I need spaceship names, please.

[FiddleForge]

I'm stockpiling as many names as I can to offer a better lived-in feel for my game universe. I don't want all the ship names to sound like I, alone, came up with them. You fine folks all have varying mindsets so suggest away as long as it isn't explicit. I'm sticking to a PG-13 feel. Feel free to elaborate why a name is awesome and/or it's meaning and origin. I'll even take names for space stations if you've got them. Thank you.

Edit: I should mention that this setting has fantasy races and magic in addition to technology so a wider range of options open up in that sense.

[KorvinStarmast]

Ships:

Starwind
Starwing
Solrunner
Planet Vagrant
Adastra

Space Stations:

Alpha Lem
Chrono Prime
Keppler Prime

[J-H]

Here's a really big list of Royal Navy names:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ship_names_of_the_Royal_Navy
I favor names like the Implacable, Indefatigable, Indomitable, Intrepid, Invincible, etc.
The RN has apparently had over 13,000 ships in service, so you could mine this for a long time if you don't mind a British sound to the names.
You could also run them through a translator program to get the same names in whatever RL (or fantasy like Klingon/Elvish) language you'd like.

Fantasy Name Generators has both a Ship and Spaceship version
https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/spaceship-names.php

You could also go with weapon names in various languages.
Nahuatl: Atl-atl, macahuitl, cuahualoli, etc.
Japanese: Katana, bo, naginata, etc.
Chinese: Dao, chu-ko-nu, qiang, etc.

[Anonymouswizard]

Here's a really big list of Royal Navy names:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ship_names_of_the_Royal_Navy
I favor names like the Implacable, Indefatigable, Indomitable, Intrepid, Invincible, etc.
The RN has apparently had over 13,000 ships in service, so you could mine this for a long time if you don't mind a British sound to the names.
You could also run them through a translator program to get the same names in whatever RL (or fantasy like Klingon/Elvish) language you'd like.

Might be worth digging through other naval name records and using different countries for different navies.

For individual ship suggestions:
Thunder Child (yes it's a The War Of The Worlds reference, it's still awesome)
Persephone
Dauntless
Dreadnaught
*Insert mythological monster here*
Gravitas... Gravitas... No don't help me, I'll get it in a moment
Omega

[Kid Jake]

One that I've used a time or two is a horrific destructive warship named The Spirit of Peace and Diplomacy.

So that when they ride up to burn your planet and enslave your people, at least it's in The Spirit of Peace and Diplomacy.

[Bohandas]

I think Seventh Sanctum (https://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php) has a spaceship name generator

[SimonMoon6]

You can always use slightly altered versions of famous fictional spaceships, like the Exit Prize or the Century Bird.

Or name the ships after famous real dead people, like the George Washington, the Edmund Fitzgerald, or the E.B. White.

[Leon]

Power Metal Song titles can be good for ship names

[Imbalance]

No matter what else you end up with, there has to be an Easter egg about a starfreighter that got stuck sideways in a wormhole. Go ahead and call it the Ever Given, since everybody already totally forgot about it.

[Metastachydium]

Alright. Here's a few ideas, in case you don't want to go all-in on the tried and tired old human naming conventions for everyone:

1. Have you read Lowry's Under the Volcano? Hugh's bildungsflashback (the only part of an otherwise so very incredibly good novel I love that I don't care much about, but that's beside the point) features two ships, the Philoctetes and the Oedipus Tyrannus, both named after plays by Sophocles. You can do (kind of) the same with Aeschylan and Euripidean plays for some more refined nation/civilization/whatever and have, say,
—a. Rhesos; Kyklops; Alkestis; Medeia; Herakleis; Stephanephoros; Andromakhe; Hekabe; Hiketis; Mainomenos; Ion; Troas; Phoinissa; Bakkhe; Tauroi and Aulis as medium-size, more agile vessels; and
—b. Persa; Hepta; Desmotes; Khoephoros and Eumenis as larger, heavier craft.

2. For something a bit more alien-sounding, you can pick a genus of, well any category that has genera in it and transliterate the more exotic-sounding species names phonetically, maybe taking the archaic route here and there. In this manner, from Prunus we get
—Apetala; Awiom; Darwasika; Graiana; Inkana; Simoni; Tenella; Pumila; Havardi; Durakina; Pissardi; Rakemosa; Dumetorom; Satiwa; Moldawika.

3. In a similar vein, you can take a relatively obscure language or one that's not widely spoken in your area and likewise transliterate/alter it where you see that fit. For examples, I'll use Arabic and Romanian:
—Sharq; Shamal; Djanub; Gharb; Suqur; Nasr; Ittihad; Muhadjir; and Vynt; Tcher; Sbor; Sedjata; Sware; Ostash; Megar.

4. Going through the components/regions that constitute the human brain can yield another long list of names with an interesting ring to them, including but not limited to
—Arcuata; Cuneata; Pons; Dentata; Crus; Ruber; Cinerea; Radiata; Striata; Lamina; Dura; Calcar; Forniks; Vermis; Meninks.

[Morgaln]

As someone who occasionally has to deal with (commercial) ships in their line of work, most ship names aren't especially creative.
Names of cities, rivers or islands are quite popular, occasionally preceeded by "Spirit of" or something similar. Female names might be somewhat clichéd, but happen a lot, so a baby name generator will also be helpful.

I've also seen ships named after famous actors or artists, as well as fictional characters like the three musketeers.

There are also occasional weird names, like calling your line of ships "My ship <number>", but those are pretty rare.

[Martin Greywolf]

Here's my list of names to use for pirate airships:

Questionably Acquired
Indestructible VII
Big Booty or Bust
Predictably Damaged
Hostile Acquisition
Malicious Intent
Don't Hek the Snek
Serial Peacemaker
Budget Cuts
Lost and Found
Another Happy Landing
Potentially Airborne
Boombringer
Ship Happens
Zombies Can't Fly
Smile Before Flash
Sotally Tober
End of the Rainbow
Devil's Reacharound
Mad-Cuz-Bad
Git Gud
Dodge This
Just a Cloud
Mining Your Salt
Cunning Stunt

For anything else, I usually name it the most pretentious thing I can, Age of Sail ship names are a good source for that, what with Formidable, Salvador del Mundo, Santissima Trinidad and so on.

