# Ships named for living persons \[Title Edited.\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 12, 2008, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ships-named-for-living-persons-title-edited/433336 "2008-01-12T23:57:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2008, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ships-named-for-living-persons-title-edited/433336/1 "2008-01-12T23:57:49Z")
Inspired by the [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=451148) about living people on currency. I would have sworn that ships traditionally could only be named for deceased people, so when the US Navy started naming some of their boomers for still-living Presidents like Reagan and Carter I got a little confused. When (if it did) did this apparently unwritten law change? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ships-named-for-living-persons-title-edited/433336/2 "2008-01-13T00:34:01Z")
From [here](http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/names.htm): > [@](#): > > While the Navy has attempted to be systematic in naming its ships, in recent years it seems there has been a complete breakdown in any attempt to sustain a systematic practice in the name categories for ship types. The first ship named for a living person was USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in 1975. Other ships named for living people include: > > ``` > * USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) > * USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN 709) > * USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) > * USNS Bob Hope (T-AKR 300) > * USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) > > ``` > > This lack of discipline in distinguishing between the quick and the dead has been utterly overwhelmed in recently years by the promiscuous distribution of names among various classes of ships. You’re thread title’s backwards, by the way. Although there was this one kid in my high school named Constitution… ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ships-named-for-living-persons-title-edited/433336/3 "2008-01-13T01:50:46Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] You’re thread title’s backwards, by the way. Although there was this one kid in my high school named Constitution… [/QUOTE] Yeah, I was wondering about people named “Titanic.” ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ships-named-for-living-persons-title-edited/433336/4 "2008-01-13T02:33:28Z")
Plus I understand now there will be also a George H.W. Bush (why do I have this image of the crew of the Bush making sure that H is painted very bold and clear…). Interestingly, the naming of ships after the living also coincided with the use of full names for ships… used to be, ships named after people would just get last names e.g. USS Spruance, USS Gearing – unless there was a need for disambiguation (e.g. the Roosevelts, or Washington the man vs. the city or the state). Now they seem to have gone for full naming even when it would be obvious who we’re talking about (What \*\*\*other \*\* \* Truman, Perry or Rickover would we be naming a Navy ship after??) But it essentially started with political pandering; someone at Naval Procurement realized that you could get approval much easier if you promised to name the vessel after someone the folks in the appropriate committee were fond of. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ships-named-for-living-persons-title-edited/433336/5 "2008-01-13T05:02:26Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] Although there was this one kid in my high school named Constitution… [/QUOTE] There were triplet sisters in my elementary school named Nina, Pinta, and Maria. Not kidding, either. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ships-named-for-living-persons-title-edited/433336/6 "2008-01-13T15:35:56Z")
Oops. :smack: Request to admin to swap nouns in the title. I also goofed when I said that Carter and Reagan were named after ballistic missile subs-that should have been “nuclear aircraft carriers.” From now on I won’t post past midnight, right before bed… ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ships-named-for-living-persons-title-edited/433336/7 "2008-01-13T15:48:09Z")
Doesn’t concern navy vessel, but I read on the internet that “Edmund Fitzgerald felt the pain and the loss as much anyone on that day [November 10, 1975]. This was something he would never have wanted to happen. He died in 1986, still saddened by the wreck of the ship named for him.” ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ships-named-for-living-persons-title-edited/433336/8 "2008-01-13T18:48:13Z")
One of the U.S.'s WWII Liberty ships was accidentally named for a living person. IIRC, one was named for a merchant-seaman thought to have died, but later revealed to have survived in a Japanese POW camp. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ships-named-for-living-persons-title-edited/433336/9 "2008-01-13T19:47:30Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] I also goofed when I said that Carter and Reagan were named after ballistic missile subs-that should have been “nuclear aircraft carriers.” [/QUOTE] I reported the thread so a mod can correct the title. And actually, the USS Jimmy Carter _is_ a Seawolf-class submarine, which is appropriate, as the former president served on the Seawolf.