What do you call your ships?

I try not to get too fancy when it comes to ship naming. I find that the most practical labels are best. I'll usually give each ship class a 2-3 letter abbreviation, followed by a descriptive term. It will have something to do with my race's theme if its interesting enough.
I'm playing a Robotech themed game right now (an anime series, if you didn't know) and I have a large battleship type called the HD-Bernard.

HD standing for Heavy Destroyer (not High Def although that would be cool ) It was named after Scott Bernard, main character. So yeah, just the basic function of the ship. I could get more technical if I had to, to specify variant ship types or configurations.

I like to concentrate more on the game than the naming, but every once in awhile I'll take one of my good ships and give them an honorific like the RDF (Robotech Defense Force) Slayer So far it's been true to it's name.

I should also get around to naming ships after characters and pretending that its being piloted by a unique unit. BTW, that would be an awesome feature to implement.

I switch to a variety of different names on a whim. Common ones of mine are:

Snakes/Serpents
Birds
Bugs
Violent (Killer, Annihilator...)
Violent and Funny (Assraper, Penetrator, Violator...)
Egyptian/Greek Gods
Final Fantasy 7 Characters/Summons

etc.

Depends on what I'm playing. I tend to RP stuff. My recent favorites include:
Unity Corporation with ships like "Liquidator", "Executive", "Acquisitor", "Entrepreneur", "Manager", "Leverage", and descriptions such as "Highly trained team of professionals equipped to handle hostile takeovers" for "Leverage" invasion ships and that kind of stuff.
Galactic Alliance with ships like "GAC Bastion", "GAD Paragon", "GAF Skyshield", "GASc Creator", "GACo Viator" and others, with naming conventions inspired by Freespace.
Fire Breed with ships like "Cinder", "Vulcan", "Igneon" and the like.
And let's not forget the timeless classics of Greek, Norse, Egyptian and Hindu mythologies. Or names from games such as Starcraft, or universes like Warhammer 40K, or even literature inspired names like from Honor Harrington or Bujold's works etc..

I usually prefix it with a race abreviation. Like thln for thalens etc.
Then either a name or a descriptor like Blackbird or Hvy Fighter
Then a roman numeral designating the version
And then a version letter if its designed to defend against a certain attack type

So for example: Yor Hvy Fighter I-b would defend against beam attacks.

I know probably WAY too much though into that but it makes it easier to see what a ship is deisgned for.

I'll usually start with one of the Stardock ships and upgrade it. The class then gets a roman numeral to indicate what version it is. So my first warship is almost always a Defender I class. If I later make a more powerful ship on a small hull, it becomes a Defender II and so on. The numeral makes it easy to see what you've not yet upgraded, or to guage the strength of a particular battle group.

If I make several versions of a ship, usually ones with the same weapons but a different defense type, I'll make that a suffix like Battle Axe II Shields or Dreadnought I Armor.

I never bother to name individual ships. I just keep the number assigned by the game.

I make them all look like Mentos and call them 'Intergalactic Fresh Makers' of course... wasn't there already a thread on ship naming conventions?

I'm still new to this so i haven't found a method i can keep track of yet. Fot now I'm putting a description of what the ship can do, for instance: miss8 md4 spd4 would be a ship that has 8 attack with missle, mass driver defense of 4 and speed of 4. otherwise i might use something funny or sarcastic, my fast trooptransport is called "school bus 1" and my trade ship is called "space truckin'" after the Deep Purple song.

Once i have designs that i like enough to keep from game to game i'll give them real names. I was considering a different base for each type of attack, like roman / greek gods for missle ships, songs or heavy metal groups for mass drivers and maybe use natural disaster phenomena for laser ships (hurrucane, tornado, earthquake). i guess the ideas can be endless. but i thought using conpletely different categories will help me remeber what they are, the i just have to add its defense and speed to the name.

how about old video game characters like
Q-Bert, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, >> YAR <<

I have a rather complex system:

CLASSIFICATION:
- TUGS: Cargo-hulled ships are "tugs", in homage to StarFleet Battles.
- SCOUTS: Any ship designed to "see," often called "sensor ships" or "eyes" by others. Again, homage to SFB, but it makes sense... there is no real "physical scouting" in space, you just get close enough to use your sensors. As technology gets better, you stop having to move around as much to make this work.
- FIGHTERS: I am not fond of having "fighters," because I prefer the SciFi framework where fighters are expressly sublight, sacrificing FTL for weapons. However, I do use them, in part so I don't have to name every little ship.
-MONITORS: Ships with no engines, for planetary defence. Some people call these "orbital weapons platforms" or "defenders." I sometimes also use fighters with no engines in this role, but those are treated as fighters.
- WARSHIPS: Everything else. The line between fighter and warship is usually at small/ medium hull size, but sometimes at tiny/ small if I am willing to put up with the micromanagement.


