On the D20 Radio forums for Star Wars they have a pretty good thread that is pinned up for suggests for starship names. So I thought that the Rogue Trader forum would be a good place to start it for the 40K rpg games. I think there might have been a thread like this on the BI forum but it is lost.

In my DH game, the ship my players are assigned to is the:

Shard of Dispair

Shard of Hope

Shard of Piety.

Please post any other suggestions you have.

Salcor

In my DH campaings my players are using two vessels - Inquisitiorial cruiser Dark Splendour and Rogue Trader's starship Void Rift

I have a battlefleet gothic cruiser named: Harbinger of Doom

And Imperial Cruisers named: I.N.S. Righteous Hammer and I.N.S. Pride of Talasshar.

For Rogue trader ships I think I would go with something like, Profitable Venture or Intrepid Explorer

Pius XIII said:

Nooo... Not Intrepid Explorer! That would be IE, and would summon the demons of profit and poor function! Begone, lest we summon forth through the blue Gates of crashing.

Best go with Feigned Fury (FireFox) or Great Confessor (Google Chrome) to make things work correctly. There are, after all, some Vi$tas that are too corrupted for the unprepared to gaze upon.

Erm... Yes, well. Yes.

<whistles, runs>

Kage

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

The Noob Smasha 2k9

Vessel names that I've used:

Visceral Understanding

Cry the Fire

Silence of the Light

Luminal Standstill

Evil Disposer

However, before us there were a lot of great exemplars, so allow me to point out the one greatest space vessel name in the history of named space craft - the Righteous Indignation . Brownie points to anyone who knows where that came from without resorting to the Internet.

Also, brownie points to anybody who catches the reference in Evil Disposer under the same terms as the Righteous Indignation .

Scion of the Boundless Void

Starcatcher

One Who Smites

Tears of the Wretched

Fire and Faith

Unsought Revelation

Timeless Glory

Tribulation

Perdition's Flame

Hallowed Specter

Sire of Wrath

Eternity's Guard

Smirking Lady

Peerless Vagabond

Hour of Vengence

Rest Not, Want Not

Requiem

My acolytes have used the cobra class frigate Divinitus Purger in their mission to cleanse the galaxy of Xenos and all have much affection for it.

Some other vessels i've used are Red Garden a bulk trader, Imperator Justicar a Mars pattern cruiser, Golden Journey a exploration vessel and the Penitent's Refuge a vessel of the Ecclesiarchy.

Peaceful Pilgrim

In every sci-fi game Ive ever been in.

For starship name motivation I highly recommend the Ian Banks Culture series of books.

...and for a listing of canon names: www.scholaprogenium.com/starship.html

Pneumonica said:

Bucky O'Hare:-

The Rodger Young

schoon said:

If we're going to just start quoting favourite Starship names from other Sci-Fi sources in this thread, then yes, I'd rate the Culture starship names as the best. The Ethics Gradient was my own favourite.

Outside the Culture, the free trader Lady Macbeth from the Night's Dawn books always stuck with me.

For 40K names, though, I'd advise just doing what the writers seem to do. Think of a good name for a starship and then put a Gothic/Medieval twist on it.

Stygere (Hateful) is home of my players in my RT camping. She is Cobra class destroyer over 10k years and its navigator Euphrati Victus is kind of living saint suspended for most time in stasis field. She is almost as old as the ship itself. But that is another story

Gemina Astra (Twin Star) is a large RT cargo vessel captain of which is a husband of Styrenge captain.

Some day maybe I’ll post a full background of those ships

The names of ships i have used so far in my game.

The Emperor's Word

The Light in the Dakness

The True Name of the Emperor

The Saint Astarsy, (this is a personal saint in my game.)

Oh and by the way if any of my players are reading this don't worry you will meet most of these ships in the next few weeks.

Harrington's Honor (cheap I know...)

Last Rites (for those big Armegeddon class ships)

Mercy's Angel

Vatta's Purse (Christened after Elizabeth Moon's own Rogue Trader)

Oooo I like this topic...

So here are two of mine inspired by music I am currently listening to:

John, Paul, George and Ringo

Chartist ship regularly chartered by loose coalition of entertainment guilds and artistically inclined noble houses. Named after Emperor’s favorite composers from even before the Dark Age of Technology. There is apocryphal legend that Emperor once remarked that they these men are even ‘bigger than him’. Unfortunately, of their work today, in 40th millennium, we only have recovered fragments such as great theological and metaphysical hymn written in ancient Terran language ‘Across the Universe’ that is by some thought to be a prophecy of the Great Crusade and is still very popular as a part of sacral ceremonies in Solar segmentum – NOTE: This might seem like Gygaxian pun (not that it would be bad) but is actually half-nicked from Moorcock’s Runestaff books.

