Need help with a codename

HareBrain

HareBrain

Ziggy Wigwag
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My WIP contains some overheard conversations in which the bad guys are discussing events elsewhere in the story. They tend to use codenames because they know there is a slight chance they will be overheard, and they don't want the elements they are talking about to be identified.

One of these elements is a force of three warships whose existence they want to keep secret. These are referred to in conversation (as a means of destroying another ship) before the story meets them. Originally I had these ships referred to as the "steel fish", but this caused problems with readers expecting a submarine, and so when the story encountered the warships the readers didn't make the link, which I would like them to.

Next I tried the "three bears" (because of the ships' relative size: battleship, cruiser and destroyer), but this has been a major fail.

Any ideas? I hope that's enough context -- I would add more but I think it would overcomplicate the question.
 
Friends? ie as in "Our friends of steel." Travellers? Voyagers? Wayfarers?

Or how about using a foreign word the listeners wouldn't know but which readers probably would? eg bateau.
 
Does it have to be that it has to be used in the format: the three <things>?

So something like:
-the three kings or wise men? (Bringing gifts of steel, shells and cordite)
-the three little pigs. (The ship they are targeting could be described as the wolf - and as it's all back to front - the pigs going after the wolf - it'll confuse anyone listening. But possibly confuse readers as well :))

Or perhaps describe them as a storm at sea? 'Where do you last here that that storm front was heading?', 'Dangerous for other shipping, I heard...' etc...

Will ponder more...
 
I'd like it to have a nautical feeling, I think. "Steel fish" would have worked except that it suggests submarine too strongly.

And no, it's not necessary to be the "three" something. Now I think about it, since the ships aren't ever seen exactly together, that might be confusing.

The Judge said:
Or how about using a foreign word the listeners wouldn't know but which readers probably would? eg bateau.
Click to expand...

Clever. (I should point out that TJ has insider knowledge on this.) Except the non-Francophone transcriber would probably write it "batto". But since he'd underline it, that might make it clear enough. Still think I'd like something a bit less veiled, though. (Also, it might give too much away.)
 
Father, Son and the Holy Ghost?
 
(Steel) sirens or mermaids...luring the unwary to a watery grave?

EDIT - I'll nip in with this one, rather than make another post - the Admiral's daughters?
 
Could go for the Furies - there were three: Allecto, Tisiphone and Megaira.

Or the Graces/Charities (I think the former's Greek): Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia.

Or the Fates: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos.

Sirens are nice. Not three, but they fit very well. Not sure of specific names, you'd probably need to use Google Fu or delve into the horror that is Apollodorus' Library of Greek Mythology if you wanted genuine siren names. Worth mentioning (in case you wanted to work it into your story) that the sirens died if their song was resisted/ignored.
 
I see there is a nautical term 'Kissing the gunner's daughter' which is the nickname for corporal punishment - bending over the barrel of a gun for punitive beating with a cane or cat. So 'Kissing the admiral's daughters' (if that is one you were tempted for) suggests an 'upgrade' on the level of punishment inflicted...perhaps.
 
Since "steel fish" suggest things under the water (I think torpedos, rather than submarine, personally), how about something which sits on the water? Steel swans? Steel geese?
 
Thanks for the continued brainstorming!

Names to do with luring etc probably aren't appropriate. These ships are there only to destroy people who stumble on a hidden base; ideally, they would never be seen.

Also, this doesn't take place in our world, so I wouldn't use actual names or terms from Greek myth.
 
Ah, sorry.
 
No, thanks for the suggestions -- trouble is, there's more context than I could have given at the start. (It turned out to be more complicated than I expected!)
 
British military code names are assigned at random to stop just this kind of situation. (Eg operation Telic for Iraq)

American code names tend to be more evocative of the subject (desert storm, Iraqi freedom etc)

The same goes for individual units. I read a really good biography of an British apache pilot in Afghanistan and the name for the apache units was 'Ugly' and then the unit number.
 
Tom, Dick and Harry perhaps ... except readers might try to identify them with people.

(I did like "the admiral's daughters", but I remembered an actual admiral comes into the story a couple of chapters beforehand, and that could only cause confusion.)

Thanks for the suggestions, though. I'm now thinking around the idea of a nasty surprise, something like a jack-in-the-box (possibly not uninfluenced by Phyre's avatar!)
 
ralphkern said:
code names are assigned at random
Click to expand...
Absolutely correct. Not just British

You might use a slightly non-random code (also common)
Like names of gems for warships
Names of plants for Merchant ships
names of cats for aircraft etc
Without the code book (or memorising them) you don't know. The slightly non-random one makes memorisation easier but weaker as if it's discovered Emerald is as Warship, you might surmise that Sapphire, Ruby, Diamond, Opal etc are too, but you wouldn't know which they are.
 
I'm having trouble with the idea of a codename that hints at what it stands for. Okay, some people** thought steel fish meant submarines, but even if everyone did, it would still suggest something that may be a threat to sea-going craft. And hinting at three threats (whether or not hunting in a pack) is also something you -- or, rather, your bad guys (who don't know that they're characters in a book) -- should avoid.


** - They're readers: they shouldn't believe that they can decode codenames into something meaningful.
 
That's about it -- I need something that readers will twig means the three ships, whilst also being something that might have been chosen to avoid hinting at them.

(Though they wouldn't be as tight on security as modern military -- for magical reasons, they believe the chances of being overheard are vanishingly remote as long as they don't use actual names.)
 
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