Help Naming Ships

[StarCecil]

So I've been playing Modern Day Scenario II for Hearts of Iron 2, and I've made a lot of file changes including making it so every country can build Super Carriers, Light Carriers and Heavy Aircraft Carrying Cruisers. The problem is I have no idea what the US would name its CVLs

I need to fill in 10 or so class names for five CV Ls and five Heavy Aircraft Carrying Cruisers (CVAs?).

I did try just copying the CVL names from the WWII era in vanilla Hearts of Iron and that currently stands at:

USS Independence, USS Princeton, USS Belleau Wood, USS Cowpens, USS Monterey, USS Langley, USS Cabot, USS Bataan, USS San Jacinto, USS Saipan, USS Wright, USS Block Island, USS Iwo Jima, USS Okinawa, USS Boxer, USS Thetis Bay, USS Guadalcanal, USS Guam, USS Tripoli, USS New Orleans, USS Tarawa, USS Nassau, USS Peleliu, USS Trenton, USS Phillipines,

The first problem is that they're all named after WWII era battles, and a few Revolutionary ones. The game starts in 2003 on the eve of the invasion of Iraq and I need some modern names to fill in the gap. The other problem is that there's a lot of overlap between those CVL names and the names for US AAVs (those tend to be named after famous Marine Corps battles). I also need to figure out a way to sort the names between the Light Carriers and the Heavy Aircraft Carrying Cruisers.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Seishisha]

Well unless your going for some sort of historical accuracy i fail to see why you dont just give all the ships silly names like "uss dichotomy".

If you want some ship names based on the real deal then why not try wikipedia, i googled "list of active duty cruisers" and this page was the top result.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_ships

 

[BiggyShackleton]

Get the biggest ship possible and call it the USS Punchmaster.

 

[Erttheking]

Don't name them after things like that, have names like "Twilight" or "Archangel" or "Zeus" stuff like that.

 

[StarCecil]

Well unless your going for some sort of historical accuracy i fail to see why you dont just give all the ships silly names like "uss dichotomy".

If you want some ship names based on the real deal then why not try wikipedia, i googled "list of active duty cruisers" and this page was the top result.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_ships

Unfortunately, I do want some degree of realism. The real problem here is that the mod accurately reflects the real-life US navy's nomenclature, but it usually doesn't allow the US to build CVLs (the Europeans build those) and Heavy Aircraft Carrying Cruisers (Russia builds those). I took out those restrictions but I need names for the ships that the US can now build. There's no real-life example to go off of, for the US.

Nuclear carriers, the US' CVNs, get named after Presidents and Senators (with the exception of the Kitty Hawk, the Nimitz and the Enterprise).

US AAVs share many of the names with the WWII era escort carriers, which in turn were named after notable battles in the Pacific War and Revolutionary War (and since AAVs are in the mod, those names are taken).

US Submarines are named after cities or states depending on their classification.

US Cruisers/Destroyers/Frigates get named after cities and notable naval officers, depending again on classification and when they were built.

Both the CVLs and Aircraft Cruisers need names for individual ships and classes and those names need to be thematic for realism (i.e., named after battles/politicians/officers) and they need to be named in such a way that they don't conflict with the other ships.

For example, I could name one the USS Bataan after the battle, but there's already an AAV named that. I could name it the USS William Clinton, but that conflicts with the naming scheme for the super carriers.

 

[Seishisha]

Hmm have you perhaps considered combining name catagories and making somthing up, you could for example take a politicans name and the name of a state mix them and get something that sounds halfway real, the "USS Clinton Bataan" since the ships your naming arnt produced by the us anyway this could work i guess? I suppose it comes down more to how much your willing to bend the rules in terms of naming.

 

[StarCecil]

Hmm have you perhaps considered combining name catagories and making somthing up, you could for example take a politicans name and the name of a state mix them and get something that sounds halfway real, the "USS Clinton Bataan" since the ships your naming arnt produced by the us anyway this could work i guess? I suppose it comes down more to how much your willing to bend the rules in terms of naming.

Actually, that's not a bad idea. I could see using Bataan as a class name, and Clinton as a ship's name.

