What's in a name?

[Ange]

No idea why ours is called Iona but we like it so we kept it.

 

As it's our first boat there's also the "I own her" sound to it that we liked.

[Suzie_q]

Batman smashes a villain over the head with a vase and exclaims "T'PAU!"

"Don't you mean KERPOW!"? asks Robin.

"No, I've got china in my hand".

Where's the coat farrie when you need them?

[magpie patrick]

Where's the coat farrie when you need them?

 

Over on facebook trying to keep Chris Bennett in order...

 

Juno has been named that since she was launched at Hilperton in 1988. Juno is a Roman Goddess and one of her festivals is my birthday (and mine and Val's wedding annivesary, although that's not such a happy coincidence now)

 

Ripple was named by Clifton Cruisers, as they used to name all their boats after places in Kent I checked and found sure enough there is a village in Kent called Ripple, it's about 3 miles from Deal.

[Tony Brooks]

About 50 years ago when I was working on the hire fleet and being very ambitious I told my girlfriend (now my wife) that one day we would own a hire fleet. In those days all the fleets were called "Lines" and I said our would be the B line and the first boat would carry her name. However family commitments etc. rather put paid to that ambition but I kept my word so our first real boat (as opposed to a very small wooden day boat) is called JennyB.

 

Another ex Clifton boat that was called Aylesford. If it had been called Tenterden then we may have kept it because we had many happy holiday there with Jen's aunt.

[FadeToScarlet]

There are many boats named Willow.

 

However, it was named that in 1935 so it's certainly one of the first.

[Alan&sue]

We all see the wierd and wonderful names of other boats we encounter every day, some are amusing, corny, obscure or quite common. I often wonder how some of them came about, and I was wondering how you others came upon your naming of your boat and the reasons behind them. For example I recently found out that my boat Hobo was named after the previous owner's dog after it won a category at Crufts.

 

It wouldn't have been my choice of name but I'm comfortable with it, but when it comes to re-painting in a few years time I might consider re-naming it to Comfortably Numb, my favourite tune of all time, or leave it as Hobo. So another question is how many of you were happy to keep the name when you bought the boat?

Our last boat was named Avalon by the previously owners he liked king Arthur & she liked Bryan ferry , it's old named was "comfortable numb " which he stuttered when pronouncing on the radio

[luctor et emergo]

The barge when we brought it was Frouwe Vogels ( Early Bird) but we changed it back to its earliest recorded name 1943 Fantotank 9

It keeps all the splitters looking on the Thames for Fantotank 1 to 8 LOL

Chris

No, that name means "Lady Vogels" , although in Dutch it would be spelled "Vrouwe". Was your boat originaly Belgian?

[Tesla]

Tesla was named by the original owner after Nikola Tesla and bears his image as well. We certainly plan to keep the name and artwork, although not the original 240v setup

 

[carlt]

....but we changed it back to its earliest recorded name 1943 Fantotank 9...

 

Ahhh..so you are the proud owner of one of the famous appelsiensap carrying fleet.

[nicknorman]

New boat - blank canvas - tricky! Firstly, narrowboats are male IMO - or at least, Steve's are!

 

We used to visit the Far East every February to avoid the Aberdeen gloom, in particularly Thailand (before Thailand became like Benidorm!). So a Thai name seemed appropriate since with the advent of an expensive boat, foreign holidays would be a thing of the past. Sirindhorn was a possibility (daughter of the King) but wrong gender. The river in Bangkok is called the Chao Phraya. Seemed a good name, but Jeff said everyone would pronounce the Ph as an F sound, making it sound like a dodgy chinese takeaway. Even when we found out that it translates along the lines of "muddy ditch" which seemed ideal, I still wasn't allowed it.

 

But one day I woke up with Telemachus in my head, don't know why. I suspected I got it from that excellent 70s book "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" but having skimmed it again, couldnt find it. But at least it was classical and male, so I propsed it to Jeff. Mmmh, not sure. So that afternoon we turned on the telly and there was a film of Homer's Odyssey with Telemachus, complete with ridiculous bob and skirt, prancing around. That sealed it, it was clearly "meant to be". We then worked out that although the normal translation is "far away fighter" it could loosely be translated as "far away from conflict" which seemed good for our tranquil home from home.

 

Jim Shead didn't have a Telemachus.

 

So that was it. Only problem is that everyone without a classical education wants to call it TELE-MATCH-us, whereas it should be telLEMakus. Oh and then we found out that there was an HMS Telemachus in WW2 - a submarine, so we hope out T-boat didn't get the same ideas about submerging. So all was well until we discovered that St Telemachus was an early Christian martyr. Eek!

