• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


    Visit our website www.piratehorizons.com to quickly find download links for the newest versions of our New Horizons mods Beyond New Horizons and Maelstrom New Horizons!

Buccaneers! Ship Name Suggestions

Armada

Armada

Sea Dog
Staff member
Administrator
Project Manager
3D Artist
Storm Modder
Hi all,

As we need to build up a library of ship names for the four factions in Buccaneers!, I thought it would be fun to let you suggest specific names that you'd like to see in the game. These names will appear at random when encountering ships, so a few Easter eggs alongside typical names might be a nice touch.

So, feel free to post any names for consideration here, and keep in mind they must apply to one of the four factions in the game:

Elizabeth,
Diana,
Faraday,
King Arthur,
Merlin,
Nightingale,
Ark Royal,
Black Joke,
Ardent,
Royal James,
Victory,

Guy de Lombard,
La Licorne,
Le Reve,
Etoile Polaire,
Avignon,
Marie,
Louis,
Gaston,
Renommee,

Esmeralda,
Conejo de Pascua,
San Isidro,
Santa Maria,

Atlantis,
Amsterdam,
Sea Eagle,
Sea Hawk,
Armeartes,
Rover,
Ranger,
Fancy,
Good Fortune,
Amity,
Le Mort,
Treasure,
Duke,
Fortune,
Royal Fortune,
Cassandra,
Charles,
La Foudre,
Revenge,
Royal James,
Victoire,
Adventure,
Santiago,
Deliverance,
Elizabeth,
Adventure Galley,
Venus,
Pearl,

The only caveat is we should probably steer clear of fictional names that are very recognisable (e.g. Black Pearl), and we won't include suggestions that could be considered offensive or inappropriate.

Other than that, fire away! :pirate41:

EDIT: I've added some lists above to keep track of suggestions. Keep them coming!

​
 
Last edited:
England: Victoria, Elizabeth, Diana, Churchill, Faraday, King Arthur, Merlin, Nightingale - I'd suggest naming big ships these ones hahah
 
Britain: ever since the time of Elizabeth I, there has always been an Ark Royal. There have also been a few ships named Black Joke. Otherwise, Ardent. ;)

France: Guy de Lombard. Especially if Britain is getting King Arthur.

Spain: not exactly an Easter egg, but close enough: if Google Translate has done its job properly, Conejo de Pascua is Easter Rabbit.

Pirate: Sea Eagle, which in reality was a German commerce raider of WWI (actual German name Seeadler) and one of the last sailing ships to see active combat service. Otherwise, Armeartes, which I've taken to using for my pirate FreePlay game - guess why. :D

PoTC has the name Venus for almost all of the nations in the stock game. I wonder why...
Good Ship Venus - Wikipedia :wp
 
These Pirate ship names are from the boardgame Blackbeard but I think most of them are historically accurate:

Rover, Ranger, Fancy, Good Fortune, Amity, Le Mort, Treasure, Duke, Fortune, Royal Fortune, Victory,
Cassandra, Charles, La Foudre, Revenge, Royal James, Victoire, Adventure, Santiago, Deliverance, Elisabeth,
Adventure Galley.
:ship
 
Duke was historically accurate. I believe you are familiar with its captain. ;)

Adventure Galley was also accurate. It was William Kidd's ship. It could do 14 knots with the wind and 3 knots with oars. The Black Pearl wasn't the first ship with sweeps!

For that matter, a certain film may have named its ship Black Pearl but it wasn't the first. This is a real Black Pearl:


Royal James and Victory are probably better reserved for British rather than pirate. Victory was a British 100 gun ship of the line. No, not Nelson's flagship, though that was another ship of the same name - the one I'm thinking of was launched in 1675 as the Royal James and subsequently renamed Victory when the previous Victory was scrapped.
 
Thanks for all your suggestions so far! I've added lists to the first post to keep track of the names. :checklist

Looks like Britain and the Pirates have a lot of love, but some more French and Spanish names would be good as well.

Pieter Boelen said:
I'd suggest "Amsterdam" for the Dutch, but I see that won't work.
"Atlantis" for the pirates, then? ;)
Click to expand...
I'll add them both to the Pirates for now. :pirateraft

Grey Roger said:
Spain: not exactly an Easter egg, but close enough: if Google Translate has done its job properly, Conejo de Pascua is Easter Rabbit.
Click to expand...
Well, that would certainly give Spanish players a good laugh. xD
 
Yes I know about the Duke and the Duchess and also Adventure Galley as it's in the Goldbug. Or what's left of it.
Adventure_Galley.jpg


The following info I got from the game I mentioned but have now checked with History of Pirates: :read

The Duke I suggested Henry Avery took over after a mutiny.
The Royal James I thought of was Major Stede Bonnets later sloop. Renamed from Revenge.
Also Edward England renamed a taken sloop Pearl to Royal James.
Edward England also renamed the ship Peterborough to Victory.
 