[OldTrees1]

Celestial Object + Movement Verb (but "noun" the verb)

Sun + Dancer
Star + Chaser
Moon + Skipper
Asteroid + Crawler
Blackhole + Jumper

Names like this basically create a sentence of "The ship verbs the object" which is a nice description for a ship or class of ships.

This can be expanded to other verbs.

Planet + Eater
Comet + Collector

[farothel]

Are your players fans of the Star Wars expanded universe? If no, there's a whole set of star destroyer, mon cal cruiser and other names out there. Star Destroyer names are quite good for evil empires.

[DigoDragon]

Spacy McSpace Face


I like stealing the names off NASA probes/landers for names to science and exploration vessels; Voyager, Mariner, Opportunity, etc.

[Kid Jake]

A buddy of mine in Ark always named his ships The Unsinkable(whatever number he was on). He was up to around The Unsinkable 18 when I stopped playing.

A name like The Invincible(3) could add a touch of humor. Especially if captained by a Zap Brannigan type.

[Anonymouswizard]

A buddy of mine in Ark always named his ships The Unsinkable(whatever number he was on). He was up to around The Unsinkable 18 when I stopped playing.

A name like The Invincible(3) could add a touch of humor. Especially if captained by a Zap Brannigan type.

Heh. I do the opposite in Kerbal Space Program, my basic surface to (Kerbin) orbit rockets are the Bad Idea series, whereas any attempts at deep space craft get the Imminent Explosion title.

If I ever get good enough that I'll be setting up colonies or the like they'll be named something like Tragic Mistake, but I'm still running out of fuel on my way to crash into the Mun.

[Metastachydium]

Celestial Object + Movement Verb (but "noun" the verb)

Sun + Dancer
Star + Chaser
Moon + Skipper
Asteroid + Crawler
Blackhole + Jumper

[Enter the Pulsartoddler and the Damocloid Locomoter, fastest ships of the galaxy.]

[Storm_Of_Snow]

As someone who occasionally has to deal with (commercial) ships in their line of work, most ship names aren't especially creative.
Names of cities, rivers or islands are quite popular, occasionally preceeded by "Spirit of" or something similar. Female names might be somewhat clichéd, but happen a lot, so a baby name generator will also be helpful.

I've also seen ships named after famous actors or artists, as well as fictional characters like the three musketeers.

There are also occasional weird names, like calling your line of ships "My ship <number>", but those are pretty rare.
I have to deal with commercial vessels as well (in a peripheral way), and I can agree - there's some really odd names out there.

There's also a lot of vessels that carry their owning companies name and a (sometimes themed) distinguishing name - to give an example, if Jeff Bezos decided he wanted to own a global shipping fleet and picked birds as the theme, you could have a vessel called the Amazon Nightingale. Or you could have their home/registered planet or build location - maybe there's a Ganymede Sarah or something similar.

Some vessels carry names from their owner's native language (especially oriental languages - and not just Kobyashi Maru :smallwink:).

And while I second the notion of using a baby naming site, I personally find this site a wonderful source of names - https://tekeli.li/onomastikon/

[Lacco]

Objects in Space, one of my favourite spacefaring games, has this big list of ships. Some of my favourites (which include some great references) are in the spoiler.

Maltese Falcon
Fortunate Son
Ventriss Storm
Alabaster Folly
Morgan's Honour
Pericles
Nomad Explorer
Septim Power
Bounty
Destiny
Horizon
Starlight
Ruza's Hope
Pygmy Giant
Indefatigable
Irish Rover
Amber Fire
Brigadier
Jasmine Charm
Constant
O'Brien's Folly
De Ruyter
Tradewind
Alcide

[comicshorse]

If you ask me you can't go wrong with nicking the names of some Culture ships

I'm particularly fond of the 'Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again' and the 'Ravished by the sheer implausibility of that statement'

https://theculture.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_spacecraft

[OldTrees1]

[Enter the Pulsartoddler and the Damocloid Locomoter, fastest ships of the galaxy.]

Based on those names and the assertion that they are fast:

Beware the Pulsartoddler. I have no idea how it goes so fast but was the worst turbulence I have ever felt. It travels from pulsar to pulsar with a signature unsteady zigzag around the pulsar beam as it accelerates or decelerates.

The Damocloid Locomotor on the other hand is a legendary ship of yore. Nobody knows how it was built but it is able to take minor planets and comfortably accelerate them faster than most other ships can fly unencumbered. Wars have been fought over this ship.

[Lord Torath]

These are good for a few moments of confusion in the opposing ships:

The Obvious Distraction
Belay that Order
Initiate Self Destruct
Run for the Escape Pods
All Hands Abandon Ship

[incrediblefrown]

If you ask me you can't go wrong with nicking the names of some Culture ships

I'm particularly fond of the 'Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again' and the 'Ravished by the sheer implausibility of that statement'

i always liked these longer phrase names. some of the better known ships in halo are a little like this as well; Pillar Of Autumn, In Amber Clad, etc.

one thing i liked to do when i was toying with notes for a traveller campaign is assign different name schemes to different sectors of space as sort of a cultural marker; if they're from over here, they get a name that's a genus of flora or fauna, like Strelitzia or Aranea. if they're from over there, they get an adjective + noun name. if they're part of this organization, i give them a song title or lyric. just spitballing a bunch of methods that are easy to go grab a random word generator or raid a wikipedia article for, that you can shuffle together to make a list of ships in a port that don't all *sound* like they came from the same place, but you can make one method denser than the others to imply "oh, this is what ships from this place sound like; and these other ships sound like visitors", stuff like that.

[Beleriphon]

You can always use slightly altered versions of famous fictional spaceships, like the Exit Prize or the Century Bird.

At yes, the good old Business Venture and Decade Vulture.


Carillon of Fallen Empires
The Tannhäuser Gate
RRS Hauer
LSS Royal Star



On that note, you might want to pick some prefixes for commercial or civilian ships. As a real world example: SS is steamship, while MV is the prefix for motor vessel (as in most modern commercial ships). I'd suggest SV for solar vessel and IV for interstellar vessel.

