I saw this pointed out online and it kind f blew my mind. I always assumed the name “Star Destroyer” was Imperial aggressive marketing where they give their stuff scary names (a la the Death Star) in that " Grrr this ship is so scary it can destroy a STAR!!!" (although it can’t but the Empire wants you to think it’s scary). But no, it’s more prosaic than that. It’s a Destroyer class vessel but in space instead of the ocean thus, a Star Destroyer. George Lucas is heavily influenced by WWII; it makes perfect sense and I never realized it.
If that’s the case though why is it called a Super Star Destroyer and not just a Star Battleship?
“Star” is the company that builds them. They also make household appliances.
As for the OP, I disagree. I think they are Star Destroyers, not Star Destroyers.
Because the name looks cooler on a toy package? 
Yeah, that explanation doesn’t make any sense - Star Destroyers were the Empire’s biggest capital ships, capable of carrying other ships. It’s in no way a parallel to naval destroyers.
To be fair, Lucas was influenced by WWII movies, particularly in developing the Death Star battle at the end of the original movie (the film The Dam Busters was a particular inspiration). I’ve never seen anything to suggest he was a student of WWII itself, or particularly knowledgeable about the minutiae of naming conventions. Everything I’ve read about him, and his early life, indicates that he was a film nerd, and a science-fiction nerd, as well as a fan of auto racing.
IMO, he picked names which sounded cool to him, without much concern about whether or not they mapped well to actual Earth usage for military vessels.
It is if you can build a destroyer in less than 10 parsecs.
translated from droid noises - beep boop squeal
They’re actually produced by Kuat Drive Yards.
I thought ‘Star Destroyer’ was the nickname for the Star Wars prequels, since they destroyed the careers of Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen.
Which explains how Han Solo went from smuggler pilot to frozen dinner to General in the span of three films while Luke Skywalker is apparently not even assigned a military rank.
‘Death Star’ always seemed to be an unironic co-opting of John Carpenter’s Dark Star and doesn’t make a lot of sense although at least it isn’t as transparently generic as “Starkiller Base” which literally sounds like something a screenwriter threw in as a placeholder for an actual name. I mean, why not at least name it “Darth Vader Memorial Rebel Annihilator”? I swear, I’m surprised the Ewok homeworld wasn’t just called “Little Teddy Bear Moon”.
Stranger
In the first third of Empire Strikes Back, when Luke was the head of Rogue Squadron on Hoth, he apparently held the rank of Commander, and was referred to by that title once or twice.
So, apparently in the Rebel Alliance bereft promotions come fast and furious, or else cronyism means that anyone associated with Princess Leia gets promotion priority. No years-in-service and time-in-grade requirements here! And the consequences of failure don’t mean that you are psychokinetically throttled by a sociopath whose only restraint was vaporized in the destruction of their most powerful weapon constructed with a deep vulnerability.
Stranger
I always thought “Cruiser” would have been better. “Star Cruiser” sounds good and is generic enough that it can mean a variety of ships: Heavy Cruiser, Light Cruiser, Armored Cruiser, Fast Cruiser, etc…
Not to mention Lando, whom they make a General in RotJ, despite him having limited-to-no actual military experience (primarily apparently consisting of a “maneuver at the Battle of Taanab”), as well as only being with the Alliance for about a year.
That would probably hurt sales of their delicious dried flesh. Little Teddy Bear jerky doesn’t sound right.
Oh my god, the funniest thing just happened. I’m in the lunchroom at work and mentioned to a coworker that I’d just learned that Ewoks are hunted to make jerky. She replied, in all seriousness, “Oh, I didn’t think they were real.”
He did join right after Hoth, so there were probably a lot of vacancies they needed to fill.
There’s a war on. I know of one man who enlisted after Pearl and was a chief by the end of the war, and a boon I was reading the other day mentioned a WWII light colonel with only five or six years in.
The Star Destroyers in the movies are the second generation of the design, the Imperial-class Star Destroyer. The general idea dates back to the Republic with the Victory-clasd Star Destroyer.
Back in the days of wind-powered navies, performing some great act such as taking a superior enemy ship as a prize was the quickest way to promotion. So blowing up the Death Star and saving the Alliance seems it should be good for a few steps.
Should’ve replied, “They’re extinct now. We ate them all, just like mastodons and unicorns.”