I can't help but think this article could have used some more polishing. The stats say that there are 101 boats named "Freedom", but if you enter "Freedom" in the search, it shows 48 boats with names <i>including</i> "Freedom", of which however <i>only one</i> is called just "Freedom". That doesn't really add up?!<p>Also, clicking "Movie/TV" yields a paltry 22 boats, which I think is far too few. E.g. the boat called "USS Enterprise" isn't included. Ok, it could be named after the 1958 aircraft carrier, but I would say the odds are far greater that it was named after the Starfleet ships. Then again, I can understand why "Starlight Express" is included under "Music", but why also all other boats with names containing the word "Starlight"?!
On the first point, I think it's a search of boat <i>names</i>, not boats - they're deduplicated.
Sure, but if you click on the boat called "Freedom", it shows you the data of one specific boat, not "there are X boats with this name". So I still think it's inconsistent...
Err, the Enterprise has been a ship name for a few hundred years, quite a bit before Star Trek was ever conceived.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise</a>
Amusing that the page for ships called HMS Enterprise linked to from the USS Enterprise page points out that the name came originally from the French!<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Enterprise" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Enterprise</a>
I always thought the carrier was named after Enterprise, PA since the US Navy usually names cruisers after medium sized cities and the earlier carriers were converted cruiser hulls.
Oh interesting, I didn't know that. It's an even older name than I thought!
Nostromo could be a reference to Joseph Contrad's novel. Its also an italian word for boatswain (according to Wikipedia)
There's a fun time loop here: The Star Trek Enterprise and the real-life space shuttle Enterprise were each named after the other. In real life, the shuttle was named after the Star Trek ship. In-universe, the first starship Enterprise (NX-01) was named after the space shuttle. [Edit: I remember reading that years ago, but can't find any official source saying so now, although the intro to the Star Trek Enterprise tv series does emphasize the shuttle.]<p>(Of course, both really come from a long lineage of naval vessels with the name.)
That's the public data. I can tell you I've worked in this industry for 20+ years and run probably one of the biggest sites in this space selling boat graphics. The most popular name is actually "Aquaholic" ;-)
This reminds me of a girl I knew in college who worked as a contracter for a book publisher.<p>I was surprised to learn that one of the most common types of books people submitted were dairies of their sailing. Like, "we sailed to this island and there was bad weather then we sailed to this other island".<p>Apparently they'd get a manuscript like this once a week or something. Not sure what the market is like for books like that since I don't think I've ever seen one in a book store.
They exist, but generally for more significant voyaging. For example<p><pre><code> - Joshua Slocum - Sailing Alone Around The World (1900)
- H.W.Tilman - Mishief Among The Penguins (1961)
- Sir Alec Rose - My Lively Lady (1968)
- Annie Hill - Voyaging on a Small Income (1993)
</code></pre>
at least are on my bookshelf
Ocean sailing leaves a lot of free time. Also the people who can afford to do it have a lot of free time. So I don't find it that surprising.
> Not sure what the market is like for books like that since I don't think I've ever seen one in a book store.<p>Same.<p>But then vlogs about people sailing can be extremely successful, with millions of subscribers. But then I take it there's more appeal in seeing young couples, with a six-pack dude and a beautiful woman in bikini, sailing around the world than reading description of the various kind of waves.
My boat's called Floating Point :)
Better than <i>Overflow</i>.
If I had a boat and always dropped anchor at the same spot, regardless of tides/weather/etc., I'd name it <i>Fixpoint</i>.
If I had a boat I would totally steal that (and wait for other nerds to strike up conversations).
I’ve always been impartial to Sea++
If you really want to attract the hard-core nerds, name it "IEEE 754" instead.
I draw the line at public points.
Epic name
How is there not one boat named "Sunk Cost"...
The "Boat ownership by income" is interesting, although easy to misread at a glance.<p>7% of boat owners earning under $25k is of course very different from 7% of people earning under $25k owning a boat.<p>I'd love to see an actual chart of boat ownership at income levels, it would read quite differently I'm sure.
Cool project, you can also view some of the real ship names on <a href="https://neon.boats" rel="nofollow">https://neon.boats</a> and see their relative ocean swell.
The article mentions a dataset of names given to people in the USA. This is a fun name explorer WASM based on that data. 811 people in the USA have named their baby 'Diesel': <a href="https://docs.malloydata.dev/malloyyo-babynames/name_explorer.html?%24NAME=Diesel" rel="nofollow">https://docs.malloydata.dev/malloyyo-babynames/name_explorer...</a>
My boat (a small 25ft sail boat) was named "Zesty Enterprise", since all the best movie lines come from The Big Lebowski.
I've always thought Unsinkable II would be a good boat name
unsinkable-2 (copy)-FINAL.revised7-4-19
How about Titanic II?
People think lots of things are good boat names. There's no reason there couldn't have more than one Unsinkable that hadn't sunk, and most boats aren't retired by sinking, so Unsinkable II would fit right in.
