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.

Since I play as a Squirrel my ship names are:

Acorn Fighter - Tiny Fighter
Nut Buster - Troop Transport
Nut Cracker - Medium Warship
Nut Crusher - Large Warship
Nut Pulverizer - Huge Battleship

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)

Wow these are some interesting names? Mind if I borrow some?
As for me, I use names such as Tiny- Gnat, Small- Bee, Medium- Wasp, etc. After each name I follow it with *name* Alpha/Beta/Gama/etc... And guess what? The gnat, bee, wasp line of ships are missile STINGER lines. I feel so clever.

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.

some of those naming conventions like using letters to show the class type or the function sound useful.

in the demo, I usually name them by thier function, such as if its a faster version of a constructor or colonizer, I call it a fast colonizer or fast constructor. since the demo doesn't tell the difference between user made ships that are of a different hull style than which I'm currently using, I put like Drengin fastcolony or something, but I plan on stopping using that in the full game. sometimes I might name them for what they look lke, such as the manta troopship which is suppoused to look like a manta ray. I've taken to naming small fighter craft stuff like Stryker or Snapper since they are pretty much small or tiny hulled ships with one weapon, I name them someththing that sounds fast.

although in the demo, things are diffrent from the main game, so I'll probably change the way I name ships.

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.

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.

that sounds like a neat idea to do that.

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.

Mine are like WW2 ship names. For example, I name battleships after a state, cruisers after a city and destroyers after a hero. Non-combat ships I name different... alot of times I will use something like Twilight Endevor for a colony ship or I will do something like Twilight Florida for a battleship for flavor. So alot of times instead of just using the state name by itself, I will add Twilight, Andromeda, or Orion in with it for example. Usually sounds pretty good for a ship name. Like the big massive Texas Orion battleship I designed a while back. For fighters, I will name those after flying insects or birds or something else that flies or sounds fast. Really I name my fighters after just about anthing, sometimes even just a letter and number class such as FK-42. It all depends and many of times my ship names are unique every new game.

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.

I drop a spoon (or fork) on the ground and the sound it makes shall be the name of the ship.

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 use naval hull designations, a name, and a variant designation followed by subtype.

Example:

Tiny Hull:

DD-ExampleDestroyer IIa
CL-ExampleLightCruiser IIIb

Small Hull:

FR-ExampleFrigate A2
CA-ExampleHeavyCruiser C

Medium Hull:

BC-ExampleBattleCruiser IV
BB-ExampleBattleship IXa

Large Hull:

DN-ExampleDreadnought 2

Huge Hull:

SD-ExampleSuperDreadnought VII


The variant and subtype designations I use mostly are based upon movement, protection, and firepower. Any variations in a base design will gain a new designation depending upon what is upgraded and by how much.
For instance a BC being upgraded from warp to hyperwarp drives will gain a whole new number while one that is going from plasma I to plasma II might only get a new subtype designation like adding a small letter to the variant designation.

Clear as mud, right?



Edit: To further explain my hull designations:

DD's and CL's are the backbone of any picket or escort. The CL's are also used to screen larger vessels in attack fleets. The main difference between the DD and CL in my design is the niche each one is supposed to fill. A DD will have better defense and firepower, but a CL is faster and longer ranging.

FR and CA add meat to pickets, act as large fleet escorts, and form the backbone of most early attack and system defense fleets. The CA trades firepower and protection for speed and range over the FR.

BC's are the premier attack vessel. Long ranging, heavily protected, and hard hitting; BC's are the vangaurd of my navy. Cheaper than DN's, and more powerful than anything smaller, they represent the largest non-capital ship.

BB's, otoh, represent a niche. BB's trade in the BC's range and speed to form the ultimate defensive platform. They are not capable of going toe to toe with a DN, but will hold their own with FR and DD to screen them.

The DN and SD need no explanation. They are the maximum balance of firepower, defense, speed, and range. They are used as ships of the line for all intents and purposes (ships of the wall for all you HH fans out there). Only used to make a point or to take down a really tough opponent. The operating costs make any bean counter's hair turn white.

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 (B), 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 guess I am more pragmatic and tend to want quick info because I name them for what the are:

small-6m 3a 7spd sr ---- small hull, 6 missle, 3 armor, 7 speed, short range.

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.

I use naval hull designations, a name, and a variant designation followed by subtype.

My system is similar to Liveload's, using naval designations, although I jab in fighters.

Tiny: FL-# (Fighter, Light)
Small: FH-# (Fighter, Heavy), Cv-# (Corvette)
Medium: CL-# (Cruister, Light), CA-# (Cruiser)
Large: CA-# (Cruiser), BC-# (Battlecruiser)
Huge: BC-# (Battlecruiser), BB-# (Battleship)

The number is just a guideline, really. I try to design ships in a parallel fashion, so that FL-3 and FH-3 are on par vide technology.

Other than that, I don't really have a system. My ships vary widely in style from game to game, and the names match the varying styles. For instance, I have more straightforward designs as the "CA-1 Bruiser" (get it?), and more elusive names such as "FL-3 Shavet".

Most of the latter sort are mutations of English. For instance, I thought of using "Shaver" initially. That sounded a bit I wanted it to sound cool to me, and I swapped a letter. How I ever came up with the name "FH-1 Delik", God only knows.

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.

1. I make each ship unique in appearance based on its function (so i can tell what it is based on its shape.. is it a transport or a colony, a battleship, etc...)
2. I name every ship in a functional manner based on its use with the addition of a number denoting its revision (ie, tech)

EX: ColonyMK1, ColonyMK2...
EX2: SmallBeamMK1 (recently replaced with just Battleship... i do keep the name between sizes... whats the point of building smaller ships once you have the tech anyways...)
EX3: AssassinMK1

Assassing btw is NOT a "cool name" but a functional description of the ship's actions. The assassin class is very VERY useful... its a ship with a single weapon that takes the least amount of space... usually laser 5 which does 1 beam damage and takes only 5 space on medium hull at normal miniturazation. The rest of the ship is NOTHING but engines... Even at lower tech levels a speed of 20+ parsecs/week can be acheived (with late game tech 50+). The ship just slides in, eliminates all transports and constructors and unarmed starbases, and runs out of range of the enemy battleships... if they try to give chase it can actually drag out the enemy's defenses away from its home...

This is a must when fighting the dreadlords... (prevents them from conquering planets by assassinating their transports)

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.

Each time, I choose a theme. For example, Birds of Prey (Falcon, Eagle, etc) or Snakes (Cobra, Mamba). When I get the blackhole generator, I but the word Death in front of them (Death Adder, Death Mamba, etc)

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.

Wow, some pretty cool ideas for ship naming here.

I've never been a huge fan of the 'practical' names myself, they seem too...inhuman (Of course, if you're playing as the Yor... ) Maybe it's my photographic memory too, but I can always remember the capabilities of my ship classes.

Anywho, I'm a big fan of weapon and mythological names too. I've had the Falshion heavy fighter, or the Bardiche destroyer. ANd I can't forget the Agamemnon Dreadnought. Right now I'm actually tinkering with the same idea. But, and get this... in LATIN!

Try it. Find an English (or whatever your native tounge may be) to Latin translator, and run your favorite names through it. You get some damned cool results. IE, my Noceo strike frigate, when translated back to english, means the 'pain giver'

As for naming individual ships, I never do so for anything smaller than medium, and even then only rarely. Exception being if a fleet performs exceptionally well in a campaign. Then the'll get a fleet name and ships all get their own names.

But I think I've blathered on enough, in any case.

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