WARSHIP CLASSIFICATION:
- I normally follow the current USN standard (exemplified by StarFleet Battles and StarFire): CT < FF < DD < CL < CA < BB. I don't use "dreadnought," because the term is descriptive, nad not a real wet navy classification. I don't normally use CLs, and rarely CTs, and I sometimes skip either FF or DD.
- I sometimes add a "G" to the designation of ships armed with missiles, following USN practice.
- Sometimes I follow a modified age of sail convention, which recognizes frigates and ships-of-the-line (just "battleships"), using "FF" and "BB."
- Occasionally I follow a Diane Duane/ B5 (and Star Wars, sort of) convention, where a "destroyer" is bigger than a cruiser. I still use DD and CA, though.


WARSHIP SIZES:
- A medium hull is usually an FF or a CA. Large is usually a BB, but sometimes a CA. A small is usually either a (heavy) fighter or a CT, but in my current game it is both FF and DD.
- It seems silly to me that a race would think "well, this is my badassest ship ever, but I'll call it a "destroyer," because I figure eventually I'll build a bigger ship and call IT a "battleship." You're more likely to commemorate your achievement with a cool name. I therefore sometimes model "slippage," where the classification of a hull size changes with time. Usually, the first "real" warships (medium hulls) are called either "cruiser" or "frigate," as these are nice, historical, descriptive names. Later they might be "destroyers," or I might just mess up the order of classes to keep them there.


OVERALL NAME SCHEME:
For Terran vessels, I often concentrate on historical naval (warhsip) or aircraft (fighter) names. For my "United Erf," which is a hokie, Star Trek-style "parallel Earth," I can get away with the same (that's why I made the race). For aliens, I usually stick with abstract concepts, names of planets or characters in the game, or other non-Earth-specific topics.


NAMING STRATEGY:

TUGS AND (non-fighter) MONITORS:
- CLASS NAME: these usually have a class name. I often use the same hull design for all of them. I currently have a single tug design with slight jewelry changes for the "AMV", "FTV", "SBV", "CTV", "TTV", and "SWAC" variants (asteroid, freighter, constructor, colony, troop transport, and scout variants).
- VERSIONS: I variously designate improved versions with a system of roman numerals, arabic numeral, or "+", "++" "X" series modifiers. The numerals are sometimes preceded by "Mark," when I am not being lazy. Thus you can get the "Space Tug TTV+," the "Space Tug TTV MkII," or the "Space Tug TTV 2."
- NAMES: I use the automatically generated name.

FIGHTERS:
- CLASS NAME: the class name is preceeded by a alphanumeric miilitary-style prefix. I like SA (Space, Attack), SC (Space, Combat), or just F (Figher). Often, small size hulls have a different prefix than tiny. This is followed by a sequential number; sometimes one sequence, sometimes separate sequences for separate alphbetical prefixes. I like "Star-" as a prefix (homage to B5). I do, however, have the "F-1 Rancid." That was just silly fun.
- VERSIONS: I usually use an alphabetical suffix for versions, usually starting with A. Sometimes, if I design the ship with the intent of upgrading before I build it, I will use a Y- prefix ala the USAF ("YSA-1 Starcat"). I often change the prefix for more advanced versions (see below). Thus the "SA-1A Starcat" became the "SA-1C Bearcat," the "SA-1E Thundercat," etc.
- NAMES: I use the automatically generated name.

WARSHIPS AND SCOUTS:
- CLASS NAME: there is always a class name. Following naval tradition, that name is always the name of a ship (whenever possible, the first produced).
- CLASSIFICATION: I always add "Class" and the "standard" two-letter classification symbol at the end of the name, e.g., "Dark Star Class FF."
- VERSIONS: Same as for tugs.
- NAMES: I usually have a name-scheme for a class, and often an overall scheme for a type (e.g., destroyers are often military leaders, battleships are often named for planets I own). Some of my favorite schemes are generals, admirals, famous ships, cities, states, countries, political leaders, snakes, predatory mammals, cool adjectives and British ships that start with R, "[insert color here] Star," famous paleontologists, etc.
- PREFIXES: I sometimes use a prefix for ship names, such as UES ("United Erf Ship"). This gets to be a pain after a while.
- HULL NUMBERS: I have used sequential hul numbers in names, e.g., "UES Dark Star FF 01." Keeping these sequential is a real pain, and I don't usually do this anymore.

