What's in a name?

[steve jones]

  Just came across 'MOO of  COWES'

[Debbie Todd]

Very simple reason for ours really. John's Mum was French so I try and think of French names for our boats. 'Hirondelle' is French for Swallow, although those of you who remember the 70s might recall a rather unpleasant white wine of the same name.

[Jonathan Stuart]

As someone else wrote, I had never named our boats but not having a name became an issue with our BRe in marinas, etc. I struggled to think of something, but when watching a documentary about George Mallory's expedition to Everest in 1924 (mountains being another passion of mine) I thought "Mallory" was perfect. A fantastic mountaineer and his spirit seemed to sum-up a BRe very well.

[Matthew P]

Since 2017 a lot of new boats have been christened and perhaps some have been re-named, so maybe its time to refresh this thread.  And it would be interesting to see some photos showing your boat in use.

Here are a couple of Gladys to kick off with.

Matthew
BR20 Gladys

[charliea]

Here's a couple of pictures of Sea Pig on her summer holidays, sailing around Mull in August last year.

The first one as taken between Tobermory and Ulva, the second while we were hauled out on Erraid.

The kids choose the name Sea Pig, at the time their favourite TV show was an episode of the cartoon Octonauts that featured a little sea pig character.

Real sea pigs are far less charming than the Octonaut version but I quite like the name. I like to think it brings to mind the famous nautical pigs of the Bahamas. Friendly, straightforward and inexplicably attractive to ladies in bikinis.

[Martin Bevan]

Seeing the reference to the Sea Pigs of the Bahamas, might I share a couple of photographs from 2012. The second one of boarding pig resulted from the Mate being less than speedy in throwing an apple core to said pig. Fortunately the trotters did no damage to the dinghy.

Our BC23, due for delivery April 2020 (we travel in hope) will  be named Caduceus IV on the basis that our previous 3 boats were all called Caduceus. For those not classically inclined a caduceus is a serpent entwined messengers staff, often used as symbol of the medical profession. Caduceus I was an early (1977) Cornish Crabber, built from a kit by us in Germany and sailed back to the U.K. via canals to Holland and thence to West Mersea. At the time my wife was a civilian doctor with the Army and I was serving in the British Army in the Royal Signals whose cap badge is a figure of Mercury carrying a caduceus in this left hand. The name has served us well and often has resulted in our getting to know other sailors who enquire about the origin of the name.

[Peter Taylor]

(1) All my recent boats have been "Sea(something)" and I was thinking of Sea Swallow but there was already one called Gwennol-y-môr, which I guess means much the same, so I remembered that "Sea Swallow" is another name for the Tern ...hence "Seatern" (photo below)

(2) tip: when naming a boat think about transmitting it by radio! As a NCI (National Coastwatch)  watchkeeper I hear some embarrassing names being spelt out to the Coastguard. Also, imagine having to send "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday; this is Maid of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll  I spell lima lima alpha november foxtrot..."  You'd probably have sunk before finishing your message!

[Sea Simon]

My boat named "Two Sisters" perhaps sounds more trad than "Two Daughters", which my BRe might be better named?
As I think I may have mentioned before, they're my excuse for not owning the hybrid Romilly that I always fancied!

On another tack (even more trad, given our Cornish heritage) two sisters might perhaps become "Diw Hwoers"  or two daughters "Diw Vyrgh"......I think?
As PT posted below, perhaps not ideal boat names in an emergency, when using the VHF!

Out of curiosity, can any Welsh speakers on here confirm these translations?

[Peter Taylor]

Hi Simon,

I'm not a Welsh speaker but did go through two years of trying unsuccessfully to learn it when I was at school in Bangor, in (what was then) Caernarfonshire. Two daughters is dwy (ddwy?) ferch - fairly sure of that - and sisters (according to google translate) dwy chwaer . Both would sound closer to the Cornish when spoken than they look when written down.

You'd need a proper welsh speaker to confirm those properly since Welsh is a language where a word changes depending on the word that follows it (just one of the many reasons I never learnt it)! Also spoken Welsh is different from written Welsh.

Incidentally I was born in Cornwall but I didn't learn Cornish either!
peter

[garethrow]

After a little debate within the household we feel Dau Ferched and Dau Chwiorydd  might be a better tanslation but we are be no means experts!
Regards
Gareth Rowlands

[TimLM]

Papagena, I'm an Opera fan, fortunately very easy to SOS as so few different letters - well  that was lucky!

[PeterDT]

When we bought our BRe, we planned to name it Mas que nada. More than nothing (Brazil) a.k.a. proud to be a small boat sailor. But then my mother died and the boat was named Anna after her. Alpha November November alpha. One of my earlier boats – a dinghy of the Dutch Tern class we used to race -  was called Brain of Pooh, which is a quote of The Bear Himself. As we lost her on the road to a Fiat Panda, the replacement dinghy was already named Stop Making Sense. We all can relate to that, I guess. Nothing rational about owning a boat. Thank you Talking Heads. The photo shows y.t. at the sheets in another Tern.

Peter
Bre #7 Anna