"Completely off-topic" Topic

Gents,

This is almost totally off-topic, but there are so many experts on military history floating about out there on TMP that I thought I'd see what happens.

I am in the process of replacing my Land Rover Defender with… another Land Rover Defender.
All my previous ones (I've had a few) have been named after RN ships and I would like to carry on the tradition.
So far I have had: Goliath, Dreadnought, Pioneer, Iron Duke and, the current one, Bulldog.

So are there any suggestions as to what I should call the new one?

"Indefatigable", "Arethusa" or "Diadem".

(Gents?!)

Sue K.

Lots and lots of Flower class names:

link

HMS Gladiolus?

Allen

Gladiolus?

Hmmm.

I did consider 'Gladiator' but apparently she didn't have too illustrious a record.

Warrior or Black Prince – I always liked those huge armoured cruisers.

Victory, of course.

It lets you use the tagline, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!"

If it leaks oil, you could call it HMS Incontinent.

Bellerophon.

Colossus.

"Lots and lots of Flower class names"

HMS Pansy? I'd love to see that painted on the side of a truck.

Reminds me of Jayne's hat from Firefly.
"It takes a real man to be seen driving a truck named Pansy"

How does one pronounce: 'Bellerophon'?

How about naming it after one of the assualt ships that it could, potentially, come off;

link

Khazarmac

Despite a Labour Government, the assault ships Ocean, Albion and Bulwark are all in service with the RN… do you perhaps mean the two new carriers which will probably be cancelled at great expense at the eleventh hour?
I believe these were first going to be named 'Eagle' and 'Hermes', but the last reports I read refered to them as 'Queen Elizabeth' and 'Prince of Wales'.

Khazarmac

Ah – I've just re-read your post and realise I misunderstood you! I thought you meant 'come off' as in 'actually be built'!

Ark Royal, Indomitable and Resolution all have a ring.

Are they talking about cancelling the new RN carriers?

McKinstry

One never knows, but I won't believe it until I see them.

I have been giving 'Resolution' some thought for a while – a very robust sounding name.

My two girls are in a 'house' at school called Vindictive. The houses are all named after warships and apparently there was a 74 gun ship of that name in the Napoleonic wars and then a series of cruisers up to the 1920's.

From Red Storm Rising – Battleaxe – " only the Brits would name a ship after their mother in law".

Guy Barlow

I recently competed in the South African Land Rover trophy with my Defender and mentioned my dilemna about choosing a name for the new one to one of the other competitors. This chap was a keen local historian and suggested I name it after the HMS Terrible, the guns of which were disembarked and were involved in the Siege of Ladysmith.
Alas, the usage of the word 'terrible' has changed rather over the last 100 years and naming it thus would give Toyota drivers no end of amusement.

"I have been giving 'Resolution' some thought for a while – a very robust sounding name."

I agree!

If it plays up – Terrible
If it goes well – Swiftsure
If it crashes into things – Troutbridge (as in the Navy Lark radio series – based on the real Troubridge)
If it was built in the far-east – Malaya
If it doesn't handle well – Inflexible
If it annoys the wife – Agamemnon (think about it!)
If it's green – Emerald
If it's always out in front – Vanguard

You give your car a name?

Are you light on your feet? A friend of Dorothy?

Connard Sage

Sorry mate – no, I'm straight – you'll have to look elsewhere.

I was just thinking that one of the Flower class corvettes may have been apt that's all

Connard Sage

I think that joke has already been made by others, but many thanks nonetheless.

Warspite---has a nice ring to it!!

Bell-aero-fawn

slight emphasis on the 'aero'

Try "The Minnow"

HMS Campbeltown

That's the obsolete destroyer they loaded with explosives and rammed into the docks at St. Nazaire.

Andrew

How about naming it after one of these RN fast attack craft:

link

I would think that "Gay Charioteer" (P1049) would be most fitting for a vehicle intended for jolly joyriding, though ECW royalist players might find "Gay Cavalier" (P1046) a fitting name to show their loyalty to the crown and the person of the majesty.

Griefbringer

Or how about "Dark Rover" (P1107):

link

Griefbringer

"Thunderchild" the torpedo ram from War of the Worlds.

I like Thunderchild (though for something completely different what about Pinafore?) – but what are you doing to them that you have gone through five?

I asked my girls about the other 'houses' at school and they are the obvious Victory and then Revenge and Rodney. Personnally always liked HMS Rodney after building the model about 30 odd years ago and reading about Admiral Rodney. Rodney does however have regretable word association with 'Only Fools and Horses'. Apparently sports days etc are full of cries of 'you plonker'.

Guy

Guy Barlow

My late father was born a few days after the Bismark was sunk and was given the middle name of 'Rodney' in honour of HMS Rodney which, amoung others, was attributed with sinking the German super-battleship.
As he used to say, it was lucky it hadn't been the HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Lt Cdr Eugene Esmonde Not a ship name But he did lead the First Torpedo attack on Bismarck and of course lead the 825 Naval Air Squadron in trying to torpedo the German Battlecruisers in the Channel. Or you could name her HMS Victorious.

HMS.Vindictive was converted into an Assualt ship for the Zeebrugge raid. Then used as blockship at Ostend.

Here's a list of names suggesting martial, aggressive qualities.

Alarm
Ambuscade
Ardent
Arrogant
Attack
Audacious
Brilliant
Bruizer
Challenger
Charger
Conquest
Courageous
Daring
Dasher
Dauntless
Desperate
Fearless
Fervent
Furious
Fury
Glorious
Glory
Illustrious
Indefatigable
Indomitable
Insolent
Intrepid
Invincible
Magnificent
Majestic
Martial
Matchless
Nonpareil
Powerful
Resolution
Sans Pareil
Spitfire
Swiftsure
Tenacious
Terror
Thrasher
Thunderer
Turbulent
Undaunted
Valiant
Warspite

All taken from ships in the Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921.

You can also pick names by themes such as

Characters from myth
Geography (countries, towns, counties and rivers)
Famous leaders
Flies and insects
Dances (!)

In honour to the fictional Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho,Hyperion.

How does one pronounce: 'Bellerophon'?

I believe the contemporary pronunciation (at least by its crew) was "Billy Ruffian"

Be lero fon.

Short e, short e, short o.

Can't do phonetic characters.

Winston Churchill wanted to name a new battleship "Pitt" but the king persuaded him not to. Having been a navy man, the king knew that crews like to give ships scatalogical nicknames if possible.

I can't believe nobody has suggested 'Rodney'!

HMCS Sackville, a flower corvette with a good canadian name. And no pansy-@ssed name neither.

She's still afloat, as a museum ship in Halifax btw.

Gerry

HMS BLACK PRINCE.
Definitely a name with class and history.

I wouldn't name it after any of the exploding British battlecruisers if I were you.

Ship names to avoid:

Hogue

Aboukir

Cressy

Serapis

Invincible

Queen Mary

Monmouth

Then again, there's HMS Gloworm, who despite being sunk, went down heroically battling against impossible odds.

Campbelltown also has a certain ring to it, for the reasons already mentioned.

Pardon my American sense of humour getting the better of me this morning…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net
(who is still trying to figure out a name for his Ford Escape *hybrid* SUV…)