And it took four times as long to write that as it did to think it up. Man, can I waste time or what?

I turn to the dictionary. You can open almost any page at random and find a couple of good names for ships. If that doesn't work, I shamelessly plagiarize the Royal Navy (more interesting names than the US Navy, IMO)

All ships in the same class get names starting with the same Letter.

My system is very straight-forward

SM LZ 3-1

This means a ship with a small hull, that has lazer weapons with an attack of 3 and a defense of 1.

I give more distinct names. Since I dont care much about design, I usually just do one and upgrade it. Sometimes I have about five or more versions of the same ship.

The most used one is called Lotus. Its a medium class human design that has a ring around it that ressembles a lotus. The first name was Battle Array but I changed once I noticed it looked like a lotus.

The others are called SunCrow (small), Ephelion (big) and the biggest is Icarus (large). There is another medium one that is called BeeHive because it looks like a bee.

I also made a defensive design that is called Mobile Defense Station. Its mainly a design that looks like a space station with guns.

Same here, But I also include the speed and what type of ship.

W12 b5-4 p4-3 = Warship speed 12 with beam and particle weapons/Defense

I also include other info on different types of ship, i.e, sensors, capacity etc.

This way I know what each ships capabilities are straight away.

I guess if I get more into designing ships rather than just building mostly practical vessels then I might start being more creative with names.

I play a custom,super-warrior,earth spin off race, modeled on the ancient Greeks.

With that in mind,flagship is always NSS HYPATIA (Literally, women of superior intellect).I believe thats fitting for a vessel outfitted with my best technology.

Her sister ships are DESSA ,ISEMI,and SOLON.(roamer ,to know,and wisdom.)

I have redone my survey ship to use a large hull version of the original terren vessel,thank you Kryro.And have made them updated medium cruisers that form the backbone of my fleet.

Their names are VIRAGO,NIKE,ATALANTA,DIANNE,ALEXIA, and THERON.

My heavily armed and armored Troop ships,which I use to bleed off extra population,so I have a substantial standing army,are named alike in convention.
NSS NIKEPHOROS ,NIKOMEDES,NIKESTRATOS,POLYNIKES,etc.,etc.

Battleships are Named after Star Systems I own, and Destroyers ,after planets I've colonized.

Frigates I give names personal to me.Names of,long lost friends ,people I've met in my travels (ex-Merchant Marine),and relatives etc.It always gives me a sense these ships are named after heroes,like many real naval vessels,which most of them were,if only to me.

And that leaves fighters and bombers.These get numbered until they have distinguished
themselves in combat.Then I name them for the battle ,or what they were defending.

And thats my two cent tour.,Cheers!!

I call mine:

little ones: Defender/Sentinel/Mosquito/Gladiator
middle: Claw, Spider,Medusa, Hydra
large: Dragon, Samurai, Sword
huge: Odin, Thor, or name of my race (for example - i play a custom race named"Harconnen", the biggest ships are the "harconnen-class".

Expierenced ships are honored by planet names (especially planet where headquarterbuildings are placed).

Fun thread.

I have bounced around with various naming conventions, but tend to go with General Pant's on using the USN prefixes to define the general class, (ie: DD Manta, CA Odessa, etc.) The other common thing I find myself doing is defining upgraded ships, especially non-combat ships, by their speed, since it is handy to know at a glance (ie: "Transport 6" defines it as having speed of 6...)

I also enjoy specifically re-naming particular ships with individual names, but it involves so much micro-management that I tend to only do it for particularly large, expensive "command ships" that I am producing very few of, or ships with high experience where the honorific helps me note that it is an elite unit.

I think someone should do a Random ship name generator. We could choose the hull size so that the tiny sensor ship doesn't end up with the name Bahamuth mk4.
I rarely name individual ships but it could be a fun addition to have the game popup a message to name a single ship if it reaches level 3 or something (though the popup should be optional).
Rub3n, the guy who did the 1000+ star names, could do it for us.



