Naming Policy, The Art of Naming your Rockets.

[TimePeriod]

Hello fellow Kerbalnauts!

After some time I have come the conclusion that a naming system must be made for everything I have created in KSP. It derives from a simple 'family-tree' system I noticed somewhere else while exploring the internet, a long story short I have made a few modifications to it and come up with my own solution.

Instructions of use:

We start out at what 'Genre'(1#) of video-game we have in mind.

After we have made our choice we determine a number of generic topics found in common amongst all the sub-genre's.(2#)

From this selection we already have quite a few options to name our rockets from.

To further explain how this is used to its fullest, we can derive an even larger amount of names found within each individual sub-genre.

In grand total, we can find a humongous amount of names within each sub-genre.

So don't come around and say "I can't figure out what to call my rocket"

[Ikaneko]

Something cool, like pioneer or trailblazer.

I often say for my landers vaguely latin/russian sounding name of planet - glob.

For my orbiters, I'll have latiny sounding name + grunt.

I'm big into russian names.

[Moss]

Can't go wrong with Slavic mythology for various names of deities and the like.

[SelectHalfling0]

My smaller craft are named after atomic and subatomic particles: "Photon 1" or "Neutrino 1", and my interplanetary ships are named after stars (there is currently only one: Andromeda). My bases and stations are named after roman-kerbal God sounding names: Centaurus, Sion.

[Mr_Brain]

I am not sure how the OP's instructions are going to help with naming rockets. Are you suggesting to name rockets after, in your example, a melee weapon from another video game?

[sal_vager]

I prefer more whimsical names, like those used for boats, here's a list of boats starting with the letter K for Kerbal

[EladDv]

lol i just name my planes as E (S(STO)/(nothing-regular) /B(bomber)-(serial number) and other like First Erbit and baby steps or stuff like Kopernicus and Kepler for some ships

[TheBrisbyMouse]

Whenever I can't think of a name, I just grab my handy little(not at all little!) Webster's Dictionary, flip to a random page, and find the best sounding word on it.

I also have a craft named Ultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Just for the lulz.

[Norpo]

Ship name: (whatever it is)

...I never get confused as to what it is. I sometimes name ships after they've gotten into orbit, or name projects (e.g, my duna mothership in one save was the Red Lumal, Lumal being a kerbal whom I think discovered was BadS, after a rocket crash. I had one called the Green Halnie, but the launch failed, and Halnie died. In his honour, I decided to get creative with the next ship name. "Green Halnie II")

Other than that, I don't really name things in the VAB. Generally "solar module" or "green halnie satellite" works fine for me. Sometimes I get creative. The first spacestation in every save I do is called Endurance.

[sal_vager]

Random word generator.

Hmmm...

equal

cobweb

absent

secretary

like

arrogant

rinse

greasy

gray

wrestle

cultured

zealous

Hmmm...

[rodion_herrera]

I do it the Russian/Soviet way. I have a second mission to Eve? I name the ship Eve-2. The Russians did Venera, Mars, Luna.

[moogoob]

I've been basing my launchers and upper stages after some of the 20 Major Arcana cards of the Tarot. The Magician II - Temperance is an inexpensive light satellite launcher, while the Emperor IV Heavy with Empress second stage and Strength upper stage (skipper-powered upper stage) can lift around 80 tons to LKO.

Mostly it has to do with the type of engines they have.

[Guest]

Kerbin local crew (6man) transport ships are named like Crew Craft {number}{modification} like Crew Craft 3A

Kerbin local crew (3man) transport ships are named like Crew Craft Light {number}{modification} like Crew Craft Light 1

Interplanetary ships OSS {number}{first planet they visited} like OSS 6 Eeloo

Landers Lander {planet(oid)} or {technology} like Lander E2

Unmanned craft named by it's purpose and serial number, like ScanSat 3B 1

[Geschosskopf]

I try to think of an acronym that has a bad connotation in English but which perfectly describes the function of the ship. For instance, the LOSER (Laythe Observation Seaplane for Exploration and Recon), the JERK (Jool Excursion Ride for Kerbals), the MADNESS (Modular And Deployable New Extraplanetary Ship System), etc.

These are what the Kerbals themselves call their ships. And in Old Kerbish, these acronyms have entirely different meanings, like the names of mythological beings, forms of Kerbin wildlife, and favorite snack recipes that have no direct corresponding word in English. But it's one of the strange coincidences of the universe (noted in the Hitchhiker's Guide) that an admirable acronym in Old Kerbish, when literally translated into English, results in a disreputable word.

[Torque]

I name mine after Canadian mammals, the size of the rocket corresponds with the size of animal. Early 1.25m rockets are in the Marmot class of rockets, 2.5m Rockets are the Lynx class and 3.75m rockets are Bison Class.