You can also use prefixes for owner names. MSC for example is Mediterranean Shipping Company, which could applied to Argo. Thus MSC Argo is a cargo ship owned by MSC.

Then all you need to do is slap the appropriate prefix on any real ship and you're golden!

On that note: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_ships

That is a complete list of every ship that Wikipedia lists. There are thousands and thousands of names to choose from.

[Wintorn]

Oh baby, here we go. In no particular order:
The Forward Foray
The Harken Heavy
The Even Effort
Sicarus Scorned
Carion Call
Clarion Hall
The Gum Tug
Collideascope (it's a ramming ship)
Arken Angelus
The Capital Capricious
The Rapscallion
Bright Sky Boundless
The Bumrush
Wanton Whimsy
Concorde Cradle
Bone & Brew
Reckless Abandoned
Sandman
Queen of Hearts
Ace of Spades
King of Clubs
Diamond Jack
Permanent Assurance
Choking Hazard
Gets The Worm
Anyone's Game
Invincible II
No Sense Of Right And Wrong
Pyrite Ship
The Maker's Mark
Flying Obstacle
Null And Void
Oceans Of Wrath
The Nature Of Catastrophe
Forward Thrust
Pretty Lady
Fungible Goods
Scourge Of The Weak
Scourge Of The Week
Stormchaser
Feeling Fine
Lack Of Regard
Heavier Than Air
What Goes Up
A Stone's Throw
Monarch
Heirarch
Ecclesiarch
Autarch
Oligarch
Patriarch
Matriarch
Revenant
Snake Eyes
Royal Flush
Tall Order
Made You Flinch
In Mythril Clad
Wanderlust
The Restitution Of All Things
The Warrant Absolute
Aces High
Right Eye Blind
The Water Foul
Three Left Turns
Two Wrongs
The Hammerhead
The Laughing Bastard
Requiem
Armistice
The Silver Hand
Serenity

Hope It Helps

[Kriegspiel]

A personal favorite has always been Samuel Clemens' riverboat in the Riverworld series.....

Not For Hire

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Here's a really big list of Royal Navy names:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ship_names_of_the_Royal_Navy
I favor names like the Implacable, Indefatigable, Indomitable, Intrepid, Invincible, etc.
The RN has apparently had over 13,000 ships in service, so you could mine this for a long time if you don't mind a British sound to the names.
You could also run them through a translator program to get the same names in whatever RL (or fantasy like Klingon/Elvish) language you'd like.

Fantasy Name Generators has both a Ship and Spaceship version
https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/spaceship-names.php

You could also go with weapon names in various languages.
Nahuatl: Atl-atl, macahuitl, cuahualoli, etc.
Japanese: Katana, bo, naginata, etc.
Chinese: Dao, chu-ko-nu, qiang, etc.

Assuming you can use skme English:

This! I love the way the Royal Navy names ships.

You may as well pick famous ships.

Enterprise may be too obvious but there is a darned fine reason a rental car company and Kirk's ship used that name.

Acosta, Johnson (or Evans if that is too obvious)

Warspite though maybe the best name ever. And if any of yoir players get the historical significance give fhem in game props.

[Bohandas]

You can always use slightly altered versions of famous fictional spaceships, like the Exit Prize or the Century Bird.

You could also abstract this in a sort of scattergories type way

Enterprise
Invisible Hand
Capital
Wealth of Nations
Commerce
Return On Investment

Heart of Gold
Harvest Moon
The Needle
The Damage
The Emperor of Wyoming
Unknown Legend
The Old Laughing Lady
The White Line
Drifter
Danger Bird
Big Time
Cinnamon Girl
Powderfinger
The Loner
Hitchhiker
Hippie Dream
Johnny Magic
Love and War
Music Arcade
Monsanto Years
Silver and Gold
Revolution Blies
Four Strong Winds
Act of Love
Thrasher

Red Dwarf
Blue Giant
Main Sequence
Neutron Star
Hot Jupiter

Event Horizon
Ergosphere
Cauchy Horizon
Singularity
Ringularity
Maximum Entropy
Holographic Principle
Black String
Einstein-Rosen Bridge
Ether Flow
Ellis Drainhole
Dark Star
Time Dilation
Firewall
Kerr Metric
Schwarzchild Radius
Gravitational Collapse
Reissner–Nordstrom

Serenity
Ataraxia
Inner Peace
Nirvana
Prajnaparamita
Patience
Humility
Renunciation
Grace Under Fire
Contentment

The Milano
The Pirouette
The Goldfish
Bordeaux
Snowball
Chessman
Lexington
Harvest Wheat
Puff Pastry

Cornucopia of Excellent Goods at Low Prices
Amazon
Acme

The Eagle
The Condor
The Hawk
The Turkey Vulture
Dromaeosaur
Archaeopteryx
Barn Owl
Terror Bird

[Alcore]

Once upon a time in Stellaris I ran out of things to do and so I entered window mode and let it keep running in the background. What did I do to pass the time between researches? I added a few hundred words to my own personal subsector in Mongoose Traveller and, when writing in an alien race, ran into this problem.

For those who play Stellaris you know were this is going;


For my butterfly people all ships come in two part names. A yacht could be named “Ram-zardox” using the following…

First part;

Che - small stations
Fej - large stations
Hom - small military craft
Ram - small residential (free traders qualify but usually shuttles and yachts)
Ima - large residential
Mok - freight haulers
Pa - science vessels
Tra - construction or mining craft
Zof - corvette
Pas - destroyer
Rit - cruiser
Wer - battleship

Last part;
Ata, bon, dum, fid, gentru, ghan, hen, jov, kinen, kot, kow, kuteq, lesuk, letr, par, trogd, wrek, yma, yron, zardox


Plenty more whare that came from but it should be a good start.

[Bohandas]

You could also abstract this in a sort of scattergories type way...

