Vehicle Names

[8BitNinja]

Here we go with Futurequest again

After finishing the class and ability lists, 8BitNinja wrote on, but this time about all the cool vehicles to help turn people into Swiss cheese or chunky salsa

upon the writing, The young Paladin who calls himself a Ninja ran into a perdicament

what to name the things

he had many vehicle ideas, but not many names

Why was he speaking in third person, well I'm not anymore

please help me come up with names for vehicles for my game

[Douche]

Apocalypse would be an awesome name for a spaceship

[CharonsHelper]

I'd go with themes.

For example - you could make all of the tanks monsters from Greek mythology. Each other category of vehicles could be named after things from a different sort of mythology. (Norse/Shinto/Celtic etc.)

I did this in a system where the exo-suits were all named after mythological heroes, and the mecha after various gods. (Used the same rules - just the mecha were on a larger scale.)

For ships - I'd stick to the standbys. Battleship/Destroyer/Cruiser/Cutter/Carrier etc.

[Strigon]

It's not uncommon for them to be named after animals; Nighthawk, Falcon, Warthog, etc.

Mass Effect uses names of famous battles, which works too. What kind of vehicles are we talking? Names for jets, tanks, and ships are all probably going to be quite different.

[Jormengand]

Vehicle names should say something about the faction and the vehicle itself. For example:

The Empire (Tyrannical, militaristic regime) have the fast-moving Accensus jeep, the generalist Champion tank, the massive Centurion tank, the Auxiliary missile launcher, and the Aquila jet-bike as their mass-produced vehicles, and are headed by the Imperator tank.
The Alliance (Rebels against the empire) have the Discovery VTOL which is the only vehicle that can capture locations, the defensive Liberator tank, the tank-anti-tank Absolution, the Salvation artillery, the all-rounder Vengeance hovercraft, and their aggressive flagship, the Indignation weapon platform.
The Xenos (Destructive alien invaders) have the slow but powerful Volcano tank, the long-ranged anti-tank Earthquake missile launcher, the extremely fast-moving Hurricane skimmer, the Lightning fighter, the anti-infantry Tsunami rover, and their leader's personal craft, the Apocalypse bomber (Great minds think alike?).

Feel free to steal any of these names, given that I'll never actually get around to making this game...

[Berenger]

I Call It "Vera".

[8BitNinja]

I forgot to state this, but so far I have the:

Alpha-6 Zephyr: Basically a Humvee

Beta-35 Hermes: Fast Hover bike

Gamma-47 Chieftain: Tank

Delta-21 Tarantula: 8-legged walker

I'll use your guys ideas, I'm probably going to name the fighter jet the centurion

[Beleriphon]

All modern militaries use common designations within their own stucture. All fighter jets are F-something in the USAF, which all bombers are B-something.

[CharonsHelper]

All modern militaries use common designations within their own stucture. All fighter jets are F-something in the USAF, which all bombers are B-something.

True - they have designations - but also have names. The F-15 Strike Eagle, the F-14 Tomcat, the F-22 Raptor, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the B-2 Spirit etc.

[Cealocanth]

I'd personally find a theme that works for the group that makes the vehicle, and name them powerful things from that theme or culture. Ancient Greek is a very popular one. You get names like Titan, Naiad, Minotaur, Hydra, and Chimera, all of which make good names for vehicular classes.

[D+1]

All modern militaries use common designations within their own stucture. All fighter jets are F-something in the USAF, which all bombers are B-something.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Defense_aerospace_vehi cle_designation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_vehicles

[Beleriphon]

True - they have designations - but also have names. The F-15 Strike Eagle, the F-14 Tomcat, the F-22 Raptor, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the B-2 Spirit etc.

They do, and some of them are unofficial. The A-10 Thunderbolt is not actually the Warthog, despite that being the more common appellation. A number of them are also names given to vehicles by the enemies of the operating state. Look at the names of the MiG aircraft by NATO, the soviets didn't refer to their planes as Foxhound, Foxbat, or Fulcrum. Although, there are still rules even for those names (jet powered fighter planes are all two syllable words starting with F, prop driven bombers are single syllable words starting with B).

For a bit of silliness, I'd name aircraft after the AD&D 1E polearm list.

[Storm_Of_Snow]

A number of them are also names given to vehicles by the enemies of the operating state. Look at the names of the MiG aircraft by NATO, the soviets didn't refer to their planes as Foxhound, Foxbat, or Fulcrum. Although, there are still rules even for those names (jet powered fighter planes are all two syllable words starting with F, prop driven bombers are single syllable words starting with B).

They're just reporting names, partially because of the differences in alphabets, partially because the intelligence agencies get details on them before they actually know what they're called, and it extends to pretty much all of the soviet hardware.

Although IIRC, Fulcrum pilots liked the NATO reporting name because it implied they were central to everything that happened on the battlefield. :smallamused:

As a historical point, US armed forces naming conventions were picked up from the British army in WW2, until then, most things was referred to by US forces by their designation, but this became untenable when lend-lease vehicles were operated next to natively owned ones of the same type.

