How do you guys name stuff?

[Second Hand Rocket Science]

I got 2 methods.

1. Just put a letter before 1 for the first one, then put 2 instead of 1 after the letter for the second one... boring route.

2. Name it either after an Egyptian god, Greek god or just think of a random word off the top of your head and hope it doesn't mean "lol it failed". That's how I got the AR-1 Commodore and the BR-1 Frog. It just needs to sound cool.

What do you guys do?

[Znath]

I did an imitation Parker solar probe I named Iris which was a summon from Golden sun

One series of vehicles I've called "Enerstar" as in Energy since it mines its fuel as it explores.
If I change a chassis I add like mkII, E2, or something
that one's up to like Enerstar S IIb from Enerstar A2E2, and from E2 to E6.  The S model has a split hull, the II was for adding wing sections for the landing struts that support it while it roves the land.  the b was something like adding cargo containers for spare parts.

 

Accompanying the Enerstar is the "Magellan" series drone which has gone from I through IIIC-N on one save and finally to IIIF-N on another.  the IIIF is the VTOL version, N signifies the nuclear battery.  In that case the numeral is the chassis edition, A-F are the version of that chassis, then any modifiers.

[Admiral Fluffy]

I do things like 1A, 1B, so on.

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

I just add a K instead of the 1st letter or make it more kerbal-ish. Like I named my Kerstock (Vostok, also added a "stock" because its fully stock) and the Koyuz (Soyuz). Or I think of a greek thing. Like my Icarus high altitude plane (still havent tested it).

[Smart Boy]

I just go like:

Aurora 1-normal
Aurora 1b-reusable
Aurora 1 Heavy-bigger

…and all rockets are called Aurora (any number)(I’m developing Aurora 4)

[king of nowhere]

I generally watch the ship and name it after something it reminds me. Sometimes just on a metaphorical level.

dancing porcupine: those struts on the back look like quills, and when it bounces on the ground it looks like it's cartwheeling

the can. pretty self-explanatory

an escape pod; it is named Dolphin, because dolphins sometimes help stranded sailors to the shore

A'Tuin. It is only vaguely turtle shaped, but it does carry life around space, protected by its hard shell.

The DREAM BIG. In this case, the name is a declaration of intent

 

After a while, I started theme naming some things. for example, all my escape pods are now named some variation of Dolphin. For a caveman career I named them Cetotherium, which is a phreistoric ancestor of dolphins. And after the can, all small landers are named after common objects.

[Richy teh space man]

Mainly around what the crafts purpose is, then what revision

Say if I'm making a space station, I start with SS #1a

If I find the SS benefits from a tweak in design or launch vehicle needs work then it becomes SS #1b, then SS #1c, etc

If I rebuild the entire thing from scratch it becomes SS #2a, then SS #3a, etc

 

I do also custom name craft in game if they're going to be a significant part of my space program, like moving crew to other planets and back with their science.

[Guest]

Disgracefully. 

[j-tk]

RocketName-Test then once it's working, RocketName-1,2,3,etc

[Second Hand Rocket Science]

Sometimes I translate into different languages. For example, I made a series of roving bases a while ago that are strictly Kerbin-based. Thus, I translated "home" into Spanish, resulting in the Casa program.

[Mahnarch]

4PassNoSciOrb - 4 Passenger, No Science™, Orbitor.

Mun4SciNoLan - Mun Free Return, 4 Science™, No Lander

MunsterMobile - Mun Landing Rover.

 

ETC.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Rainbow codes- colour-coded code names used for many British secret projects including the Black Arrow orbital launch rocket. The format is always colour then noun, so it can be applied in other languages besides English.

Unlike the original concept, I don't assign them at random but instead the colour denotes the size/weight class, then a theme for the second word e.g. Green Bird (seagull, albatross, sparrow, swallow, capercaillie, condor...), Orange Brass (trumpet, cornet, bugle, horn, trombone...) and so on. White Cloud (nimbus, cumulus, stratus...). It can make remembering which rocket is going where a bit less straightforward, but removes most of the challenges of coming up with names- get a good theme going and you can get dozens of missions out of it.

Edited March 8, 2022 by jimmymcgoochie

[BekfastDerp13]

Think of something stupid. That's all.

[Second Hand Rocket Science]

On 3/8/2022 at 7:33 PM, jimmymcgoochie said:

Rainbow codes- colour-coded code names used for many British secret projects including the Black Arrow orbital launch rocket. The format is always colour then noun, so it can be applied in other languages besides English.