Axiom
Corollary
Postulate
Syllogism
Premise
Proposition

Thunderbird
Firebird
Roc
Pheonix
Jiufeng
Peng

[Kane0]

Battletech and other wargames have similarly impressive lists of names to steal, both in terms of individual names/titles and classifications.

Aquila
Banshee
Cutlass
Dragonfire
Hellcat
Ironside
Lancer
Oni
Poignard
Rusulka
Scarab
Stuka
Transgressor
Vandal
Xerxes

Pirate's Bane
Death's Knell
Anansi
Street Cleaner
Ember
Oxide
Grinner
Ebon Dragon
Purifier
Bloodlust
St Ive's Blues
Forentine
Loup De Guerre
Belial
Golden Child
Rainbow Crow
Deathwish
Jester
Underdog
Ilya Muromets
Hangover
Manul
Sköll
Pretty Baby
Skokomish
Knockout
La Malinche
Broadside
Boar's Head
Nanuq

[Isikyus]

Inspired by Scott Westerfeld's _Leviathan_, I could see some books of philosophy (and similar) working as ship names:

Behemoth
Utopia
Republic (surely a real ship)
Liberty (ditto)
Rhetoric (a warship: "Will Rhetoric persuade you?")
Symposium (a party boat?)
Stranger

Several more if you're going for more Culture-esque names:

Apology
Critique of Pure Reason
Also Sprach Zarathustra
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Beyond Good and Evil
Human Nature
The Complete Works

Most of these are cherry-picked from a list of philosophy books from Goodreads (can't post links yet, sorry).

[Demostheknees]

I've always wanted to name ships after oil paint names:

Dreadnaught-Class "The Titanium White"
Star-fighter 363 "Pthalo Blue"
Freighter-Class "The Cadmium Yellow"
Stealth-Prototype 001 "Alizarin Crimson"

Etcetera

Also, I've always been a huge fan of the Halo AI names whenever I need sci-fi related name schemes. Things like 343 Guilty Spark,
033 Mendicant Bias - basically combining two weird or unrelated words that when put together sound deep/philosophical.

[Spore]

I enjoyed Outer Worlds' Unreliable, a joke about protagonist space pirates always beating the odds. Larger vessels would probably have a comitee preventing silly joke names but small ships or pirate vessels? Joke away.

"Stupid f*cking thing" for a poorly maintained ship.
"Queen's Larder"
"Emperor's Buttocks"
"RMS Middlefinger"

[Metastachydium]

Inspired by Scott Westerfeld's _Leviathan_, I could see some books of philosophy (and similar) working as ship names:

Behemoth
Utopia
Republic (surely a real ship)
Liberty (ditto)
Rhetoric (a warship: "Will Rhetoric persuade you?")
Symposium (a party boat?)
Stranger

Several more if you're going for more Culture-esque names:

Apology
Critique of Pure Reason
Also Sprach Zarathustra
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Beyond Good and Evil
Human Nature
The Complete Works

Most of these are cherry-picked from a list of philosophy books from Goodreads (can't post links yet, sorry).

Heh. The Complete Works is just pure gold! More seriously, that's not a bad idea; in the same vein as my Euripidean series of names, one could name a small fleet after the Platonic dialogues, e.g. (and in no particular order)
—Menon; Gorgias; Hippias; Hippias (yes, there must be two of these); Euthydemos; Protagoras; Timaios; Nomoi (a group of big ships); Phaidon; Phaidros; Politeia; Kratylos; Lakhes; Kriton; Kritias; Theaitetos; Parmenides; Philebos; Menexenos; Kharmides; and probably a couple more.



I enjoyed Outer Worlds' Unreliable, a joke about protagonist space pirates always beating the odds. Larger vessels would probably have a comitee preventing silly joke names but small ships or pirate vessels? Joke away.

"Stupid f*cking thing" for a poorly maintained ship.
"Queen's Larder"
"Emperor's Buttocks"
"RMS Middlefinger"

And weird names are probably fair game anywhere! Let's see some:
—DDS–HT1 Never Say No to a Panda;
—SPV–PT2 Two Sicilies;
—DCV–LID/GA3 Har Har Mahadev;
—DCV–HC4 Uncountable;
—DCV–HC Numberless;
—RCS–LT5 Bear Market;
—RCS–MT6 Happy Mule;
—PRV7 Screw the Rules;
—RRV I've Got Money.

______________________________

1Dual-Designation Spacecraft – Heavy Transport
2Special Purpose Vessel – Personal Transport
3Designated Combat Vessel – Light Interdictor/Ground Assault
4Designated Combat Vessel – Heavy Carrier
5Registered Commercial Spacecraft – Light Transport
6Registered Commercial Spacecraft – Medium Transport
7Registered Recreational Vessel

[Postmodernist]

I had a character who was an astral sea pirate with a ship named the "Deus Ex Machina," and it always showed up surprisingly opportune times...

[Metastachydium]

And since I'm feeling creative today, here's another set of names for ships operated by folks whose language and names should totally not sound English: denominations that result from the slight tweaking of names for groups of organic compounds! Examples could include:
—Alkaan; Alkadieen; Aldehiid; Aketon; Amiid; Amiin; Eeter; Ariil; Alkuul; Alkenol; Merkaptaan; Sulfidriil; Tioketaal; Halalkaan; Tioster; Aketaal; Alkenaal; Iinol; Aketeen; Diketeen.

[Beleriphon]

And weird names are probably fair game anywhere! Let's see some:
—DDS–HT1 Never Say No to a Panda;
—SPV–PT2 Two Sicilies;
—DCV–LID/GA3 Har Har Mahadev;
—DCV–HC4 Uncountable;
—DCV–HC Numberless;
—RCS–LT5 Bear Market;
—RCS–MT6 Happy Mule;
—PRV7 Screw the Rules;
—RRV I've Got Money.

