Re: Ship Naming Convention (was: RE: What, no messages?)

On Mon, 6 Apr 1998 21:49:48 -0500, Thomas Barclay
<Thomas.Barclay@sofkin.ca>
wrote:

>How could you get the Picts without the Kelts or Celts (depending on 
>your bent)?  

You'd THINK I'd mention the Celts. However, my understanding is that
"Celt"
covers a wide range of people that also includes the early Germans and
Gauls
(but not the Franks, if I remember correctly and I may be wrong). You
make a
point, though.

It is Celt. The soft "c" and hard "c" ("k") sound is a weirdness in
English.
In the 19th century there was a softening of the letter "c" in English
and
it's followed through. The race are Celts (pronounced Kelts), but the
Glasgow
soccer team and the Boston basketball team are Celtic (pronounced
Sell-tik).

>One could follow some sort of a heroic naming scheme
>
>BB: The MacArthur, the Schwartzkopf, the Powell, the Patton, the 
>Montgomery, the Rommel, the Eisenhower.

No offense, but I'd hardly put Schwartkopf or Powell in the same group
as
Patton and Rommel. Also, if using the FT background you'd want to avoid
heroes
from another region. The NAC wouldn't use Rommel but the NSL would. I
like
using these names myself, though I like to go for less obvious names:
Tokugawa, Slim, Wolfe, Augustus Adolphus, Tecumseh. Funny how American
SF
writers (such as on Babylon 5) are quick to go with WW2 and beyond names
but
ignore some good ones from the civil war: Jackson, Longstreet, Early,
Sheridan, Meade, Buford, not to mention Lee, Grant, and Sherman (Sherman
may
be too "divisive" as might be Sheridan, though both have had tanks named
after
them; I wouldn't expect to see a Forrest class ship, though).

>CA: The Montcalm, the Wolfe, the Ney, the Bonaparte, the Wellington, 
>the Adolphus, etc

Whoops. Looks like you cover some of mine. I can supply a bunch of
Japanese
heroes if anyone wants, along the lines of Tokugawa, Takeda, and
Nobunaga. 

>CL: The Horatio, The Xenophon, the Agrippa, the Augustus, etc.
>CV: The Nimitz, the Bishop, the Rickenbaker, the Richtoffen, the 
>Jodl, etc. 

WW1 aces would be good. Historical note: some 25%+ of British aces were
Canadian. There were a disproportionate number of Australians as well.

You've got Ball, Boelcke, Immelmann, Caldwell, Brown, Nungusser,
Lowenhardt,
etc.

>I don't think one ever needs run out of fascinating and useful ship 
>names. The world is so full of wonderful material that there is no 
>shortage. 

Quite true. I like battle names, myself. My favourite ship name is the
Vimy
Ridge. I also like some weirdnesses you'd NEVER see in real life. In the
GenCon game last year, I had Debacle class ships: The Dieppe, The
Stalingrad,
and The Somme.

Allan Goodall	     agoodall@sympatico.ca

"Once again, the half time score, 
 Alien Overlords: 142,000. Scotland: zip."
  - This Hour Has 22 Minutes