Pac-man for the starting anomaly'flagship is awesome!

hmmm, i prefer the more romantic but not very helpful yet poetic approach the sci-fi auhtor Ian Bainks coined for naming his ultrapowerful starships with AI cores.

some examples: shootthemlater, notinventedhere, greyarea, lastorders, ringleader of the tormentors, coup-de-grace,

of course this cant be used for smaller more prolifc ships as you would quickly become bewildered as to their purpose but for capital ships one offs and exceptional ships can be nice.

  

Sometimes there just aren't enough characters available to give them the names they deserve, such as OMFGTh15Pwnz3v3ryth1ngLOLOLOL!!111

Colony ships: Named after one of the 13 United States colonies.

Transports: Named after famous soldiers, or "Heinlein" in honor of Starship Troopers.

Medium warships: U.S. Presidents or States.

Scouts: famous explorers.

My first transport class was the Roger Young. The description read "shines the name..."

General Pants has it going on.

Me. I am like Borg999.

Example.

Sparrow L3-S3-V18

All Small class ships start with S. Tiny T. So on so forth.

L3 - Lets me know the laser attack is 3

S3 - Has Shields with a power of 3

V18 - V is for velocity, moves, speed. 18 is the distance.

Sometimes I get creative but not very often. I just want to play the game really. The only other time I will name a ship is once it reaches Level 15 or more. Then I will give it a unique name.

I've taken to naming my ships based on the following:

Frieghters and the like are never named.

Most other ships get a name based on whatever comes to mind.

Ships that have survived many battles and gained a few levels of experience get renamed to mythological characters (gods, heros, monsters, etc)

Starbases get a name based on their purpose and location.

This leads to a huge amount of possibilities and originality

Usually I give each hull size a class name in the designer, based off the racial theme (i.e Thalan's get insect names (Scorpion Class) while Drengin use famous battles, especially if any have occurred in the game I'm currently playing). A roman numeral denotes upgrades, though if I have several contemporary designs they'll get another name). If a ship does well in battle, or otherwise performs some outstanding (or idiotic) deed then I'll give it a specific unique name based on it's performance "IHV Invulnerable" for a ship which survives several battles (the ones who perform stupidly or are otherwise unlucky tend to follow a four letter naming convention, if you know what I mean).
Starbases are named according to function and location, for example "Space Lab 1" for a research mine, or "Iconian Grand Mall" for an Influence Starbase near to or in Iconian territory.

Hmm, all are interesting ways to do it. It sounds like a lot of you have neither the time of the paitence to name every ship you construct.

Again, as for me, I tend to name by ships in similar style to how Star Trek does it. I try not to randomly choose names though. I do my best to pick names appropriate to the specific class.

Note: Shown below are the names I give my Terran ships. All these have the 'TAS' prefix.

Smaller combat ships will have names like Sabre, Wasp and Defiant.

Medium combat ships get names of famous people like Patton, Moscow, Jupiter and Templar. This was largely based on how Star Trek: Armada names Akira class starships.

Larger combat ships get names like Galaxy, Yamato, Sovereign and Enterprise.

Scouts get names like Columbus, Mercury, Pinta and Pathfinder and Pegasus.

Colony ships don't usually get names, but common ones I use are New Terra and Venus.

Constructors never get names, but the constructor I usually use is called the Sydney class.

Science ships get names like Edison and Explorer. I tend to name the inital flag ship Earth, Terra or Sol (Our sun's name) though.

Starbases are called 'Starbase x' based on how many starbases I have owned before it. continues even if a starbase is destoryed. For example, if I create three starbases during a game (Starbases 1, 2 and 3) and Starbase 3 is destoryed, the next starbase I build will be Starbase 4. This is again plagerised from Star Trek.

I name my ships in a way that is very similar to yours Ranger however I don't usually reserve names for specific ships or classes except for the initial ship of that class. Like the first Shippo Class Destroyer I build will always be named ISS Shippo. However that doesn't mean I can't use it on say a battleship if the first Shippo is destroyed. When a new ship is finished I name it whatever I can think of at the time and if I think there is a chance I already have one by that name in service I just do a quick check. I decided on the prefix ISS because it is what I used in both Civilization 3 & 4, since I always conquered the world in that game I just viewed GalCiv as continuing the time line of that game. ISS stands for Imperial Sea Ship or in GalCiv's case Imperial Star Ship.