamed because Don S Davis died and they named it after his character to honor him.
The lead ship of the Firefly class is HMS Firefly, followed by HMS Centurion, HMS Comet, and finally HMS Thunderchild. The naming convention for the class changed when war with aliens were declared.
I like naming ships after people, places, or concepts. Piorun, for example, is a ship name that should eternally find service in any human navy.
I may have gone a little too hard on a few names for the Alphatian Network, the AI faction in my universe :
Monolith-class Supercrusader (huge automated capital ship that houses the AI consciousness) : Invictus
Pandora’s box (a part of it's navy that is basically the inquisition) capital ships (which each carry a small fleet, which is why most names are plural) :
-God hunters
-Final judgement
-Pestilences
-Vanquishers
-Scarcities
-Deaths
-Harbingers
-Azathoth
(I swear the AI is genuinely the "good guys", it just has certain tasks that require.. more dakka than finesse)
Harmony counselors (peace keeping and diplomatic fleets) :
-Utopia assemblers
-Salamanders
-Internuntio
+ 5 unnamed
Pheonix flock (fleets dedicated to the protection of the AI itself and it's industries) :
-Worldbearers
-Starlifters
+ 6 unnamed
I also had a space station named Icarus, which ends up taking a swim in the star it orbits, but I changed it to the event that led to said swim being called the "Icarus incident" rather than the station itself.
I always thought a good small freighter name would be "Indigo Void".
I liked the name change of the Nauvoo in The Expanse to The Behemoth and later Medina Station.
halo's covenant ship names are some of my favs. mostly because they're words that i just never expected to be next to each other. the juxtapostion makes for very interesting names. eg "Unyielding Hierophant"
For my own ships, I have one called the Salvation, as it was the only ship on-station during an alien invasion of Earth and singlehandedly destroyed 2 of the invasion fleet’s 3 carriers, among others, ultimately forcing the aliens to retreat. This event and this ship were such a big deal for the Union that it served under that they named another ship the Salvation II, and that one would go on to perform similarly impressive feats. After the war, the Union kept calling ships Salvation and counting up the numbers, as their society believed the Union was unassailable as long as the fleet had at least one Salvation, in a similar vein as how Japan in WW2 believed that the war could still be won as long as Yamato sailed.
I named my ice transporter the Highwater. It's surprisingly fun to come up with names for ships.
Did it have a sister ship called "Hell"? With people in locations needing water having to survive "come Hell or Highwater"?
@@P3x310 Never thought of that. I'm sure there would be hesitation to call a ship "Hell", because, y'know, who wants to be on a ship named "Hell"? But that has gotten me thinking, thanks for the suggestion!
One of my game's official short stories introduces a ship called Ice Cream for Breakfast. It's a civilian rock-hopper, and the owner's (at the time) young children insisted on it. Silly? Probably, but you can't tell me it wouldn't happen sooner or later.
I design real ships for a living - my two pieces of advice for naming vessels are: 1) Never ask the public for suggestions. 2) ALWAYS search for the name on urban dictionary before you select it......
Sounds like there's a story behind point 2.
We all know the story of the first one, but I'm really curious on the story of the second. Can you share it?
BoatyMCBoatface is great name, so I have to take that advice with a grain of salt and also in the right context Hawk Tua could be a great ship name.
U.S.S. Santorum
Three Body Problem had some great names, for example, "Ultimate Law" and "Natural Selection" were very fitting names for ships during the battle of darkness, where that behave in ways very fitting to their names' meanings with respect to their meaning in the 'dark forest'.
The UNSC is the best when it comes to naming their warships like the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, the UNSC Spirit of Fire, or the UNSC Pillar of Autumn
UNSC names are great because you have like two sides, you have the side that takes the naming seriously and so you have ships like the Heart of Midlothian, In Amber Clad, and Bunker Hill. Then you have the side that recognizes nothing short of a super carrier can hope to last more than a week, so you get names like Do You Feel Lucky?, Two For Flinching, and Say My Name
I saw this video thumbnail and name, and thought "He BETTER talk about The Culture". And you did. Thank you :)
It is a real shame that you mentioned the Expanse in a ship names video and didn't mentions any of the Laconian Empire ships. Heart of the Tempest, Eye of the Typhoon and Voice of the Whirlwind are amazing names :P
Apparently First Consul Duarte is fond of storm and weather-related motifs, his destroyers are Storm-class if I recall right and also have similar naming schemes. It might even play into how the man sees himself as a force of nature, some great inevitable thing that can't be stopped. Supreme arrogance.
