Having noted FG86's post about ship's names, I got to thinking about such in fact ... and in fiction.
When I worked for CP Ships they had a number of ships named after former CP chairman. Hence you had names like:
W. C. Van Horne and
E. W. Beatty. Awkward names at best. They also named some after Canadian cities and towns. I did two trips on the
Fort Assiniboine, once or twice I was picked up on the name and asked to repeat on the Morse Key.
For me the best ships names came from the pen of Scottish science fiction writer
Ian M. Banks (sadly no longer with us.) In his
'Culture' series of books, the ships operated by this Galactic organization are fully sentient AI's that name themselves on construction. They are considerably more intelligent and have much faster thought processes than their builders. They are in fact so advanced as a result of AI evolution that they're not fully understood by mere human beings.
The
'Culture' are not believers in warships as such, (at least so they say.) However my favourite name for a ship comes from what the
'Culture' calls an
'Abominator Class General Offensive Unit.' The name it has given itself is:
"Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints." Known to Ian M. Banks fans as
FOTNMC.
Is this a warship ? The
'Culture' might deny it, but it's best described as a phenomenally armed, totally psychopathic, completely independent and self-contained attack vessel that does and destroys whatever it pleases.
Hence its name is very suitable.
Somebody made this video, which is a bit on the Flash Gordon side, but does demonstrate the sort of behaviour of
FOTNMC.
https://vimeo.com/258709785