i use mythology for naming sometimes, like the achilles, apollo, things like that, i also use letters to classify what types of weapons and defenses they have like a 2 plasma ship with 4 missle defense is 2p4m or PP4m something like that. but like flayed one i use things from battlestar galactica, my biggest ships are battlestars, and i have caprican cruisers things like that, lots of different styles.

Prefix -
Beam (laser),
Assault (mass driver)
Missle (missle)

All multiweapon systems use Hyper as their prefix (and I don't use multiweapon platforms that often)

ships without engines (ie for defensive purposes) will have a D inserted here (after the prefix, before the ship designation)

Tiny - Drone
Small - Fighter (fgtr abbrv when name is too long)
Medium - Corvett (no defense - abbrv. vett) frigate (has defense - abbrv. frig)
Large - Destroyer (no defense - abbrv. dstr) Cruiser (has defense - abbrv. crsr)
Huge - Battlecruiser (no defense - Btlcrsr) Battleship (has defense - abbrv btlshp)

in general the no defense ship designs are faster, speed wise.

suffix to denote technology level
MK I
MK II
MK III
MK IV
MK V
etc.

So an example of a name would be
Missle Drone MK I
Beam Frigate MK II
Assault D Btlcrsr MK I

For non-combat ships, I name them by their type, followed by their movement, and then if applicable, their capacity.

ie
TT 9 2K - is a troop transport that can move 9 spaces and holds 2k soldiers.
Constructor 9 - is a constructor that can move 9 spaces

I general retire older makes (in the case of combat ships, MK I retired in favor of MK II or MK III, in the case of constructors and transports, as faster ships become avaiable) as newer ones become avaiable. However, I usually will leave 2 different generations avaiable, depending on my current need for weapons (more power per ship, or just more ships)

I tend to name them after stuff like constellations, stuff I see in the night sky, or even just stuff that pops in my head. E.G. Valiant, Aurora, Orion, Hive, Conquistador, stuff like that. I try to avoid functional names in favour of names that sound good and that I feel fit the ship.

I sometimes use a sort of theme, depending on what race I'm playing as. For instance, my Korx ships have an economic theme to their names: Monopolizer (a troop transport), Establisher (a constructor), Franchiser (a freighter), etc. Right now I'm playing as the Drath--and since they're reptillian, I'm gonna pull inspiration from that for my classes' names.

The components or intended function also play a role sometimes, as is the case for my line of Drengin beam-equipped, armored frigates: Laserclaw, Plasmaclaw, and Phasorclaw. I plan to name four huge hulled (and most powerful) ship classes after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Death, Destruction, Famine, and Devil.

Small 1, Small 2, ... Small n
Medium 1, ...
Large 1, ...
Huge 1, ...

Plus, when I design the ships, all I do is double-click on the items I want to add. I pay absolutely no attention to how the ship looks.

Geez, I'm boring.

Plus, when I design the ships, all I do is double-click on the items I want to add. I pay absolutely no attention to how the ship looks. Geez, I'm boring.

Its actually very fun to watch a ship that you have designed yourself, looking all cool and into a battle.

Absolutely amazing that everyone has taken a different approach to solving this practical problem.

I'm going use a combination of everybody's for my next game.

I like to name my ships after a theme. Last game I chose fantasy badguys, so Goblin, Orc, Ogre, Troll, etc. This game, I have chosen the theme of winged beasts, so have got a Wasp, Dragonfly, Jackdaw, Albatross, etc. I guess I will go up to Phoenix or Dragon or something.