I am surprised that the name "Maru" wasn't mentioned. As in the Kobayashi Maru (Star Trek) , the Bentenmaru (Bodacious Pirate), and the Eureka Maru (Andromeda).
Which ironically is based on Japanese (and IIRC Chinese) naming conventions.
@@alexandercaires5921 I know. I looked it up.
my go to names for space ships orient on their purpose something along the lines of: twilight descent (ambush stealthy ship) prosperous ambition (trade hauler/mining ship) horizon beyond (exploratory vessel) etc.
This is a topic I love thinking about. Ship names mean something, or at least they should. And it's a fine line between deep and trying too hard.
I always name a ship in the games I play. 'The will of stars', if theres an opportunity for a sister ship she would be called 'the patience or stone'
Its a reference.
Inevitably, most jokes and references were to SG-1's Prometheus, the most fitting name for that specific spaceship.
Did an Excel spreadsheet for an entire corporate navy owned by a zaibatsu, the Kyoshi Corporate Protection Fleet. Based off IJN naming conventions (provinces, mountains, winds, and waves). That was fun, but a lot of hard work.
The Hyperion - a capital ship/mobile headquarters of Raynor's Raiders that had been through thick and thin as it survived the First Great War, Brood War, Second Great War and finally the War Against Amon.
B5 and BSG have had such a huge effect on me when it comes to ship names. Whenever I play Sins of a Solar Empire my first Akkan (hybrid capital that can start colonies) is always Galactica and the first Kol Battleship is always the Agamemnon. Then I like to stick with the Greek theme and the letter 'A' because that gives you the Ajax, the Achilles, and the Andromache as well, which to me just seems screamingly cool.
The Expeditionary Force books have some amazing ship names (translated from alien languages): "Heavenly Morning Flower of Glorious Victory", "To Seek Glory In Battle is Glorious", "If You Forget Hard Enough It Never Happened"
Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series have some kickass names; my favourite being "Nostalgia for Infinity". I really adore the poetry of such names. ❤
“Protagonist Ship One”
Bro you can’t just jumpscare me with outer wilds like that! All those Memories 😭 Why do you just casually drop that as If it wouldn’t make me love this channel two times more
That enterprise bit was amazing!
In a setting I'm working on called _Transhuman Traveller_ (which is Transhuman Space and Traveller fused together), it heavily depends on which class and designation of ship you're looking at.
To give some examples, various patrol/fleet escort ship classes are named after different types of handheld shields, which leads to names like _Shield of Ceres_ and _Buckler of Titan_ (for the classes of the two examples, one is a _Shield IV_ class frigate and the other a _Buckler V_ class cutter), while destroyers are named after escort captains leading to situations where you've got names like the _Fletcher_ and _Allen J. Sheppard_ (for the classes of these two examples, one is a _Fletcher_ class Fleet Destroyer and the other is a _Mitchel A. Simmons_ class Picket Destroyer).
Thankfully, for everyone's minds, there are 11k systems that the Orion Mandate controls and the immense population that it implies. This means you'll have no shortage of planetoids, moons, asteroids, comets, star systems, planets, continents, political entities, officers, and even concepts to name ships and ship classes after.
Then there is the Merchant Marine (the basic gist is that to prevent someone with more ideology than sense from ramming their ship into a planet at percentages of light speed, all civilian ships are considered part of the Mandate's merchant marine with the intense checks, evaluations, and rules that it implies), who can have interesting names for their ships, like the Traveller classic Beowolf, the cheeky Firefly, or the generic Star Hauler of Sol.
Most my ships in game are named after Royal Navy vessels. for example. Arethusa, Victorious.
Also i must admit Freespace 1 and 2 to me have the Best ship names. GTD Bastion or the GTCv Naxos
8:21 This. This right here is why I love Spacedock. An insightful video on a topic with few, but hilarious jokes.
In the book series "The Lost Fleet" all the ships are named after things or attributes - BBs and BCs are Valiant, Dreadnought, Gallant, Orion, Paladin etc, CAs are Curiass, Ram, Vambrace...you get the idea.
The main character asked why they always used names like that rather than naming ships after planets or people (more variety avaliable). His captain said that they had considered that at one point, but they were never able to come up with a system that would distribute the names fairly so no one planet would be favored. So, the old names continued.
Also, the names did have some weird things about them - for example, ships named Invincible rarely lasted more than a year. Almost as if naming a ship that was tempting fate.
i like when ship names use alliteration
Depends on the needs of the story and the universe. For instance, in one of my stories I named a ship “Internal Bleeder” because the guy who built it couldn’t stand the pretentious names militaries used. All subsequent ships from his faction had deliberately non-heroic names, such as “The Rat Scabies” and “The Wart.”
