Naval History Forums

Let´s forget their virtues or defects, their glory or tragic fates, just the name.
For me the name is: REPULSE. It sounds marvellous!

I think that most of the RN ships have handsome names: Terror, Revenge, Furious, Glorious, Courageous, Invincible; ships named after people like Tipritz, Bismarck, Hood, Spee seem uninspiring to me. Some times obscure names are used; most Americans don't even know who Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and, perhaps, John Stennis (CVN 74) were.

Ciao all,

well try to guess who was Camillo Benso Conte di Cavour...

..... or Caio Duilio, .. not to name Andrea Doria, ....

... and maybe even Vittorio Veneto is not so famous, ...

.. then if we go into the Italian light cruisers,.. there you need an history expert to know about their names, ....

.. but if they are German Admirals,..they apparently know how to avoid torpedoes

Ciao Antonio

And who knows about Bartolomeo Colleoni, Gioberti, Oriani, Toti, Battisti, Sauro, Ulpio Traiano, Sciré, Gondar, Axum, and so on... you're right, we need an historician to know the names of italians ships.

Apart Littorio, I guess...

@Ulrich: not to speak of Royal Sovereign, Royal Oak, Victory, Resolution, Conqueror, Thunderer and so on...:P britons seems aficionados of majestic names...

Well, Andrea Doria isn´t that dark: we owe him not being muslims today.

But the others are a bit obscure. True that names like Tirpitz, Bismarck, Carl Vinson, Hans Lody, John Stennis, etc. are not ideal. I wonder if in 100 years time people will know who was some Ronald Reagan whose name was bearing in an ancient aircraft carrier. Perhaps Nimitz or Spruance aren´t that bad because they feature in great battles text books. Names after battles don´t sound bad neither: Midway, Saratoga, Coral Sea, etc.
The Americans didn´t had a bad idea naming their BBs with State names: Montana ( ), Iowa, South Dakota, etc. I think they asumme that their today´s BBs are their Submarine fleet so they named after cities.
But for an American warship name the one (and the only) is:
ENTERPRISE. (Don´t forget that probably an Enterprise will boldly go were no man has gone before)

I have to say, even though I'm an American, that U.S. warship names were rather boring, excepting WWII CVs, named after battles of the Revolutionary War (e.g. Yorktown, Saratoga). This goes esp. for BBs. One of the most powerful and beautiful BBs ever designed, the Iowa class?! No offense to those from that state; I'm from Illinois, and there was a planned Iowa-class BB to be launched with that name. Had there been an Illinois, I would have been just as unimpressed with that name as with Iowa. I guess this is pretty arbitrary; the Japanese named their BBs after states (or provinces) too, but they just sounded so much cooler: Nagato, Musashi, etc. Perhaps this is so just because I'm a foreigner. Heck, maybe Iowa sounds cool to a Japanese.

I agree with earlier statements: the British knew how to come up with imposing, majestic names. Renown inspires far more respect (on the basis of name alone) than Iowa.
George G.

Hallo George,

talking about names, your last name indicates that your familly comes from a Greek island called Keffalonia, isn't this true?

Plus there's a Greek singer with the exact name

I agree with the British names all the way, most impressive names indeed.
The Greek navy has a mix of names ancient and modern) and provinces, then and know.
I won't bother listing a few, as Antonio said, we will need history experts in this case too

Take care, George

Yes, my background is Greek, Cephallonian to be precise, on my father's side. But mom is German! Quite a mix, eh?
George (the "earth worker")

Hi George,
Well, I wrote the name of the island how it's written in the maps etc.
Been there a view time firefighting...
Yeap, you got your self a nice mix there, a "cultural cocktail" indeed
When you say "earth worker" what do you mean?

Greetings to your family from Greece

George

George 1&2: The meaning of George in ancient Greek is earthworker or cartaker of the earth gaea=earth and ourgos=worker..... as in geoorgia, agriculture and geoorgios, farm laborer. (oo=omega)

GEOGANA Earth-worker
GEORGANA Earth-worker
GEORGE Earth-worker
GEORGEINA Earth-worker
GEORGENE Earth-worker
GEORGENIA Earth-worker
GEORGETTA Earth-worker
GEORGETTE Earth-worker
GEORGIA Earth-worker
GEORGIANA Earth-worker
GEORGIENNE Earth-worker
GEORGINA Earth-worker

Yes, thank you Mr. Rudofsky for correcting me,
I hastily dashed off that line about my name- though I presume modern Greeks would be aware of the roots of the name "George." Actually, sometimes I wish I spoke or knew ancient Greek rather than modern, as most of the words we borrow from the Greek in English are derived from the ancient language. Of course, it would be nice to read the Iliad and the Odyssey in the original too.

Oh yeah, back to ships' names. The Brits should have christened one of them Saint George. The ship's crest would have been simple and effective: a mounted knight slaying a dragon.
George G.

Well, there was no way to get around learning Latin and Greek at the St. Gotthard Gymnasium run by Benedictine Monks! As to HMS St. George, you should be happy to hear that there were at least three great ships named after the Patron Saint of England: One was Nelson's flag ship in 1801-03 (first rate, 98 guns), then there was the HMS Princess Royal renamed in 1812 HMS St. George (first rate, 100 guns), and then there was the Victorian HMS St. George!

I was thinking today, reading the facts of the battle on the waters off Cape Matapan the night of march 28th 1941 that I really like the name of Cunningham's flagship: Warspite...

Well, names in a foreign language always sound "cool". My native language is spanish and when I hear a ship called "Santísima Trinidad" or "San Juan" I don´t relate that name with a combat vessel but with the neighborhood or church next to mine (Remember a US sub that is called "Corpus Christi"?). So, if a ship is called Iowa it doesn´t sound that bad. But there is a thruth with that Japanese names are much more "cooler" so as Nagato, Furutaka, Hiei or Akagi.
Are those Japanese names all related to places? Musashi was a great historic Japanese warrior and Yamato was related to Japan´s history, isn´t it?

One of the more offensive, but appropriate Spanish name, is the Cacafuego (bomb vessel).
http://www.modellismo-navale.it/MODELLI ... ego_S.html