But yes, pick a theme, which could be anything - towns, rivers, girls names, words that start with the same letter (most British WW2 tanks started with C, NATO reporting names for Soviet equipment differ depending on type), animals, meterological phenomena, historical people (lend-lease tanks in Commonwealth service used US generals names, which the US have carried on), something they resemble (British SPG's had religious ranks because the armoured superstructures resembled church pulpits), constellations, letters from an alphabet, whatever, just so long as they can't be confused with something else.

[Red Fel]

I Call It "Vera".

This. Other options include "Lola," "Lucille," and "Kitt."

For bonus points, give them all the same name, but with different modifiers. For example: "This here's Lucille. This is Lucile II. This is Lucille Jr. and Lucille Sr. I don't care, I named 'em, I can call 'em Jr. and Sr., shut up. Here's Big Lucille, Bad Lucille, and Busted Lucille - I call 'em the Lucille Triplets. This here's Funky Lucille, don't ask about the smell. And this, this here's my girl, my beauty. This here's Lucille with a Capital L. The L stands for 'Wave Motion Cannon.' I know there's no L in 'Wave Motion Cannon,' shut up, it's poetic."

[8BitNinja]

If anyone has an ex-wife, please give me her first name

That's going to be the craft specifically build to drop nukes

[The Fury]

I own an old Camaro named "Beatrix." Is that the kind of example you're looking for?

[Sgt. Cookie]

"She's one of ours, sir" is always a good one for buying a few rounds worth of confusion.

[8BitNinja]

I own an old Camaro named "Beatrix." Is that the kind of example you're looking for?

It will be the name of the model, you can call it whatever you want in the game

You don't have to call an interceptor a wraith, the pilot could have it's own name for it

I heard that in WW2, Pilots would name their craft after their girlfriends

[Red Fel]

"She's one of ours, sir" is always a good one for buying a few rounds worth of confusion.

As long as you're going with phrases-as-names, you could take a tip from Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. In these books, ships in the Culture are Minds, AIs with distinct personalities, and they choose their own names. These names frequently reflect the Mind's personality. Here are a few zingers:
Profit Margin
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Youthful Indiscretion
So Much for Subtlety
Just Read the Instructions
Sweet and Full of Grace
I Thought He Was With You
Dramatic Exit, Or, Thank You and Goodnight
Stranger Here Myself
Frank Exchange of ViewsAnd so forth. You can find a more complete list if you look for it.

Alternatively, consider coming up with pretentious alternative terms for the function of the vehicle. For example, name a warship the "Ultima Ratio Regum" ("the final argument of kings," meaning force); name a siege vehicle the "Murum Aries Attigit" (literally "the ram has touched the wall," indicating the start of a siege and the end to any possibility of compromise); name a prison ship the "Vae Victus" ("woe to the conquered"); and so forth.

Pretentious Latin is a pretty nice source of fancy-pants sounding ship names.

[Excession]

Some vehicles get named after famous generals or warriors, either veterans from the country that built the vehicle, or older names. For example Agamemnon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAS_Agamemnon), Belisarius (http://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=19842), Yi Sun-sin, Charles de Gaulle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_aircraft_carrier_Charles_de_Gaulle_%28R91%2 9), or Patton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M46_Patton).

This tends to be more common as ship names, but there are a few tanks in there as well.

[goto124]

Just Read the Instructions

Can't... stop... laughing... (xkcd.com/293/)

[8BitNinja]

Well, I'm done with that section, thanks again for helping, these are the people I took some names from

Beleriphon

Berenger

Jormengand

Is it okay if these names are the credit ones?

Don't worry about you who are not mentioned on this list, the whole playground is getting a thank you

[Beleriphon]

Some vehicles get named after famous generals or warriors, either veterans from the country that built the vehicle, or older names. For example Agamemnon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAS_Agamemnon), Belisarius (http://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=19842), Yi Sun-sin, Charles de Gaulle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_aircraft_carrier_Charles_de_Gaulle_%28R91%2 9), or Patton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M46_Patton).

This tends to be more common as ship names, but there are a few tanks in there as well.

The Greek's MBT is the Leonidas as an example.


Well, I'm done with that section, thanks again for helping, these are the people I took some names from

Beleriphon

Berenger

Jormengand

Is it okay if these names are the credit ones?

Don't worry about you who are not mentioned on this list, the whole playground is getting a thank you

I'm cool with that. Although, my screen name is meant to be Bellerophon, I just didn't know how to spell it when I came up with so many moons ago.

[8BitNinja]

I'm cool with that. Although, my screen name is meant to be Bellerophon, I just didn't know how to spell it when I came up with so many moons ago.

Changed it, you're good

[Jormengand]

Well, I'm done with that section, thanks again for helping, these are the people I took some names from

Beleriphon

Berenger

Jormengand

Is it okay if these names are the credit ones?

Don't worry about you who are not mentioned on this list, the whole playground is getting a thank you

Yeah, sure. Thanks.

[8BitNinja]

Yeah, sure. Thanks.

No problem, glad you could help