What about "Really Actually Unsinkable 9"?
Parent reply is actually way funnier and more original than the GP, which has already been repeated by two other posters.
It's at the point I can tell, not only was AI used for this (cool, not a big deal, I use it too!) But I can tell Gemini was used here.<p>How can I tell? Cuz the last thing it designed for me used the exact same fonts, color tones, border sizes and spacing for buttons.<p>Maybe Gemini needs a higher default temperature.<p>Anyways, cool data gathered here tho! Thanks for sharing
Any particular reason that “Andiamo” is so popular? It’s apparently Italian for “let’s go” but why is in the top 10? Is there some reference I’m missing?
Naming things is hard, it's best to pick a theme and stick with it.<p>A Columbo family mafioso I grew up near used to be in a never-ending competition with the Sultan of Brunei and the Aga Khan over who owned the worlds fastest megayacht. He named his megayachts after James Bond movies: For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, Moonraker, Casino Royale, Skyfall, and Diamnonds are Forever.<p><a href="https://www.boatinternational.com/luxury-yacht-life/owners-experiences/james-bond-boats--27897" rel="nofollow">https://www.boatinternational.com/luxury-yacht-life/owners-e...</a><p><a href="https://www.cosanostranews.com/2012/03/crime-really-does-pay-for-some.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cosanostranews.com/2012/03/crime-really-does-pay...</a>
Also never forget <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface</a>
I found "Change Order" a pleasure craft out of Alabama.<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/sd97i4/read_dinghy_name_first_if_you_are_in_construction/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/sd97i4/read_dinghy_n...</a><p>It'd be awesome if there was enough metadata to link across to an AIS aggregator/map like <a href="https://www.marinetraffic.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.marinetraffic.com/</a>
Snap!
I came here to say that it's apparently not in the set.
Some of these are really lacking in gravitas.
Looked for several of my favorites and didn't see them.<p>No mention of <i>Choppin' Broccoli</i> which can be found in the Small Craft Harbor in San Francisco
I bought a sailboat in 2022 and sailed all over the caribbean from florida from 2022-2025. I came across a lot of funny boat names.<p>My boat was not among them sadly as I was serious about mine.<p>Fishizzle, Boat Float, Unsinkable II, Knot for Sail, etc.
The <i>Ocean Trader</i> comes up, but it's not the same specs as the <i>MV</i> one.<p>Which is special forces support ship hiding in plain sight.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Ocean_Trader" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Ocean_Trader</a>
It had my boat name, which so far I haven't seen duplicated, and isn't particularly specific to anything that would preclude someone else from using it.
It's like vanity license plates but with even less constraints... "Unsinkable II".
If you are interested in the AIS (ship telemetry) data, my team has created a visualization project: <a href="https://adsb.exposed/?dataset=Ships&zoom=5&lat=52.3890&lng=4.9219&query=f032b52a954b7afc2438a87841627466" rel="nofollow">https://adsb.exposed/?dataset=Ships&zoom=5&lat=52.3890&lng=4...</a>
love this, i'm a boat captain and collect images of terrible boat names on my phone. people are insane, always baffles me what they will name a boat.
I think the 2 funniest I found here are "TT Firebird Ribeye" which just sounds like an incredibly specific steakhouse menu item, and "Privacy II", which I just think is a bit on the funny-ironic side that we're all now looking at their vessel data and violating their privacy.
It should be illegal to leave a tantalizing comment like that without giving some examples :)
My favorite so far was a motorboat named "Maday". Imagine hailing them on VHF...
All I know is that when I finally buy that Zodiac RIB, I'm naming it SANGAMON'S PRINCIPLE.
I once saw a boat called the Betty Swollocks. It made me laugh.
The categorization could use some work. "Comanche" shows up under mythology, for example.
Only one Boaty Boat, lacking the McBoatyFace.
It really needs a picture of each boat!
I probably missed it but can you download all the names? I want to run it through microgpt and see what it comes up with.
I'm on mobile and I can't figure out how to search.
Can't believe there's only one Stugots
Disappointed to see no mention of Boaty McBoatface.<p>Can't be that often boat naming becomes headlines.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface</a>
Probably because the article only uses data from the US, so it would be a bit strange if it included the name of a British AUV. Or are you wondering why no one in the US liked that story enough to name their own boat Boaty McBoatface? There is a Boaty Boat, so that's something...
TFA said the names were taken from published AIS data, so perhaps Boaty has not shown up on USA AIS receivers as yet. Since IIRC it is an AUV thats not surprising I wonder if it even has an AIS transmitter. The ship they were asking for names for was actually named Sir David Attenborough in the end.
Reminds me of the ship names in the Culture novels by Iain M Banks.
Bust Out Another Thousand
The top 3 names being<p>> Freedom<p>> Liberty<p>> Serenity<p>Reads like a state motto
Someone needs to take "Unsinkable II"