[Antonin]

I name fleets that consist of 10 or fewer non-capital ships (destroyers, frigates, escorts) 'flotilla a,' 'flotilla b,' etc.

Combat fleets containing capital ships and preparing to operate outside my empire I name '1st Banner Fleet,' '2nd Banner Fleet,' etc. Sometimes, though, I'll call them "Tumen," after the Mongol military unit.

As for ships, I call escort/scout designs "Far Star," after Hober Mallow's ship in Asimov's Foundation novel (I think it was Mallow's ship).

Frigate classes are Type I, Type II, etc, after the German U-boat types of WWII. I name frigates individually, 'Z100,' Z101,' etc, with the first digit corresponding to the class type.

I name Destroyer classes after German cities, and individual ships after German U-boat commanders, ie, IKD Hardegan ("Imperial Klingon Destroyer Hardegan").

I name Light Cruiser classes after Japanese cities, and individual ships I give Japanese family names.

Cruiser classes get Russian city names, and individual ships get Russian family names.

With bigger ships I get more flexible, partly because there are fewer of them and partly because I usually wind up surrendering before the game gets far enough to think really big. (I'm a newbie - but having fun even while losing)

My tendency is to call battleship classes after organizations in the Dune novels (Face Dancer, etc) and name individual ships after individuals in the Dune or Foundation novels ("IKB Duke Leto").

Dreadnought classes are named after types of celestial bodies ("Comet," etc). Individual Dreadnoughts get named after actual celestial bodies ("Jupiter," "Phobos," etc).

I try to be consistent so I can tell the type of any ship at a glance. Also, it makes for great sounding "press bulletins":

"Today, according to the Ministry of Defence, a task force consisting of the heavy cruiser Kirov, light cruisers Abe and Matsuoka, and frigates Z502 and Z133 delivered a heavy blow against an enemy grouping in the Proxima system..."

But there is just so *much* you can play around with; close examination of a map of west Africa reveals a *lot* of cities whose names would make great ship names.

One thing I wish the game had is a way to create and use ship name text files the way we do ship design name files. As it is, I have to keep papers next to my keyboard with all my potential ship names printed out.