______________________________

1Dual-Designation Spacecraft – Heavy Transport
2Special Purpose Vessel – Personal Transport
3Designated Combat Vessel – Light Interdictor/Ground Assault
4Designated Combat Vessel – Heavy Carrier
5Registered Commercial Spacecraft – Light Transport
6Registered Commercial Spacecraft – Medium Transport
7Registered Recreational Vessel


I have a whole list of military vessel hull registration styles.
They are admittedly stolen from the US Navy for the most part, but I added some extra

ICAV = Inter-Cosmological Alliance Vessel
SARV = Solar Alliance Research Vessel
IV = Interstellar Vessel

Hull classifications

Battleship BB
Carrier CV
Cruiser CC - Command Cruiser
CL - Light Cruiser
Corvette KT
Destroyer DD
Dreadnought DT
Frigate FF

A - atmospheric entry capable
B - primary boarding weapons
G - primary weapon Guided-missiles
M - primary weapon Mass Accelerator Gun
L - mine layer
S - mine sweeper
N - unmanned


Research Vessels - stellar phenomena, celestial bodies, and scientists
- SARV Nova
- SARV Luna
- SARV Tethys
- SARV Issac Asimov

Support ships - Mythological and legendary figures/creatures
- ICAV Hyrda
- ICAV Thor
- ICAV King Arthur

Small craft-classes
Landing craft - unnamed; only receive a hull number. Ex. LCA 463
Troop transports - unnamed; only receive a hull number.

Capital Ship types

Corvettes - Birds
- ICAV Falcon (KTA)
- ICAV Sparrow (KTM)
- ICAV Peregrine (KTGA)

Destroyers - Rivers
- ICAV Mekong (DDG 001)
- ICAV Nile (DDG 002)
- ICAV Amazon (DDGA 048)

Frigate - Lakes
- ICAV Te Anau (FFG 005)
- ICAV Superior (FFG 00
- ICAV Bikal
- ICAV Titicaca

Cruiser - Famous Military Commanders or Heads of State
- ICAV Leonidas
- ICAV Tokugawa Ieyasu
- ICAV Winston Churchill
- ICAV Abbas al-Aswan (CG

Battleship - Battles
- ICAV Thermopylae
- ICAV Gaixia
- ICAV Stalingrad
- ICAV Panipat

Dreadnought - Countries/Off Planet Colonies
- ICAV Canada (
- ICAV Colombia
- ICAV Australia
- ICAV Armstrong
- ICAV Port Sally Ride

Carriers - Stars
- ICAV Sol (CVS 001)
- ICAV Aldhafera (CVS 003)
- ICAV Sirius (CVS 004)
- ICAV Enterprise (CVS 012)



The Milano
The Pirouette
The Goldfish
Bordeaux
Snowball
Chessman
Lexington
Harvest Wheat
Puff Pastry

For real fun the Milano is named for Alyssa Milano. The follow up is the Benetar, obviously named for Pat Benetar.

[Metastachydium]

ICAV = Inter-Cosmological Alliance Vessel

Cosmological is not a term I'd use in this phrase, but you gave me an IDEA! How about an organization called ISAACS (i.e. the Inter-Systematic Association for Astrophysical and Cosmological Studies) the senior members of which spend most of their time squatting inside their HQ, a space station called the DR "A"1 ISAACS?

________________________________
1Domain of Residence "A".


The follow up is the Benetar, obviously named for Pat Benetar.

Well, at least it's not David Benatar.


♣

And while I'm here, allow me to present an incredibly demented thought that just occurred to me. Let's say we have a species/system with a strict caste-based society, where the military caste (indocrinated from birth, of course) and elements of the ruling political caste that oversee military operations have a special language exclusive to them. The language (here comes the good part!) is tonal (with six tones) and has erratic patterns of accent (expressed through increasing the quantity of vowels to half-long).
Now, what does this have to do with ship names, you may ask (although you probably don't; I think it's pretty obvious where this is headed)? Well, everything! The navy of this society gives its vessels names in the military language, names that have at least three, but preferably four vowels in them; something like, say, Iereon. This is a good thing (for them) because with six tones and four vowels to place accents on, they can use the "same" name for up to 5184 differnt spacecraft and anyone from outside their own military will have some trouble reliably telling these 5184 ships apart based on their name, which can be a pain for hostile intelligence officers and hapless enemy pilots alike.

[BRC]

A few ships from my Sci-Fi Setting:

The Symposium: More of a mobile space station, a giant flying university, headquarters for an interstellar scientific organization (The Conclave of Science...Science was the name of the God of Knowledge, it's a long story)

The Magellen : Named after "Mage Ellen", The researcher ("Mage" or "Mag" is still a term used for renowned scientists, even if they don't specifically study Magic) whose work paved the way for a lot of FTL Tech.

The Drakesgrave: Pirate Flagship, formerly a Draconic Hoardship (Without getting too much into setting details, Dragons like to build very large spaceships).

Otherwise a fun thing is to take a famous relevant Quote and chop it down.

A research ship with long-range scanning capability called the Shoulder's Of Giants, for example.

Or a warship called the Politics By Other Means

[Mordante]

Celestial Object + Movement Verb (but "noun" the verb)

Sun + Dancer
Star + Chaser
Moon + Skipper
Asteroid + Crawler
Blackhole + Jumper

Names like this basically create a sentence of "The ship verbs the object" which is a nice description for a ship or class of ships.

This can be expanded to other verbs.

Planet + Eater
Comet + Collector

Puddle Jumper
Mud Skipper

[Mordante]

Explorer Class
EAS Cortez
EAS De Soto
Hyperion Class
EAS Aegean
EAS Amundsen
EAS Clarkstown
EAS Hyperion
EAS Lexington
EAS Prometheus
EAS Trafalgar
Nova Class
EAS Schwarzkopf
Omega Class
EAS Acheron
EAS Achilles
EAS Agamemnon
EAS Agrippa
EAS Alexander
EAS Apollo
EAS Cadmus
EAS Cerberus
EAS Charon
EAS Churchill
EAS Damocles
EAS Delphi
EAS Excalibur
EAS Furies
EAS Heracles
EAS Heraclion
EAS Hermes
EAS Hydra
EAS Juno
EAS Medusa
EAS Nemesis
EAS Nimrod
EAS Olympic
EAS Orion
EAS Persephone
EAS Pollux
EAS Pournelle
EAS Roanoke
EAS Talos
EAS Theseus
EAS Vesta
EAS Zeus