I did a comedic story - unrelated to that one - where an American starship was named “The USS Monkeyspank” because 500 years in the future, that sounds really cool to them, but we here in the present immediately realize these people have some whacked-out perspectives and priorities [as do their enemies].
For my more realistic space operas, where starships are comparatively few and far between, all he starships are named after angels from various religions (Turns out there’s quite a lot of those, if you look for ‘em) and it immediately sets those ships apart from the far more disparate ‘only local’ ships that can only operate in one solar system.
When I did an alternate history series set in a world where the Apollo Program kept going (This was long before ‘For all mankind’ but long after Baxter’s “Voyage”), I loved the random names astronauts used for their spacecraft, which they generally chose themselves, and reflected their own personalities more than anything else. Hence we have American spacecraft from that era named “Spider,” “Gumdrop,” “Charlie Brown,” “Snoopy,” “Yankee Clipper,” “Freedom,” “Liberty Bell,” “Molly Brown,” and of course “America.”
So doing a lot of research from that era, I found a few names that astronauts had reserved, but which never got used. Hence, in my story, Apollo 18 and its LEM were named “Coyote” and “Road Runner,” respectively. And in a situation where there wasn’t anything to cull from, I read up on the astronauts and engineers from the period and got a sense of what they thought was cool, so I ended up with a post-Apollo spacecraft named “the Flyby Knight,” which I think is *DAMN* cool.
(Conversely, Soviet spacecraft tended to just rotate through the same 8 or 10 names over and over again)
In general I dislike the more stolid names given in military fiction, though “Agamemnon” was great, and “Schwartzkopff” (Also from B5) made me laugh.
Flyby Knight is indeed an excellent name.
@@RorikH Thanks, man! I was proud of myself for that one.
Personally, I love the ironic namming of UNSC Feeling Lucky. A Marithon-class Heavy Cruizer that flew over the CAS-class Assault Carrier, Day of Jubilation, only to be skewered by its ventral energy projector.
Well, that's why they call it the Feeling Lucky, not the Being Lucky.
I'm a fan of the Quarian ship Quibb Quibb. 😏🤭
I prefer the De'Franz and the Iktomi. Now those are proud ship names
You Have A Ship Named Qwib Qwib?
Her Magesty Starship Boat McBoatface
Why yes, I do need more outer wilds stuff in my life, thank you
This is super relevant for me and I love the timing!
I'll make sure to follow these guidelines for my game No Time Left (vids under channel)
my preferred method for naming ships (because I hate ship names you can easily put "the" on the front of) is to use song lyrics. I try to avoid title lyrics, because they're too easy to recognize, and sometimes I'll use a lyric I misheard. in particular I like "Hear What the Silence Screams", "There Are No Heroes Left in Man", and "Who By Fire" (exception to the title lyrics rule) [can you tell my stories have a dystopic bent?]
When I build Stellar Systemcrafts in Stellaris I name the class: THE END.
I'll let you guess why.
i love that you included the Culture Verse!!!
I always like the "Frank Exchange of Views" and the "What are the Civilian Applications?"
I love how the Defiant defies Starfleet's norms in both design and purpose.
I always enjoyed Xenosaga ship names.
Elsa (which frozen has retroactively ruined)
Durandal (because it's like a sword, you see)
Dämmerung
Woglinde, Wellgunde, Floßhilde (which in conjunction can fire a weapon called the Rhine Maiden, naturally)
this was more of 'What some ships are named' more than actually giving much advice on how to name a ship other than "whatever you want"
Yeah, there's a lot less science to go over here, and what science there is would fall more under linguistics or psychology than physics.
He talked about why the ships were named the way they are, the logic and themes behind them. Any writer should be able to translate what he said in this video into useful advice.
I have always felt that the ship class names from Andromeda are underrated. 'Glorious Heritage class' just always sounded cool to me.
The indie PC game Delta Vee (a mining/exploration sim about ice/mineral mining in the rings of Saturn) has a terrific RNG for ship names that all sound like things some scrappy miner captain or crew would name their ship, whether for personal appeal or the cool factor. (Juniper Dog, Beryllium Bastard, Cleansing Flame) But one of my personal favorites is the ship from the original Jedi Knight PC games, Jan Ors and Kyle Katarn's light freighter, the Moldy Crow.
Naming a ship also gives off a sense of a bond between the ship to its captain.
My pet theory was that the Rocinante's name came from the Rush song Cygnus X-1 (a song about flying a ship called the Rocinante into a black hole). The drones on the ship are even named after the band members.
