Favourite ship names?

[cyberpunkdreams]

I know that favourite ships have been discussed (over and over I assume!), but I thought it might be interesting to focus on the names. I know that's hard to separate from the ship itself and the wider context of the narrative in which it finds itself, but still...

I've been thinking about my list and have (with difficulty) narrowed it down to just five:

Nomad | The Stars my Destination
The Sky, My Lady, The Sky! | Learning the World
Sleeper Service | The Culture series
Perhonen | The Quantum Thief trilogy
Nostalgia for Infinity | Revelation Space series [last but very far from least]​

Obviously my own thoughts were coloured by the history of the ships for some of them, but there are other ships I'd have put in if this wasn't just about names (Normandy, The White Cat, Moya, I could go on...)

Anyone else want to give it a go?

 

[mgilmour]

Dauntless - EE Doc Smith, The Lensmen
Vesti and Yorktown - Star Trek
Altavia and Alturus - The Mindwars Book 2....still being written!

I like all of these names because I have a personal attachment to them when I read the books, played a game with my father or have written a novel....I find that names are all about the time, the place and who you are with.

 

[Verse]

Ian M. Banks, Culture ships have the best names.

You can find them all listed in this Wikipedia article, but my personal favourites are:

• Just Read The Instructions - Player of Games
  
• Size Isn't Everything - Use of Weapons
• Ethics Gradient - Excession
• Don't Try This At Home - Matter

But My all time favourite is the Mistake Not ... - The Hydrogen Sonata. That being the short name of the ship. It's full name is; Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath.

P.S. Perhonen is Finnish for Butterfly. Those crazy Finns.

 

[Vertigo]

I'll second Verse in that I think it's hard to beat Banks' ship names.

 

[Rodders]

Nostalgia for Infinity. - Alistair Reynolds.

And yes, i'll third Iaian M. Banks' ship names. Wasn't Gunboat Diplomat one of his?

 

[Vertigo]

Okay someone's got to get it right; it's Iain

 

[Ray McCarthy]

i'll third Iaian M. Banks' ship names

Best bit of his books really magic ship names

 

[Vince W]

Without question Banks' ships have the best names.

I'd add:

Lying ******* - Ringworld
Angel's Pencil - The Warriors
Obler's Paradox - Slowboat Nightmare
Oenone - Night's Dawn
Melancholia that Transcends All Wit - The Centauri Device

 

[Mirannan]

I'd add, from Ringworld again, Hot Needle of Inquiry. Completely differently, I'm rather impressed with some real life ship names, the Flower Class corvettes from the WWII Royal Navy. Apparently, there was some hurried discussion and, due to fears of mutiny, they didn't use the name HMS Pansy.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Hmm... Deadly Nightshade, Wolf Bane etc

 

[Rodders]

Discovery One
Agamemnon

 

[cyberpunkdreams]

I find that names are all about the time, the place and who you are with.

Oh, completely!

And I agree about Iain M. Bank's names... could have a whole thread just for that! My favourite of his are probably So Much For Subtlety, Grey Area, Pressure Drop... a few others. On the note of his names, I think it was actually M. John Harrison who started the trend. Some of his ship names in novels such as The Centauri Device are pretty eccentric.

And thanks, I didn't know that about Perhonen - although, of course, it makes perfect sense.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Furious Abyss from the Horus Heresy novel Battle of the Abyss by Ben counter .

 

[TK Greenleaf]

Serenity (Joss Whedon's Firefly). If I had a ship of my own, I'd name it "Not Without a Warrant"

 

[cyberpunkdreams]

I'd name it "Not Without a Warrant"

Nice

 

[reiver33]

Event Horizon

 

[steelyglint]

Mr Banks had the master touch when naming his vessels. A certain Mr Asher has shown talent in the same direction. I do like the idea of naming a warship after an executioner, even to giving the 'Jack Ketch' AI a hobby collecting all the forms humans used for capital punishment.

.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

The Odyssey - Ulysses 31. Somehow it was even better for a spaceship.
Moya - Farscape. It's a bit like a car called Brenda. (I know she was a being but... if you came to it without knowing that it would be cool)

 

[steelyglint]

The Odyssey - Ulysses 31. Somehow it was even better for a spaceship.
Moya - Farscape. It's a bit like a car called Brenda. (I know she was a being but... if you came to it without knowing that it would be cool)

If Brenda is a Beetle there's a chap I know called Herbie who'd be interested in meeting her. VW needs all the help they can get right now.

.

 

[Jeremy M. Gottwig]

Ditto for everyone who has mentioned a Culture ship, but I have a special affinity for the Clear Air Turbulence (even though it's a bit blah for Banks).