Note-taking? You guys are crazy!
j/k
I name all my ships individually, with completely random names.
I've seen one player name ships like this:
Killer VII - is a warship
Killer VIl - minesweeper
Killer VlI - supply ship
All of these names (unfortunately) look identical in the list where the ships in a sector are displayed, so you cannot tell at a glance how many warships and support ships are in a fleet. If you click on a ship, the font used for the design name is different, so you can tell what the actual name is that way, but it is longer and more complicated than simply looking at all the ships in 1 sector at a time.