I love the ship names from the Andromeda tv series. Andromeda Ascendant, Balance of Judgement, Pax Magellanic, Wrath of Achilles. Still my favorites.
If i had a spaceship I would call it the qwib-qwib
You're clearly not a Quarian, then...
Do not ask about the name.
Ok, Salarian.
I've always felt that mythical weapons were good choices for major capital vessels, something that would sit as the centerpiece of a battle group. Names like Tyfing, Excalibur, or Gae Bolg. With the escorting vessels given names pulled from their mythology. A massive dreadnought named Excalibur would have its battlegroup's warships carry names like Arthur, Guinevere, Avalon and Camelot. You can also show the attrition of a long conflict leading to some ships that were rotated in having names that conflict with theme indicating that the battlegroup has a storied history. Battlegroup Excalibur including the destroyers Katana and Shamshir, the frigate Satyr, the heavy cruiser Spirit of Tokyo and the carrier Jean d'Arc can make you wonder what happened to the ships that were lost to make these ships take their place.
Way back when I gave the name for two ships in a sci-fi setting I've worked on in the past, it was solely for the cool factor. Since then, an actual meaning has been tied to both names of these sister ships.
Blade of Liberty, being a more offensive oriented startitan (A special category of ship that nations only have 1-3 of maximum) that cuts at the heart of the enemy. Meant to strike down upon oppression and tyranny as the sword bringing the victims of such liberty from it.
While her sister, Shield of Freedom is a bulky beast that will not budge. Forcing any who seek to attack those protected by the ship to go through it first, because as long as it can still fight, it will not let the freedoms of those under its shadow be robbed.
Whenever I name ships in a game or something, i use lyrics from Rush songs that are stuck in my head. When i was playing hades star, all my battleships were lyrics from New World Man .
Young Romantic
Rebel and Runner
Big Machine
Nature Pure
Rush uses tons of poetic and meaningful lyrics, so it has always worked well for me.
My Railjack in warframe is named Marathon, which not only references history/geography but is also my favorite song off of Power Windows
I've named a few ships in my time. I had a VT-49 Decimator in SWG called the Vesalius. (Yes I was a Gundam SEED fan back in the day, how did you know?) As for Star Citizen, I named my Carrack the Akashic Record, I figured naming it after a repository of all knowledge that could possibly exist was quite fitting for an exploration ship. I also have a name planned for my Perseus, but I'm going to keep it a secret until I've secured the name. It does give me a pretty awesome ship's motto as well.
I love naming ships sarcasticly, like my stealth frigate Vigilance and the governmeant secret nuclear battleship Peacemaker
While ship names that come from mythology and history are pretty cool, I actually prefer it when ships were named after personal tastes of their owners since it acts as an extension of their characters. My favorite example of this would be the ships owned by Peter Quill/Starlord from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies who named his ships after his favorite singers (e.g. the Milano, the Benatar, and the Bowie)
I was waiting for a mention of _The Guinevere_ from _The Sojourn_ which, in addition to being mythologically significant, is important to the main character’s backstory.
If we're gonna go for ships named extremely on topic, mention has to go the Autobot ship "The Ark", literally containing their entire people in exile from their homeworld. Though originally unamed, the Decepticon Cruiser that shot the Ark down was named in Beast Wars "Nemesis", suitable for its role in the story.
I like how the Systems Alliance from Mass Effect named their ships. one kind of ships were named after Terrestrial Cities, another after famous battles from history, another after Terrestrial Mountains.
This is the hardest part when I play Stellaris. While I just let the game generate names for each individual ship, I do like to put some serious thought into the class names. Last night I became Galactic Custodian and ended up trying to use animals befitting the class purpose/loadout:
Torpedo Boat Corvette = Piranha-class
Picket Destroyer = Porcupine-class
Broadside Cruiser = Lioness-class
Spinal-Mount Carrier Battleship = Killer Bee-class
Titan = Dragon-class
8:20 Best Crossover EVER! :D :D
O'Neill saves Worf.
I use my own naming convention for my ships in EVE Online. For my resource harvesting ships, I use names that have something to do with the ship's function. Noble I for my gas harvester (noble gasses), Prosperity I for my ore miner (from the wealth and prosperity the ore gives me), etc. I use Gagarin I as my explorer ship, in honor of Yuri Gagarin. My military ships all have names related to freedom and democracy, since I'm in the Gallente Federation. Whenever my ship gets destroyed, I add 1 to the Roman numeral. It's a reminder of my experience, and seeing Freedom LXIV fly into battle is kind of funny.