Help name a starship?

[Avro Arrow]

@Avro Arrow Gah, no offence intended!

No worries, none taken, just joking around.

Thinking about this more, a "ship" this small probably shouldn't have a name, just a number.

While I would agree with that for the fighter, if Kuri went with the runabout, we know that Starfleet, for better or for worse, gives individual names to their runabouts.

 

[Sgt_G]

Starfleet, for better or for worse, gives individual names to their runabouts.​

That never made sense to me. There must be thousands of runabouts and only so many rivers to use as names.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Here are some names I've used for some of my ships (starships and shuttlecraft) in Star Trek Online:

For starships:
*USS Octavia Butler (based on the late author)
*USS Malcolm X (for one of my heroes). I've also created the USS Malcolm X - II
*USS Benjamin Sisko (for my Luna class vessel).
*USS Space Hawk (for my Constitution class vessel commanded by my 23rd century toon)
*USS Kochiyama (based on the activist Yuri Kochiyama, who also knew Malcolm X).
*USS Harriet Tubman

For my shuttlecraft:
*USS Kochiyama (where I first used the name of the aforementioned activist).

 

[psCargile]

I like to pull from Greek mythology, and choose a name that has something to do with the story. I avoid Jeopardy subjects like "Famous People from the 20th Century" because it's an obvious nod to the reader.

 

[SPCTRE]

USS Shippy McShipface

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

USS Shippy McShipface

Best. Ship. Name. Ever

 

[Admiral2]

Yep, I see it now. GMTA?

Exactly!

While I would agree with that for the fighter, if Kuri went with the runabout, we know that Starfleet, for better or for worse, gives individual names to their runabouts.

I know, which is why the first words of my first post were "Do Something Different." The writers of canon Trek didn't always make the most sensible decisions. Naming every damn flying piece of equipment was one of the least sensible ones.

 

[TheLoneRedshirt]

I agree that naming runabouts (or shuttle craft) is silly but, alas, it is consistent with Star Trek practice. Using a tail (hull) number and call sign makes more sense.

The Bluefin's Star Stallions (over-size, heavy-duty shuttles) do not have names. They are simply called Stallion Oh-One and Stallion Oh-Two.

 

[Kuri]

Update. Thanks for all the suggestions. They've been tossed into the pressure cooker at the back of my head to see how much juice comes out. This is my current thinking: I'll use a class name (which may just be Gryphon) rather than individual vessel name. However, the characters will give it a nickname.

Actually, @SPCTRE one of my characters is loosely inspired by "Private Joker" from Full Metal Jacket, and I can see him naming it something like that just to annoy the CO.

Which leads me to yet another idea . Each character calls it something different. When Joker got tasked with registering it he "accidentally" put in Shippy McShipface, which forces the CO to use the tag-code when communicating with other vessels/bases. Another character always uses the class name, a third just calls it "the ship" or "the mule", while yet another has some affectionate nickname.

Sailing round places like Portsmouth and Plymouth, I've see hundreds (thousands?) of boats, every single one of them (even little dinghys) with some personal name. And it often tells me more about the owner than the vessel itself - like a psych profile.

It's really interesting looking at all your different naming conventions, too. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Admiral2]

Update. Thanks for all the suggestions. They've been tossed into the pressure cooker at the back of my head to see how much juice comes out. This is my current thinking: I'll use a class name (which may just be Gryphon) rather than individual vessel name. However, the characters will give it a nickname.

Actually, @SPCTRE one of my characters is loosely inspired by "Private Joker" from Full Metal Jacket, and I can see him naming it something like that just to annoy the CO.

Which leads me to yet another idea . Each character calls it something different. When Joker got tasked with registering it he "accidentally" put in Shippy McShipface, which forces the CO to use the tag-code when communicating with other vessels/bases. Another character always uses the class name, a third just calls it "the ship" or "the mule", while yet another has some affectionate nickname.

Sailing round places like Portsmouth and Plymouth, I've see hundreds (thousands?) of boats, every single one of them (even little dinghys) with some personal name. And it often tells me more about the owner than the vessel itself - like a psych profile.

It's really interesting looking at all your different naming conventions, too. Thanks for sharing.

Well, don't take it too far. Even if everybody makes up a name the CO's pick gets priority. Besides, having every character call it by a different name is an easy way to confuse the bejeesus out of your readers. Let the CO pick the name.

Which means he wouldn't be forced into anything. He would have the authority to change the nickname to whatever he liked

 

[Kuri]

@Admiral2 Good point.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I've thought the Credit would be a good name for a runabout.

By 1700 the Ojibwa, an Algonkian tribe, had driven the Iroquois from the North Shore of Lake Ontario, and a group of Ojibwa, known as the Mississaugas, had settled around the mouth of the Credit River. The Mississaugas themselves referred to the river as “Missinihe” or “Trusting Water”, but the river came to be known as the Credit River, a name derived from the custom of trading on credit.

Derived from a river named after cooperation between two people groups. What could be more Trek than that? (It runs through my hometown, Mississauga.)

I suppose the USS Missinihe would be nice, too, if a tongue twister.