How To Name Your Boat

Choosing a boat is a rewarding process that lets you locate the most suitable boat for your marine needs. Whether you plan to fish, cruise, explore or water ski, there’s a boat out there that’s perfect for you and your family. To truly make your boat your own, though, you’ll need to give it a name. While you might think that naming an inanimate object is somewhat silly and outdated, the truth is that your boat needs to have a unique identifier that you can use on radio, at the dock and on social media.

Not sure what to call your boat? Kelly's Port, located in Osage Beach, is your Missouri boat dealer. Below, you’ll find a bit of information about the tradition of christening boats and ships as well as some tips for giving your vessel an appropriate moniker.

A Long-Storied Tradition

Boats have been named for as long as they’ve existed. People just like to give names to things: children, pets, buildings, businesses, bands, cars and, yes, boats! There’s a particular significance given to boat names, though.

Long before we had GPS units, weather radar and rescue patrols, going out on the open ocean or into a large sea in a boat was an extremely risky endeavor. Boats and ships used to be powered primarily by sail and sometimes by oar, or a combination of the two, since there weren’t any outboard motors handy, so traveling by boat was slow and treacherous. 

Sailors would name their boats after gods and saints in the hopes that those deities would bless their travels and ensure that they came to no harm. There was generally a very formal ceremony when a finished boat was named, with wine or other libations poured onto the hull as an offering to the god or saint for which it was named.

Renaming a boat was seen as an act of defiance against the saint or god it was named after, which could bring bad luck to future voyages. Thus, another ceremony needed to take place where the old name was expunged from all records and removed from the boat itself.

Naming Your Boat

Today, you don’t necessarily have to worry about any of those ancient woes unless you’re especially superstitious (if you are superstitious, then don’t set sail on a Friday!), so the naming of your boat doesn’t carry as much weight as it used to. But you’ll probably find that it’s challenging to narrow down a name from the actual millions of choices available to you in many different languages. Here are some things to bear in mind while you’re choosing a name.

Is The Name Easy To Say?

“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” might seem like an entertaining thing to call your boat, but imagine trying to get that word out in a hurry. Your name shouldn’t be a tongue-twister or a purposefully challenging series of words that people will struggle to pronounce and hear. 

You’ll also want to steer clear of off-color names that you’d be embarrassed to say in front of children or grandparents. And you certainly don’t want a name so unwieldy that you can’t readily communicate it over the radio to the Coast Guard in a serious emergency. Go with something relatively brief that’s easy for most people to say.

What Does The Name Say About You?

Like we just noted above, you might think a swear word or a crude name is funny now, but it’s going to be really awkward when your dear mother-in-law wants to come aboard for a cruise on your rudely-named vessel. You’re going to have to repeat your boat’s name a lot when registering it at a marina, talking to other boaters, communicating via radio and writing about your boating adventures on social media. Therefore, you should do what you can to select a name that you’re proud to have identified with you.

Is The Name Timeless?

You don’t want to give your boat a ridiculous nickname that’s based on a meme or something ephemeral: a yacht called “YOLO” is not going to be that funny in 15 years’ time, even if it seems hysterical now. Go with a name that’s timeless and reflective of your personality. If you like to joke, then the name can certainly be a joke or a pun if it’s appropriate and easy to say. If you really want to call your boat after a favorite album or book, then do so. Just bear the above caveats in mind.

Seeking a boat to call your own? Visit our website to check out our great stock of new and used boats for sale. Our staff will be happy to help you in any way they can to find the boat of your dreams. Kelly’s Port proudly serves Lake of the Ozarks as well as the greater St. Louis, MO, metropolitan area.