Unlike the original concept, I don't assign them at random but instead the colour denotes the size/weight class, then a theme for the second word e.g. Green Bird (seagull, albatross, sparrow, swallow, capercaillie, condor...), Orange Brass (trumpet, cornet, bugle, horn, trombone...) and so on. White Cloud (nimbus, cumulus, stratus...). It can make remembering which rocket is going where a bit less straightforward, but removes most of the challenges of coming up with names- get a good theme going and you can get dozens of missions out of it.

I've never thought of that before. Sometimes I feel like I'm plagiarizing when I take names from other things (name formats, in your case). However, that's still cool! 

[Sentient Mop]

I usually pick a random subject and run with it. My most recent save I've been using Sesame street/muppet names for instance. Really so long as I have fun with it that's all I need.

[spacejet]

.

Edited April 4, 2022 by spacejet

[TanDeeJay]

I called my space station the "1kk/k Space Hotel".... short for one thousand kilometer orbit over Kerbin, and then I've sent mining ships to several bodies, and called them things like "Munamina", "Minimina", "Dunamina", "Pol Poker", "Jool Juicer" (for a mining ship that is waiting to head to Jool to mine asteroids that I pull into orbit)
I tend to use roman numerals for numbering different versions of a ship, so my asteroid catching and mining fleet are ACM-A VI and the ACM-C VI - where ACM stands for Asteroid Catcher Miner and I originally had 3 different ships A was for catching asteroids, B was for changing the inclination of A to match an incoming asteroid, and C's role was to convert the asteroid to fuel... But I did away with 'B' when I found it easier to catch asteroids in solar orbit before they hit Kerbins SOI than to try and change the inclination of an asteroid after catching it while already in Kerbins SOI... 

But my Eve lander is just called "Eve Lander"  but it is still undergoing testing... it is currently on a full flight test from Kerbin to Eve landing and back again.... on its Kerbin to Eve leg where it is supposed to meet up with an ACM-C VI (which is called Eve Potato Farmer) in Eve orbit to fuel it before it attempts to land, but it will actually arrive at Eve about 3 years before the asteroid that is supposed to fuel it... (which is currently in a solar orbit with Eve's inclination and waiting for the Eve intercept...) So I guess it still has an excuse to not have any Roman numerals after it.

Edited March 14, 2022 by TanDeeJay
added name of Eve mining ship

[TanDeeJay]

On 3/7/2022 at 1:09 AM, king of nowhere said:

 

The DREAM BIG. In this case, the name is a declaration of intent

Wow! Your ship attached to the left end of The DREAM BIG looks somewhat similar to my Eve Lander .  But if yours is an Eve Lander it is more compact than mine...

[king of nowhere]

48 minutes ago, TanDeeJay said:

Wow! Your ship attached to the left end of The DREAM BIG looks somewhat similar to my Eve Lander .  But if yours is an Eve Lander it is more compact than mine...

it's an eve lander indeed. pretty crappy, but it was my first. I called it FU Eve because, after putting a lot of effort into fancy propeller planes that failed every time, i got fed up and decided to just brute force my way.

I don't know if it's more compact than yours; it may look smaller simply because docked with a gargantuan 4000 ton ship. the FU Eve is over 400 tons, for a single pilot.

My second Eve lander was a lot more optimized than that, and it was 250 tons for 3 pilots. My third eve lander was a successful propeller thing, and it was only 45 tons, including plenty of redundancies.

[TanDeeJay]

21 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

it's an eve lander indeed. pretty crappy, but it was my first. I called it FU Eve because, after putting a lot of effort into fancy propeller planes that failed every time, i got fed up and decided to just brute force my way.

I don't know if it's more compact than yours; it may look smaller simply because docked with a gargantuan 4000 ton ship. the FU Eve is over 400 tons, for a single pilot.

My second Eve lander was a lot more optimized than that, and it was 250 tons for 3 pilots. My third eve lander was a successful propeller thing, and it was only 45 tons, including plenty of redundancies.

This is my Eve lander.  The fuel tanks and rocket motors on the right are for the Eve transfer and insertion burn, the ship attached to the top on the left is the return craft...  I too am not great at building ships that fly and I've gone for the brute force way too .  This lands under parachutes, and then has full fuel tanks for the asparagus staged lift off.  Yours is a little baby at 400t.  Fully fueled, mine weighs 562t... Lol, I just looked at the mass when attached to the launcher  - 2200t and over 1million kerbal bucks. 

[Davi SDF]

I like to call my early rockets "Manned missiles".

When i am in a middle/endgame, i start to make families with each one based on a real rocket family, with their names inspired by them too (example: Saturn to Sarnus, Jupiter to Jool and so on)