Pirate Jenny

Rogue Trader ship captained by a woman of humble origins. Some say she was just an underhiver that worked as a waitress in a house of ill repute, who somehow inherited Rogue Trader charter and is now mercilessly preying on spaceways in the region of the Halo Stars. They say that her first act as a captain of this mighty vessel was to exact terrible vengeance on corrupt Pluto-Barons, rulers of her world

HDMS Implacable

HDMS Carnephilis

HDM Sloop Tactus Quod Vado

MRS Yppei

MRS Profit Margin

Solomon Dromon Lighter 1000A500E501NE

EFS St. Ollanius' Wake

EFS Sigillite

All of these have been used in my DH campaigns, along with a Hereditary Free Trader, the name of which I forget, and the Inquisitorial heavy cruiser Lightfoot. I'll note that I use HDM as a prefix for Imperial Navy vessels (HDMS=His Divine Majesty's Ship), MRS for the merchant navy (including those under route Charters and similar) and EFS for Ecclesiarchically chartered vessels (EFS=Ecclesiarchy Flagged Ship).

Bonus points for anyone who spots all the references to other sci-fi settings

I've only named two ships that I can think of.

The first for the BFG ship design competition was an eldar battleship called "Asuryan's Light in the Darkness Rekindled" and the second was the ship in my DH scenario competition entry called The Penitent.

Pseudolatin always goes down a treat:

Incurator velatus

Malibunim Korist

His Light

Greatful Oblivion

Spear of Shalathar

His Lady's Virtue (massed defensive turrets a must)

Eye of Wrath

Righteous Indignation

Juteridium Shalfath

Might and Power

Divine Intervention

Countenance of Victory

Dutiful Annihilation

Immortum et Bellus

Adamantine Justification

ad pseudolatinium

Hellebore

Bleh. All sorts of rightous smiting names and stuff going on in here. Those names should stay in the Imperial Navy. Being a Rogue Trader isn't about blowing things up. Its about exploring and pushing back the borders of the frontier and filling in the maps. I'll be calling my Rogue Trader ship the True North. Connotations of cartography, explration and a tiny bit of humor because there is no true north in space.

Well, the original question didn't ask about Rogue Trader vessel names, just star ship names (and then proceeded to give 3 examples in the mold you don't like).

The Imperium is arrogant and self assured. They believe in their divine right to rule the galaxy. Their ship names reflect that. You'll never get a ship called the Peaceful Envoy in the Imperial Fleet.

Hellebore

Unfortunately in my game last week the players were boarding a charist ship that for some reason I didn't name so on the spot I used the following

Decade Peregrine. (poor I know)

Yeah this was just for starship names, not Battlefleet or rogue trader only. How about a heretics ship for the logitician its name is an arcane marking from the Dark Age of Technology

π

Salcor

As explained in the Battlefleet Gothic rulebook (page 108 for those with the actual rulebook, page 6 of this section of the Living Rulebook, the sidebar at the bottom of the page), there are a variety of ways Imperial ships are named - rediscovered hulks of ships lost in deep space (or rarely the Warp) are generally named in some manner relating to their rediscovery (often by the captain of the ship that found the hulk), ships constructed by worlds as part of their tithe requirements are named by the world's governor (and thus often named after the world's governor), while ships built at Forgeworlds or Naval Shipyards are either given a hereditary name (from a ship destroyed or lost 50+ years previous) or are given a name in High Gothic in relation to their point of origin (for example, the Overlord-class Battlecruiser Cypra Probatii is so named because it originates from the Segmentum Fleetyard above Cypra Mundi).

Here is one that I am surprised that no one has mentioned yet:

The Manifest Destiny

And for the more militant minded:

The Righteous [Fist-Sword-Lance-Hammer-Will-Might-Glory-Destiny-Light-etc. . .] of the [Emperor-Mechanicus-Tera-Mars-Inquisition-Man-planet name-system name-sector name-saints name-etc. . .].

Pick any two above and add or subtract ‘the’ as needed.

The Black Ship in our DH campaign is named :

Macula Nex