Last edited:
Victory is most commonly associated with Nelson's flagship, but there have been several British ships of that name throughout the ages:
List of ships named HMS Victory - Wikipedia

Likewise, Revenge has been the name of several British ships. The most famous was perhaps the 16th century galleon commanded by Francis Drake in his raid on Cadiz, and subsequently by Sir Richard Grenville in its final battle which was commemorated in a poem by Alfred Tennyson. Others are shown here:
HMS Revenge - Wikipedia

For France, for a bit of fun, La Toison d'or, which translates to "Golden Fleece", from the film "Tintin and the Golden Fleece". Also La Licorne ("Unicorn"), the ship of Captain Haddock in "The Secret of the Unicorn".
(Edited: it was a film, not a book - thanks, @Pieter Boelen :onya)

For Spain, the San Isidro is named in "Hornblower" - an officer aboard that ship knew that the French ship Le Rève had been captured, which was why Hornblower's attempt to pass himself off as French failed. (And Le Rève provides another potential name for France, preferably for something small like a sloop.)

Beyond that, @Armada, when is "Buccaneers" set? Some names may be more appropriate than others depending on the period.
 
Last edited:
FRANCE: Étoile Polaire, Cygne, Avignon(An ancient city of france), Besançon(An ancient city of france), La Mer (Tranlation "the sea" one of the most famous french chanson songs),
Notre Dame or Notre Dame de Paris, Montmorency (from the famous Montmorency Family), La Conciergerie (from The famous french prison), Marie, Louis, Gaston

SPAIN: Barcelona, Tarragona, Cordoba, Santiago, Santa Maria, La Alhambra, Ferdinand, Columbus, Picasso, Machado, Domingo - These are names of some of the most important/influential buildings and people from Spain.
 
I don't think Spain named its ships for places. Looking at Three Decks - Warships in the Age of Sail, most names had a religious theme. Pick a saint and name a ship after him or her.

Looking through the same source for French ships, La Licorne isn't just a "Tintin" reference, there were a few real ships of that name. There was also a Renommée. If I feed that into Google Translate, it says "Renown", which is a reasonable name for a ship. Except that I thought it meant "renamed", and if I feed that into Google Translate and ask it to translate to French, it does say "renommée" (or "renommé", depending on whether the thing being renamed is masculine or feminine).

"Threedecks" is definitely a good source of general names - you can tell it to search for ships belonging to your choice of nation and then look through a long list, or you can narrow it down by class or date.
 
Grey Roger said:
Beyond that, @Armada, when is "Buccaneers" set? Some names may be more appropriate than others depending on the period.
Click to expand...
The official answer is "after the Golden Age of Piracy", which is deliberately vague. Internally, we consider it to be set between the mid-18th and early 19th centuries, which is still vague but gives us a rough guide for consistency's sake.

Grey Roger said:
"Threedecks" is definitely a good source of general names - you can tell it to search for ships belonging to your choice of nation and then look through a long list, or you can narrow it down by class or date.
Click to expand...
Indeed, that site is my go-to whenever I need to look up ship dimensions, armament and other stats. I'll probably use that to pad out the lists with more typical names.
 
That is really nice, I really like it gives an extra sense of customization and realism, definitely approved! :thumbs1

And about the name, maybe little Victory since your first ship in stock PotC is a British Lugger named Victory, which may have been a joke from Akella referencing the ship of the line Victory. xD
 
Armada said:
What good is a ship's name if it's not proudly displayed on the stern? This is a feature I've wanted for a long time, and now we've added it along with a renaming UI. :dance
Click to expand...
You really ARE adding a lot of sub-zero cool features into this game!! :woot

Which game engine are you making this in again?
You may have mentioned before, but I kind-of forgot...
 
We're using Unity, though we've had to get creative to add some of these features. :type1

The text on the stern, for instance, is basically a UI text element in 3D space, but with a double curve applied to make it conform to the ship.
It's actually the same method we used to make the curved text on the world map UI (see 0:47 in the trailer), but I had to modify it to curve in three dimensions instead of two.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top