Any missions that are of a major significance get a color modifier to their name. First mun mission, Grey Marmot. First Duna mission, Red Lynx. And major changes to the construction of a rocket gets a number variation at the end, so my now standard launch system in 1.25m for payloads less then 20t is the Marmot 4 Launcher.

[Rainbowtrout]

I often name rockets for their function or appearance. Except when the aim of the craft is to go up, and it's just a 1.25 meter stack. Up-going Tree?

[UmbralRaptor]

Various exploration projects have theme names, usually based off of history or mythology. Moho missions are likely to be part of Project Discontinuity, Eve/Gilly will fall under Morning Star/Evening Star/Inanna, Duna/Ike Nergal, Eeloo Ereshkigal, etc.

Generic launchers (and more rarely payloads) tend to pull names out of the Cthulhu Mythos, but this also gets converted into alphanumerics. So one built around 3 Mainsails will get called Shantak-3 (S3), and one built around a single LV-T30, uprated with extra fuel to squeeze out maximum payload will get called Lloiger-1U (L1U).

But there are ones that break these rules (eg: Wanderer and Trapezohedron exploration craft, Snatlus II launcher, etc)

[Guest]

My latest attempt at the Soviet UR-700 is named the Flattery since it's getting me nowhere at the moment.

[psyper]

For all of my different craft I name them after towns and villages in the UK. I have Avon, Bedford, Cambridge, Dover, Exeter etc (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/94911-Interplanetary-Mining-Corporation-Craft-Transporters-SSTO-s-and-more) /shameless plug.

For each space station or outpost (mun or planetary base) I've used the surnames of the astronauts, Cosmonauts etc that have expeditions to the ISS - Shepherd, Krikalev, Gidzenko, Usachev, Voss, Helms, Culbertson, Tyurin, Dezhurov, Onufrienko & Waltz so far.

I've also contemplated river names, large cities around the world, bridges etc etc.

Its also worth noting that when europe colonised the new world they called a lot of their settlements after the towns they left behind which is why you have so many english town names in new england and the eastern seaboard. It stands to reason that you could do the same when colonising the kerbal system.

[Spaps]

Named my spacestation KOSS - Kerbin Orbital Science Station, and my first Mun missions Pollux (I, II...). All my sattelites are called [object]Sat [number], for example: KerbinSat I, MunSat IV. Pretty straightforward, isn't it?

[Red Iron Crown]

I used to do punny names mostly, but since starting the Iain Banks' Culture series I've adopted his style of naming.

[spinomonkey]

All my vessels start as "X1, X2..." until they prove themselves as useful. Then I find a name that relates to the mission, "Mun Skipper" for Mun Vessel, "Tinderbox" for Fuel Station. That sort of thing haha

[TrabantDeLuxe]

In my current save I use:

• -ik for everything unmanned. Should it go to another planet, or moon, that celestial body's name is incorporated: Munatik, Minmusnik, and Evenik have all been launched. Scansat sattelites are always called Mapnik, prefixed with the body they are mapping. Useless satellites to complete contracts are called kontraktniks. I believe I'm currently at Kontraktnik Mk.VI.
  
• -khod for anything with kerbals inside that intend go places. Minmuskhod Mk.I was a kerballed minmus orbiting mission. Taxikhod is a craft used to shuttle kerbonauts to a space station in LKO. And yes, I've got a Voskhod.
  
• -grad for space station. Currently, I've only got Kerbograd Mk.I.
  

In my next save I'm thinking about using Royal Navy ship's names from eras gone by. HMS Dreadnought, HMS Terror and HMS Invincible all sound pretty bad ass to me. As a side note, flags are always called after the most boring, sleepy town that I can think of at that moment. In a semi-latinised fashion. All caps. Prefixed with "novum". NOVVM GANZEDYKVM is somewhere in the mün's east farside crater.

[RainDreamer]

I either build my craft, then look at it to see what it resemble, then name it according to that; or I have a theme in my mind and a name before hand, then build it that way. All my craft begins with a protoype tag before it is successfully used in a mission.

Once vehicles are in orbits/otherwise doing missions, I name them functionally, like my relay satellites for kerbins are KRS - # . Simple, but good enough to keep track of things.

[KingofDerby]

In one save, I named rocket type after dead kerbals. So a Bill 2 command module and support system on a Jeb ascent stage, with a Bob Launcher.

My last save was going to use the dead for naming Minmus Base launchpads. The earliest rocket types were re-purposed missiles, with names appropriate. Went through many Mks of them before making a new launcher from scratch, with all types and parts having names beginning with S to keep them uniform.