In addition, I always have a code at the end to help me. I don't make new ship designs that often, and prefer to update existing designs (so I only have a couple of small hull designs, and a couple of large, etc.). I usually only make a new design if to I am kitting the ship out with new weapon types, so I have a different ship for lasers and mass drivers. In order to keep track of what ships have what, though (and to save me having to click on each ship and look at the details, my code goes like this:

Class [Weapon type] [weapon strength] [defence type] [defence strength]

I use letters to represent beam/shields (, mass drivers/armour (G) and missiles/point defence (M)

So, for example, I have an Albatross with 2 lasers and 2 armour, I call it:

Albatross Class B2G2

If I have a Jackdaw with 4 rail guns and 2 armour, it would be:

Jackdaw Class G42

You get the idea. Man, I'm a geek.

I like the idea of basing the names on a theme related to the race, though. Now, what is the theme of the Bambinian Program...

I like names, and I also need info on the current model, so I do a little of both; A name with a 3 (or four later) digit number that specifies speed and range.

AngleWyrm- 1hp? Cool ship, but putting weaps on a cargo hull is an old schoolboy error. I did it for my first few games and couldn't work it out...

I always name mine eg Tie Fighter MkII etc. I've made models of most starwars ships that I just upgrade. Thank you, Kyro's hull mod.

I redesign my ships every game, though I do keep a few basic, stripped down models where I put a lot of time into the extras on the hull and want to save it for later. Each time I just pick a theme like birds of prey (Hawk, Falcon, etc) which are all fighters generally (good amount of engines) and I keep one type of defense craft that usually carries a different name. That time I think I was playing diplomatic so I built 'peacock's to orbit my spin control planet. A fitting name I thought.

Then I just tack on a generation number so that I know roughly how old or how new it is. Sometimes I just put in a designation like 1-0, 1-1, 1-2, increasing the first number for very significant changes like the addition of more engines or the switching of weapon technologies. Other times I date it like a car model starting in 2225 and adding letters like DX, LX, SX for later / 'luxury' models.

Themes I choose just depend on the race and style of play I'm planning to use. My current game as Yor, the size type fighters are simply: byte,kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terrabyte with bits as tiny orbital defenders. Not terribly creative, but I doubt that the Yor are anyway.

Little to do with my name scheme has escaped mention in the thread so far.
My naming scheme is based loosely on mythology, animals, or whatever I feel like at the time.
This gives me a range, from big planned ships like “Mjollnir” (the name of Thor’s Hammer) to some medium fighters which I call “Sun Fish”
Or have little “Bug Fighter”s and crappier looking ships which I design in a hurry such as the “Folly” which was created with an air of “This Isnt Going to WoRK!” which I’m sure does WONDERS for the morale of the pilots
But Im lazy when it comes to ship designing, so every ship I build has a base model.
Which has NOTHING on it just the free and sizeless components. And is just named “Mjollnir Base” or whatever. This allows me to take the older models from previous games, modify or reuse them with a different weapons set. If the Name is short enough I will add designations L for laser G for Gun and so on like has been mentioned above.

One thing ive started doing, which I think is kind of fun, is naming my Starbases and inventing the reason they exist on the spot, which influences their name.
If the star has a name that I like enough, or a nick name, I will invent some little snippet of mythology from that sector. So.. an economic starbase in the Andromeda system might sport a name like “Andromeda’s Purse”. Because on Andromeda V there is a superstition which has linked a Goddess ‘Andromeda’ to the gaining of Wealth. .. Or a military starbase in the oft invaded and militaristic Gabe system would be called “Gabe’s Sheild” (or “Gabe’s Sword, depending on its function)… due to their idealization of a Warrior God named Gabe etc…
Or there could be “Tycho’s Notebook” (I did this mining research in Tycho system once)…
In other cases I go purely economic and invent company names, corporations from the planets that would benefit with a certain type of economic or influence presence… like.. uh… InstCom Inc. E.I (Interstellar Commerce Inc. Earth-Iconia) Has a trade route passing through a sector and wants to boost their economic gain my maintaining a starbase.
Anyways, these are just some of the little things I do to spice my game play.
It was cool to read all of yours as well.
-A.W.

I based mine on Horoscope names (ie. Gemini, Taurus). I also design my ship according to those names.