[Morgaln]

Explorer Class
EAS Cortez
EAS De Soto
Hyperion Class
EAS Aegean
EAS Amundsen
EAS Clarkstown
EAS Hyperion
EAS Lexington
EAS Prometheus
EAS Trafalgar
Nova Class
EAS Schwarzkopf
Omega Class
EAS Acheron
EAS Achilles
EAS Agamemnon
EAS Agrippa
EAS Alexander
EAS Apollo
EAS Cadmus
EAS Cerberus
EAS Charon
EAS Churchill
EAS Damocles
EAS Delphi
EAS Excalibur
EAS Furies
EAS Heracles
EAS Heraclion
EAS Hermes
EAS Hydra
EAS Juno
EAS Medusa
EAS Nemesis
EAS Nimrod
EAS Olympic
EAS Orion
EAS Persephone
EAS Pollux
EAS Pournelle
EAS Roanoke
EAS Talos
EAS Theseus
EAS Vesta
EAS Zeus

Ah, Babylon 5 ;)

[Metastachydium]

EAS Schwarzkopf

Is it wrong that this name mostly reminds me of shampoo and baking powder? (Yes, I know, the latter's not your typical Schwarzkopf product, but I keep confusing that brand with Dr. Oetker.)


EAS Roanoke

Truly, an excellent name! Just don't forget to also have an Icarus (it's never a bad idea to name something kind-of flying through the kind-of sky that) and when if it's destroyed or something, an Icarus 2 at the ready!

[Alcore]

Once, and will again, played a game called Hades Star. Here is a few of my ship names that I remember;


Battleships;
Rainbow Blitz
Harmony
Sentinel - which is both meaningful and job specific.
Defiance - my PvP ship

Transports;
Hamster Express - named after a real semi truck
Greed Inc
Boxboy

Miners;
Old Rusty
Unicron - with the crunch module installed he fit the name.

[Tyrrell]

I name appropriate ships after scientists, but not the most famous of them. I go for the next tier more specific; not the most famous chemists, but the most famous analytical chemists, not the most famous geologists, but the most famous hydrogeologists and so on.

[DavidSh]

A line of passenger ships might take musical names. I like:
Adagio
Andante
Allegro
Presto
(Assuming that the owners don't know the literal Italian meanings.)

[Lord Shark]

And weird names are probably fair game anywhere! Let's see some:
—DDS–HT1 Never Say No to a Panda;
—SPV–PT2 Two Sicilies;
—DCV–LID/GA3 Har Har Mahadev;
—DCV–HC4 Uncountable;
—DCV–HC Numberless;
—RCS–LT5 Bear Market;
—RCS–MT6 Happy Mule;
—PRV7 Screw the Rules;
—RRV I've Got Money.


Reminds me of Ian Banks's Culture ships, which have names like It Was Like That When I Got Here, Now Look What You Made Me Do, Lightly Seared on the Reality Grill, Just the Washing Instruction Chip in Life's Rich Tapestry, I Blame My Mother, Size Isn't Everything...

[Excession]

For something more real world, https://www.marinetraffic.com/ will show you all of the ships. Mostly good for boring cargo ship names.

[oudeis]

I'm stockpiling as many names as I can to offer a better lived-in feel for my game universe. I don't want all the ship names to sound like I, alone, came up with them. You fine folks all have varying mindsets so suggest away as long as it isn't explicit. I'm sticking to a PG-13 feel. Feel free to elaborate why a name is awesome and/or it's meaning and origin. I'll even take names for space stations if you've got them. Thank you.

Edit: I should mention that this setting has fantasy races and magic in addition to technology so a wider range of options open up in that sense.

'Fantasy races and magic' conjures up automatic associations with legendary heroes, fabled treasures, epic battles, revered kings, shining cities, ancient gods, and all the other elements of the genre. Going with these:


The Nerevar
Glamdring's Kiss
The Stair of Grief
King Omund's Mercy
The Spirit of Havnor
Grabthar's Hammer

[Lacco]

How about:

Error! Name Not Found
/Unidentified Vehicle/
Randomly Named Vessel
Ugly Cookie

[SimonMoon6]

How about:

Error! Name Not Found
/Unidentified Vehicle/
Randomly Named Vessel
Ugly Cookie


Reminds me of this xkcd strip:
https://xkcd.com/327/

So maybe name a ship after little Bobby Tables.

[Metastachydium]

Ugly Cookie

Gotta love that one!


♣

While I'm here, I might as well fire off a few of my own as well, though:

1. Coldbringer. Make it big. Make it loud.

2. The name of any Sumerian(-adjacent) city( or toponym) one can think of, such as:
—Eridu; Bad-Tibira; Larak; Sippar; Shuruppak; Awan; Hamazi; Lagash; Adab; Akshak; Agade; Gutium; Isin.

[Hagashager]

Some ship names I use in my own sci-fi setting:
The High-Breasted Diva
The Manna From Heavan
The Grand Poo-Bah
The Narwhal
The Rusty Bucket
The Crackerbarrel

[Mutazoia]

Back in the pre-historic days of playing "Tradewars", I always named my ships after famous shipwrecks:

The Ruben James
The Edmund Fitzgerald
The Andrea Doria
The Dona Paz
The Carpathia
The Rhone
The Vasa
The Sultana
The Mary Rose

etc.


Grabthar's Hammer
[/LIST]

Don't forget her sister ship, the Suns of Warvan

[Bohandas]

You could name them after movies

The Neverending Story
The Matrix
The Lord of the Rings
The New Hope
The Endgame
The Edge of Tomorrow
The Great Escape
Sophie's Choice
The Mummy
The Color Out of Space
The Call of Cthulhu
The Driller Killer
The Hurt Locker
The World's End
The Human Centipede
The Blazing Saddle
The Phantom Menace
The Killing Joke
The Dark Knight
The Avatar
The Terminator
The Golden Child
The Mystic Pizza
The Fifth Element
The Mouse That Roared
The Night At The Opera
The Phantom of the Opera
The Revenge of the Pink Panther
The Bride of Frankenstein
The Magic Christian
The English Patient
The Meaning Of Life
The Great Dictator
The Secret of the Ooze
The Song of the South
The Prince of Darkness
The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
The Man Who Laughs
Christine
The Slingblade
The Machete
The Jagged Edge
The Repo Man
The Maltese Falcon
The Clear And Present Danger
The Broken Arrow
The Predator
The Punisher
The Last Knight
The Manchurian Candidate



etc


Back in the pre-historic days of playing "Tradewars", I always named my ships after famous shipwrecks:

The Ruben James
The Edmund Fitzgerald
The Andrea Doria
The Dona Paz
The Carpathia
The Rhone
The Vasa
The Sultana
The Mary Rose

etc.