 

[Seishisha]

Well glad i could help, please feel free to use me as a guru for completely random things in the future.

Seishisha away!!

 

[Bostur]

There must be some names of civil war battles that are unused, or land battles from WWII.

A bit of inspiration to compare to the data files:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Civil_War_battles

I know some of these are used for ships and carriers, so I think it's within the theme.

 

[StarCecil]

There must be some names of civil war battles that are unused, or land battles from WWII.

A bit of inspiration to compare to the data files:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Civil_War_battles

I know some of these are used for ships and carriers, so I think it's within the theme.

That's also an inspired idea. I was just looking at wikipedia's page on US Amphibious Warfare and I think I've found some fertile ground there.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Name them after generals, or cities. The states are popular too, that's 50 names right there. Or Indian tribes, that's pretty American (though we usually save those for our helicopters).

 

[Hero in a half shell]

The USS Concrete Donkey


Oh wait, you want historically accurate names? Well crap. Just start Googling.

You could expand your options a little bit, try using Vice Presidents names as well as Presidents, and even Field Marshals (USS Patton?) or internet memes (USS Nyancat!)

 

[StarCecil]

Oh wait, you want historically accurate names? Well crap. Just start Googling.

You could expand your options a little bit, try using Vice Presidents names as well as Presidents, and even Field Marshals (USS Patton?) or internet memes (USS Nyancat!)

VPs might work. I think it would be a little weird for navy ships to be named after army generals, though.

Name them after generals, or cities. The states are popular too, that's 50 names right there. Or Indian tribes, that's pretty American (though we usually save those for our helicopters).

Cities are taken by SSNs and FFG/CG/DDGs, states are taken by SSGN/SSBNs.

 

[Bostur]

USS Arrow to the knee.

If the mod needs to be played by others, making it sound realistic is important. Strategy gamers can be awfully picky about that sort of thing. US Officers can work, but digging up the names can be hard. And there's the caveat that these are already used by armoured vehicles.
A tank and an aircraft carrier with the same name, that just wouldn't do.

I might go for obscure fictional characters that sounds 'presidential', to see how many people get the jokes. But thats just me. How about USS Hackett or USS Mengsk?

 

[StarCecil]

USS Arrow to the knee.

If the mod needs to be played by others, making it sound realistic is important. Strategy gamers can be awfully picky about that sort of thing. US Officers can work, but digging up the names can be hard. And there's the caveat that these are already used by armoured vehicles.
A tank and an aircraft carrier with the same name, that just wouldn't do.

I might go for obscure fictional characters that sounds 'presidential', to see how many people get the jokes. But thats just me. How about USS Hackett or USS Mengsk?

As it stands, the file changes are just for me. Unfortunately, I'm a strategy gamer and awfully picky. I think the idea of Vice Presidents works, since there's not a ship I've ever heard of named after one in the modern Navy. It also fits, thematically, since the CVNs named after Presidents are the USN's mainstay warships and the CVLs are meant to be real "second banana" in comparison.

 

[Shock and Awe]

I dub thee, the USS FACEDESTROYER

No one could stop it.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Hmm last time I had to name a flagship, I used another random reference.
"Desdinova"
Granted that ship was equipped with nothing but giant ass continuous-fire energy projectors, so the name was oddly appropriate.

Otherwise, I use names relatively tangential to the ship's role and make, and save my "funny" and "pretentious" names for special roles and command ships.

(Though I won a close game of SOTS with a fleet of vastly outdated ships called the "Cocksucker Armada"...I can't imagine what the Admiral thought of his command though.)

 

[wooty]

When I used to play Star Trek online or when I play Empire/Napoleon total war, I always rename my ships after the knightmares, characters and ships in Code Geass.

Woe betide any idiot that dares to take on the HMS C2 and her sister ship HMS Lamprouge. But then again I am mildly obsessed.

 

[Diplian]

I usually name them after German ships from WW2.
they had the awesome names.

also you should name one ship 'Luctor et Emergo' when it gets destroyed name it LeE 2 then 3 and so forth.
and the Exon Valdez ofcourse

 

[Zeema]

what about

'The USS DELORAN'

GO BACK TO THE FUTURE ON THIS