Ship Name Generator

How ship names are usually built

Ships have long been named for people, virtues and hopes, and the habit is easy to borrow. A merchant vessel wears a woman's name or a promise: Lady Tamsin, Pride of Dunmere. A warship takes a firm adjective and a weapon or a watchman, as in the Steadfast Bulwark. A ghost ship is named for what it lost, like the Weeping Bride.

Because a ship's name is said in every port, short and sayable beats clever. Two or three beats carry well over wind and water.

Naming a fleet

Ships in a fleet share a habit. A navy might name its vessels for virtues, a trading house for its founders' daughters and a smuggler for jokes only the crew gets. Pick the habit first, then let each ship name echo it, so a reader sees the owner behind the hull. Decide what happens when a ship is renamed, since sailors treat that as bad luck and a story can use the superstition. Record each vessel's port of registry, captain and rig, and avoid giving two ships the same name in one harbour unless the confusion is the plot.

Twenty example ship names

• Lady Tamsin a trim merchant brig named for the owner's daughter.
• Pride of Dunmere a cargo ship that carries a town's reputation.
• The Steadfast Bulwark a ship of the line with a stubborn captain.
• The Weeping Bride a ghost ship seen only before storms.
• Honest Elsbeth a trader whose name is a promise.
• The Iron Warden the flagship of a coastal fleet.
• The Hollow Lantern a ghost ship with a light that never warms.
• Fair Odile a small coaster loved by its crew.
• The Relentless Lance a fast raider of the navy.
• Fortune of Harrow Bay a cog on the grain run.
• The Drowned Mercy a wreck that still sails at night.
• Good Alys a ferry that has never been late.
• The Unbroken Standard a ship that carried the colours through a siege.
• Gift of the Southern Isles a spice trader of great reputation.
• The Silent Widow a ghost ship found drifting with the table laid.
• Gentle Perrin a ship with a name much kinder than its captain.
• The Vigilant Sentinel a patrol ship that never sleeps.
• Pearl of Saltmarsh a diver's ship with a lucky past.
• The Lost Wake a ghost ship that leaves no trail.
• The Stormbound Tempest a warship that sails the worst weather by choice.