Don't forget the Titanic, that fits both of our lists

[TemporalTravels]

Per Diem (small personal craft)
Jerryrig (beat up freighter)
Capital Grains (private bulk foodstuffs hauler)
Fiat Drayman (private bulk freighter)
Gold Digger (mining vessel)

[Melayl]

The Foolish Pride
The Astral Drake
The Solar Wind
The Fist of (insert name of diety, empire, corporation, etc)
The Bitter Price
The Bastard's Mistress
The Brass Balls
The Entropy
The Lazy Bastard
The Last Gasp
The Loan is Due
The Idiot's Bet
The Fenarian Brandywine
The Taltos
The Hearty Cheer
The Rosy Backside
The Rust Bucket
The Blue Rose
The Shatner
The Nimoy's Eyebrow
The Rat Bastard
The Three of Cups
The Odd Man Out
The Royal Bastard
The Gunslinger's Wish
The Last Gambit
The Meg's Bosom
The Happy Go Lucky
The Constable's Curse
The Dream of Flight
The Clodhopper
The Shattered Dream
The Shadow of Uncertainty
The Indominable Will
The Space Debris
The Star of Empires
The Ring of Truth
The Emperor's Hairy Backside
The Fragrant Vagabond
The Mighty Sparrow
The Reaper's Revenge
The Arrogant Oath
The Vanity
The Heir of Destiny
The Fall of Nations
The Only Hope
The Curse of Suns
The Mary Sue
The Dream of Empires
The Rutting Sow
The Cockatrice
The Shooting Star
The Name of the Stars
The Word of Peace
The Hungry Goblin
The Promise of Freedom
The Lure of Profit
The Old Lady
The Spear of (insert name of diety, empire, or corporation here)
The Triple Suns
The Nightsoil
The Silken Caress
The Titan's Grasp
The Warlock's Ire
The Great Old One
The Last Dance
The Chance of a Lifetime
The Chance of Failure
The Negotiable Virtue
The Questionable Judgment
The Fortune's Folly
The Gentlemans' Wager
The Promise of Exploration
The Price of Freedom
The Music of the Stars
The Last Oath
The Inescapable Fate
The Downtrodden
The Neutered Ox

[Mordante]

Ah, Babylon 5 ;)

Yes, I love that show, I have rewatched so many times.

This made me smile
Absolutely nothing happened in Sector 83 by 9 by 12 today. I repeat, nothing happened in Sector 83 by 9 by 12.

This made me cry
LONDO: ...My shoes are too tight.

VIR: ...Excuse me?

LONDO: Something my father said. He was... Old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting, alone in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "My shoes are too tight. But it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance." I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance.

Pause

VIR: ...I don't understand.

LONDO: Smiling wistfully Nor should you.

[Azuresun]

Some I've used in a Rogue Trader game:

Invisible Hand

Creator's Remorse

Wandering Monster

Gaberlunzie (an archaic term for a licensed beggar)

Iolanthe


When I played Eve Online, I tended to name my ships after the magic swords from Bleach, which I was really into at the time.

Sacred Spear

Black Moon Cutter

Falling Cherry Blossom

Crimson Princess

Thousand Year Echo

Mirror Flower Water Moon

And one of my personal favouritesfrom that game....for context, the Damnation-class command ship is designed to boost an entire fleet, so you only need one of them, and it had a really cool glossy black colour scheme. So this ship was sitting in the middle of a fleet of green and golden ships, and it was simply called:

Token Black Guy

[Bohandas]

I've always been partial to the idea of naming an interplanetary spaceship after Ar Pharazon from The Silmarillion

[Duff]

Subtle Persuasion
Size Matters
Size Doesn't Matter (best on a very big ship, or a really small one if you want to have the owner/captain to be laughed at)

[Bohandas]

The War Star
and
The Famine Star

completing the pattern started by Star Wars (The Death Star) and Tuf Voyaging (The Plague Star)

[Anonymouswizard]

The War Star
and
The Famine Star

completing the pattern started by Star Wars (The Death Star) and Tuf Voyaging (The Plague Star)

The second should be The Conquest Star :smalltongue: which is a cool name anyway.

[Bohandas]

Continuing with my word association method

the Fat Eagle,
the Aeon Raptor
the Turkey
the Angaria
the Geas Prime
the Big Dog

(named after Falcon Heavy, The Millenium Falcon, The Cornucopia of Excellent Goods, Slave One, and Great Fox, respectively)

[Metastachydium]

The second should be The Conquest Star :smalltongue: which is a cool name anyway.

Alright, I'm officially taking back four bad things of your choice that I've ever said about you anywhere on this forum. Keep up the good work!

[LibraryOgre]

How has this gone so many pages without "Beowulf"?

“This is the Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone. Mayday, Mayday.”

[Bohandas]

The Failure Option

[Lord Torath]

"The Obvious Distraction"
"Belay that Order"
"Abandon Ship"

[LibraryOgre]

"The Obvious Distraction"
"Belay that Order"
"Abandon Ship"

"It's One of Ours, Sir"

[Berenger]

"The Obvious Distraction"

I used „The Red Herring“.