Edited June 19, 2013 by nicknorman

[Chris-B]

Ahhh..so you are the proud owner of one of the famous appelsiensap carrying fleet.

Now impress me and tell me you knew that without Google !

No, that name means "Lady Vogels" , although in Dutch it would be spelled "Vrouwe". Was your boat originaly Belgian?

Yes built in Belgium 1942

but worked in Netherlands

C

[Black Ibis]

Being historic boat enthusiasts, we don't get to play the boat naming game. Willow is nice, but there are so many of them! Not changing it though, it's been called Willow since 1935!

 

Our old boat, Lucky Duck, came with the name, and although we always planned to change it, it sort of stuck. It suited the boat.

 

Two things to bear in mind when choosing the name:

1. You will most likely become known by that name by most of your boater friends. e.g we are still "The Ducks" to many, despite having moved on to Willow four months ago.

2. You will be given gifts relating to that name whether you like it or not! Our extensive duck collection went with the boat, and unless they change it the new owners are likely to acquire their own collection!

[Starcoaster]

Firstly, narrowboats are male IMO - or at least, Steve's are!

 

Completely agree with this. MB and I have a theory, metal boats are male, wooden boats are female. Hardly anyone agrees...

[carlt]

Now impress me and tell me you knew that without Google !

 

Having spent many years working in Europe I knew how to ask for one but must confess to Googling to confirm the spelling and to check for any widgets that the Flemish love to stick above and below their letters.

Completely agree with this. MB and I have a theory, metal boats are male, wooden boats are female. Hardly anyone agrees...

Someone told me a very rude reason why wooden boats were not female once.

 

So that was it. Only problem is that everyone without a classical education wants to call it TELE-MATCH-us, whereas it should be telLEMakus. Oh and then we found out that there was an HMS Telemachus in WW2 - a submarine, so we hope out T-boat didn't get the same ideas about submerging. So all was well until we discovered that St Telemachus was an early Christian martyr. Eek!

JVC, Sony and Panasonic are all Telemachus, too.

[nicknorman]

JVC, Sony and Panasonic are all Telemachus, too.

 

Only if you say it wrong!

[Proper Job]

Completely agree with this. MB and I have a theory, metal boats are male, wooden boats are female. Hardly anyone agrees...

where does that put the splitters?

 

A sexual?

[Suzie_q]

Completely agree with this. MB and I have a theory, metal boats are male, wooden boats are female. Hardly anyone agrees...

SuzieQ has always been female even though she Is metal and shiny. Think it depends on the character of the boat.

 

Though I have to say all my cars have always been female even the OH car.

[Keeping Up]

I inherited Ocelot and quite liked it

 

Wasn't that Paul Daniels catch phrase: "You'll like this, Ocelot"

[Arducius]

We are planning to change the name of our boat back to the original. John Gray sounds nicer than Muse and has more history associated. Just haven't gotten arount to informing the insurance and C&RT yet...

[carlt]

 

Only if you say it wrong!

Having had a classical education it was always impressed on me that we have no idea of the true pronunciation of the ancient languages and it is unwise to use the modern versions as indicators...especially when making a joke.

[bottle]

We had many arguments discussions on the name but eventually named it after the road that our first home together was in.

 

The boat is about the same size as the flat apartment was so it seemed apt.

[nicknorman]

Having had a classical education it was always impressed on me that we have no idea of the true pronunciation of the ancient languages and it is unwise to use the modern versions as indicators...especially when making a joke.

But that's how it was pronounced in the Hollywood film, so it must be right, surely?

 

Anyway, I too had a classical education and learnt the classics backwards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its scissalc eht

Edited June 19, 2013 by nicknorman

[carlt]

But that's how it was pronounced in the Hollywood film, so it must be right, surely?

 

I cannot argue with that.

 

 

The boat is about the same size as the flat apartment was so it seemed apt.

I could have named my rowing boat after my first flat in Paris for the same reason.

[Tam & Di]

Has anybody on the forum yet bought a boat with one of the "Llamedos" or "Firkum Hall" type names, and decided upon consideration that they wish to retain it?

 

Not quite, but we did buy a little barge named Venus which we turned into a trip boat. We changed its name to Atlas for obvious reasons, given we often had football clubs and the like on board.

 

Tam

[J R ALSOP]

Named my boat in 1979 "Comet" after the small Woolwich that I worked for Willow Wren in 1963/4.