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Brainstorming starship names

Yesterday I was trying to come up with a name theme for TMP-era dreadnaughts that would be evocative of FJ's theme for the Federation class, which are all named after political unions (Concordat, Alliance, Entente, etc).

The idea I came up with was to name them after peace treaties:

U.S.S. Westphalia
U.S.S. Phoenice
U.S.S. Andelot
U.S.S. Hudaybiyyah
U.S.S. Regensburg
U.S.S. Poznań
U.S.S. Fontainebleau
U.S.S. Nerchinsk


Marian
 
U.S.S. Eastland: Named in memory of the eight hundred and fourty five passengers and crew killed when the S.S. Eastland rolled over while in dock on the Chicago River in 1915

U.S.S. Kuzunoha: In keeping with the theme of the names of the Archer class scouts, the Kuzunoha is named after a famous kitsune of Japanese legend, whose name literally translates to "Arrowroot Leaf"
 
Nightfall to-Ennien said:
U.S.S. Eastland: Named in memory of the eight hundred and fourty five passengers and crew killed when the S.S. Eastland rolled over while in dock on the Chicago River in 1915

U.S.S. Kuzunoha: In keeping with the theme of the names of the Archer class scouts, the Kuzunoha is named after a famous kitsune of Japanese legend, whose name literally translates to "Arrowroot Leaf"
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I thought kitsune meant fox?
 
If anyone's interested, BattleTech has some Asian names used by certain factions which are ethnically of Asian decent. I'd be glad to post them here if anyone wants to use them.
 
I'll post them later, as unfortunately I don't have time to do so now. :) But most of the names I have are either Japanese (used by the Draconis Combine) or Chinese (used by the Capellan Confederation). They are used for some warship and mech designs.
 
ancient said:
I do like the sound of the Native American names, which are all over the place. The NAs have awesome names,
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Absolutely. A few more:

USS Willamette
USS Mazama
USS Calapoolia
USS Chinook
USS Clackamas

and a few other ideas I've had:
USS Masada
USS Shemesh
USS Derek LaKokhavot (la-ko-kha-vote)\ דרך לכוכבות- Hebrew: Path to the Stars
 
It does seem there is confusion about whether or not the names of a ship class have a theme. ST seems to be all over the place when it comes to this.

In some novels, like the Titan series, the Luna-class ships all bear names of moons in the Sol System, e.g. Luna (the Moon), Titan, etc.

And with the exception of the Defiant from DSN, the other ships in all the other series never seem to be the initial ship of the class. So you have Enterprise (Constitution-class), Enterprise-D (Galaxy-class), Voyager (Intrepid-class), and Enterprise NX-01 (the boring NX-class). I think the second Constitution-class Enterprise-A was supposed to be Enterprise-class, at least according to the production notes.

How cool would it be if there is ever another series that the ship be the actual progenitor of its class? I know that's a bit fanboyish of me, but hell!

Red Ranger
 
Red Ranger said:
efiant from DSN, the other ships in all the other series never seem to be the initial ship of the class. So you have Enterprise (Constitution-class), Enterprise-D (Galaxy-class), Voyager (Intrepid-class), and Enterprise NX-01 (the boring NX-class). I think the second Constitution-class Enterprise-A was supposed to be Enterprise-class, at least according to the production notes.
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Enterprise was the first NX-class ship built. Apparently at this point in the timeline, most if not all ship class names are just letter codes (not actual ship names). So you have NX-class starships, DY, Y and J-class freighters, etc.

And the Ent-A was still Constitution class. See ST VI.
 
MarianLH said:
I think by "name" he meant Kuzunoha, not kitsune.

Marian
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You are correct, I was referring to Kuzunoha. You see, Triskelion, Kuzunoha was a specific kitsune, or fox spirit, in a very beloved bit of Japanese mythology. In the story, a young noble by the name of Abe no Yasuna encounters someone hunting a fox. He fights the hunter and frees the white fox, and soon after encounters a beautiful young woman who helps him home and tends his wounds. They fall in love, marry, and have a child named Seimei, who turns out to be terribly clever.