[Yakk]

Nervous Energy

Prosthetic Conscience

Bora Horza Gobuchul

Determinist

Eschatologist (temporary name)

Irregular Apocalypse

No More Mr Nice Guy

Profit Margin

Revisionist

Trade Surplus

The Ends Of Invention

Clear Air Turbulence

The Hand of God 137



Screw Loose

Flexible Demeanour

Just Read The Instructions

Of Course I Still Love You

Limiting Factor

Cargo Cult

Little Rascal

So Much For Subtlety

Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence

Youthful Indiscretion

Gunboat Diplomat

Zealot

Kiss My Ass

Prime Mover

Just Testing

Xenophobe

Very Little Gravitas Indeed

What Are The Civilian Applications?

Congenital Optimist

Size Isn't Everything

Sweet and Full of Grace



Different Tan

Fate Amenable To Change

Grey Area (AKA Meat****er)

It's Character Forming

Jaundiced Outlook

Problem Child

Reasonable Excuse

Recent Convert

Tactical Grace

Unacceptable Behaviour

Steely Glint

Highpoint

Shoot Them Later

Attitude Adjuster

Killing Time

Heavy Messing

Frank Exchange Of Views

Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The

Death and Gravity

Ethics Gradient

Honest Mistake

Limivorous

No Fixed Abode

Quietly Confident,
later Sleeper Service

Uninvited Guest

Use Psychology

What Is The Answer and Why?

Wisdom Like Silence

Yawning Angel

Zero Gravitas

Misophist

Serious Callers Only

Not Invented Here

Charitable View

I Blame My Mother

I Blame Your Mother

Appeal To Reason

Break Even

Long View

Peace Makes Plenty

Sober Counsel

Within Reason

Full Refund (Ex-'MBU 604')

Just Passing Through



Bad for Business

Arbitrary

Cantankerous

Only Slightly Bent

I Thought He Was With You

Space Monster

A Series Of Unlikely Explanations

Big Sexy Beast

Never Talk To Strangers

Funny, It Worked Last Time...

Boo!

Ultimate Ship The Second

It'll Be Over By Christmas

A Ship With A View*

Ablation*

Arrested Development*

Credibility Problem*

Dramatic Exit, Or, Thank you And Goodnight*

Excuses And Accusations*

God Told Me To Do It*

Halation Effect*

Happy Idiot Talk*

Helpless In The Face Of Your Beauty*

Heresiarch*

Just Another Victim Of The Ambient Morality*

Minority Report*

Not Wanted On Voyage*

Perfidy*

Sacrificial Victim*

Stranger Here Myself*

Synchronize Your Dogmas*

The Precise Nature Of The Catastrophe*

Unwitting Accomplice*

Undesirable Alien*

Well I Was In The Neighbourhood*

You Would If You Really Loved Me*

You'll Thank Me Later*



Winter Storm

Piety

Soulhaven

Nuisance Value

Vulgarian

Sanctioned Parts List

Resistance Is Character-Forming

All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff *

Someone Else's Problem *

Lacking That Small Match Temperament *

Poke It With A Stick *

I Said, I've Got A Big Stick*

Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again *

But Who's Counting? *

Germane Riposte *

We Haven't Met But You're A Great Fan Of Mine *

All The Same, I Saw It First *

Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement

Zero Credibility *

Charming But Irrational *

Demented But Determined *

You May Not Be The Coolest Person Here *

Lucid Nonsense *

Awkward Customer *

Thorough But ... Unreliable *

Advanced Case Of Chronic Patheticism *

Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory *

Conventional Wisdom *

In One Ear *

Fine Till You Came Along *

I Blame The Parents *

Inappropriate Response *

A Momentary Lapse Of Sanity *

Lapsed Pacifist *

Reformed Nice Guy *

Pride Comes Before A Fall *

Injury Time *

Now Look What You've Made Me Do *

Kiss This Then *

Lasting Damage

Lasting Damage I

Lasting Damage II

Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall



Don't Try This At Home

Eight Rounds Rapid

Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall

It's My Party And I'll Sing If I Want To

Lightly Seared On The Reality Grill

Now We Try It My Way

Liveware Problem

Pure Big Mad Boat Man

Qualifier

Seed Drill

Subtle Shift In Emphasis

Transient Atmospheric Phenomenon

Xenoglossicist

You Naughty Monsters

You'll Clean That Up Before You Leave

etc:

https://concord.fandom.com/wiki/Iain_M._Banks_Culture_Universe_Spaceship_Names

[Witty Username]

A planet in its original context, but I would definitely want a spaceship named The Arsenal of Freedom.

A quick mnemonic that I use, purpose and value.
Identity a value
Freedom, glory, Valor
Identify the purpose
Destruction, defense, Intimidation, transport

Then put them together in a coherent way:
Like say we have a ship, an exploration ship for purpose. Tools of exploration can get to that idea as an object so that will make the name more clear. Then we can generate a few names with different values:
Wealth, Fortune's Compass
Discovery, The Scope of Reason
Colonization, Homeward Star

Also, for a faster one: proper name, value of the owner:
Star Wars example: Name: Talon Karrde; value: Gambling, Puns; Ship: Wild Karrde
Doesn't have to be the owner's name either, it could be a mythological character, historical character, or some other connection:
Odin's Might
Alexander's Glory
Queen Anne's Revenge

[Beleriphon]

Here's the 40K cannon list of Imperial warships:
https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Imperial_Navy_Vessels_(List)

A few samples: Divine Right, Dominus Astra, Indomitable Wrath, Legatus Stygies, Lord of Light

And the 40K Space Marine ships:
https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Space_Marine_Vessels_(List)

My personal favourites: Invincible Reason and Paradigm of Hate

[john toliver]

here is my list of spaceships

ARC-170 starfighter.
V-19 Torrent starfighter.
V-wing starfighter.
Jedi starfighter.
Jedi interceptor.
Naboo starfighter.
Kale Galactic SR-121
Black Jupiter
Ebon Hawk
Thunder Eta X-2
Argonaut
Mercury Isonoe X-9
Sigma Green Space Superiority Fighter
Andromeda Ascendant
SDF-1 Macross
Amalthea Mark
Jupiter Blue SR-101
Hermippe Kappa
Star Omega
Inertia Gamma
Theta Harpalyke XI
Raider Fighter
Orbit Metis Explorer
Planetary Ophelia X-40
SA-4