One day, while viewing the chrysanthemums, Seimei spots the tip of a fox tail protruding from under the young woman's kimono, and it is discovered that the fox that Abe no Yasuna had rescued had taken on human form in order to help him and be with him. Discovered, she must leave the family, but she leaves behind a poem on a silk screen, which became quite famous in and of itself. It reads as this:

"Koishiku ba / tazunekite miyo / izumi naru / shinoda no mori no / urami kuzunoha."
Which can be translated as this:
"If you love me, darling, come and see me. / You will find me yonder in the great wood / Of Shinoda of Izumi Province where the leaves / Of arrowroots always rustle in pensive mood."

Yasuna and Seimei search Shinoda, and eventually she appears to them as a fox, and reveals she is the patron spirit of the Shinoda shrine. She gives her son, Abe no Seimei, who would later become prominent in Japanese mythology himself, the ability to speak with animals, and that particular story ends.
 
Apparently at this point in the timeline, most if not all ship class names are just letter codes (not actual ship names).
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Not necessarily "just" letter codes, though. It could quite as well be that Starfleet names its ship classes in the traditional manner (military is very insistent on tradition, after all!), but in addition uses the letter codes that are commonplace in civilian shipping at the time.

It's not unusual for the militaries of today to do the same: the Royal Navy has the Type 42 destroyers and Type 23 frigates, which one seldom bothers to call the Sheffield and Norfolk classes, respectively - Type 42 because the Sheffield herself is long gone and most of the ships belonged to upgraded subclasses anyway, and Type 23 because the RN has had eleventeen frigate classes already and recycles the names ad nauseum and everybody knows Type 23 is yet another of the "duke classes" anyway. USN submariners in turn spoke of the 688 class boats rather than the systematic Los Angeles class.

One might quite well call NX-01 an Enterprise class vessel. This would also help explain why no class in UFP Starfleet service has carried that class name - the UE Starfleet class of that name, while in theory belonging to a predecessor organization, is still fresh in the minds of the tradition-minded Earthlings who run the Fleet.

Civilian ships probably wouldn't belong to any specific "proper name" class - it's not traditional. That's why "most" ENT era ships don't have "proper" class names, as very few of the classes back then would be military. We still get dialogue references to Neptune class, and possibly Triton class as well.

Of course, Starfleet might make use of, say, Y class freighters in the role of military transports, and would no doubt assing a proper name to them in observance of military tradition.

Timo Saloniemi
 
I'm too tired to do it now, but I'm giving myself a homework assignment for the weekend:

five geographic names from each continent

five cities from each continent, possibly excepting Antarctica

five figures from the Thirty Years War who weren't putzes like Maximilian. Mazarini and Gustav Adolph come to mind.

five figures from the Enlightenment. Locke won't be one, because he's too obvious.

five more sailing vessels that did some exploring

five Nobel prize winners, above and beyond the ones I posted in the General Trek Discussion thread.


Marian
 
Okay, here are some BattleTech names.

Japanese names:

Akuma
Bara no ryu (rose)
Daikyu (long bow)
Daimyo (great name)
Daishi (great death)
Ha Otoko (bladed man)
Hankyu (short bow)
Inazuma (lightning)
Kabuto (a reference to the helmets worn by the samurai)
Kimagure (capricious)
Kirishima
Koshi (small death)
Kyushu (the Japanese home island)
Murakumi (cloud gatherer)
Naginata (a three-section staff)
Nekohono'o (flaming cat - sounds like a good name... :lol:)
Nobori-Nin ("banner bearer", a reference to the banners samurai wore on their backs to identify their army)
No-Dachi (a type of battle sword)
O-bakemono (great goblin)
Oni (demon)
Raijin
Shogun
Tai-Sho
Tatsumaki (tornado)
Tessen (war fan)
Toyama

Chinese names:

Duan Gung (short bow)
Feng Huang (phoenix)
Jinggau (siren)
Lao Hu (tiger)
Men Shen (a household god in Chinese myth)
Sha Yu (shark)
Shugenja (magic user)
Ti Ts'ang (a deity in the Chinese pantheon)
Xin Sheng (new birth)
Yu Huang (emperor of the pantheon)

In addition, there are a substantial number of designs whose names are taken from various mythologies.
 
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