Meaning of boat names?

[Craig]

Kailani......Hawaiian for "She of the sea & sky."

[NCboater]

Great names and stories!

Been working on my boat's name. My wife won't let me put her or our daughter's name on the boat.  However, she is a high school math teacher and retirement is on the horizon,so the current favorite is:

AfterMath

What do you think?

I also proposed:

Breaking Wind

But the kids vetoed that one...

[Bilgemaster]

Great names and stories!

Been working on my boat's name. My wife won't let me put her or our daughter's name on the boat.  However, she is a high school math teacher and retirement is on the horizon,so the current favorite is:

AfterMath

What do you think?

I also proposed:

Breaking Wind

But the kids vetoed that one...

Oddly enough, "Breakin' Wind" (with that essential inspirational rising apostrophe) is the provisional all-but-inked-on name of my "foundling" Com-Pac 16's big sister, a Macgregor 26X.  It's what the previous owner was yearning to call her.  Sadly, he never managed to square it all away and get her into the drink before his knee went all gammy, and he ended up selling it to me for so little, that while I may not exactly see him as co-owner as such, he's certainly an "interested party."  Besides which, he's a swell guy.  I'm happy to make him happy, and hell I'll admit it: I like the name "Breakin' Wind" too.  it speaks unmistakably to the Mac's "hybrid" motor-sailer nature and of her essential duality and even transcendence beyond norms...So, I'm thinking a multi-colored balloon font, Yeah?  Naturally, I then had to find suitably complementary handle for her little sister, "The Foundling," seen here "as found" and, after a good scrubbing, here "as of this week."  So, I settled on "Pooknoo", which is a quaint and folksy Russian word for, well, "cute small fart."  Wife's a Muscovite, you understand.  Gotta play to the crowd that's there.  I mean, there's a reason a triple-spar-varnished blonde matrioshka nested doll is mounted as the Mac's figurehead.  Though, given the boat's moniker, and this whole pattern that now seems to be developing, I now wonder if this particular design might not have been more suitable...

On the other hand, my Amphicar has the plates "OL' BUOY"...so that, at least, doesn't stink, if you'll forgive the pun, or whatever English teachers might call that left-handed reference.

[rbh1515]

I always find it hard to come up with a really good boat name.  Three boats ago, we were trying to come up with a name, and just couldn't figure one out.  My wife finally came up with the idea of a name coming out of my favorite places to sail.  Years ago, I sailed with my dad in the San Juan Islands north of Seattle.  My favorite island was Sucia....perfect name!  Short, nice sounding!!  Well, I went to the internet to see if there was any meaning behind the name.  The islands were explored by the Spanish.  The explorer that named the island thought the shoreline looked like trash.  Sucia means trash or garbage in Spanish.  So, that name did not work out.  We called the boat LoneStar since both of my daughters were born in Texas.
I usually really dislike the silly play on words names.  Especially the nautical ones.  There was one boat in our marina that had a interesting name:  JAFTICA   People were always walking past the boat, pointing and laughing.  I asked someone:
Just Another F**king Thing I Can't Afford.
My current boat, a Horizon Day Cat is named Waters End.  We have a vacation house on the water up in Door County, Wisconsin.  To get to our house you go down this beautiful  street...Waters End Road.  I like the name, and I have never seen another boat with the name.
Don't call your boat Breaking Wind...I see that name all the time.  Bad name...overused.  A guy at work who is an obstetrician/gynecologist has a similar name for his boat...Broken Water.  I like this name better!
Rob

[rbh1515]

One other boat name story I forgot to include.  Years ago my neighbor at the dock had a very nice older S2.  One day I was going out sailing and he was putting on the name:  Sea Smoke.  Cool name..another name for fog.  I bought him a bottle of a very nice Pinot Noir, Sea Smoke.  At the end of the season, I took a friend out sailing.  It was a beautiful fall day with 10 knots of wind out of the east (onto the shore).  Sea Smoke was not at the dock and was also out sailing but I did not see the boat out there.  I commented to my friend that there were a number of boats sailing very close to shore...somewhat dangerous since there are some submerged boulders in the area that many sailboats have hit over the years.  When we got back to the dock late in the afternoon, Sea Smoke was not back at the dock, and driving home along the lake front there was a sailboat up against the rocks along the shore.  The boat was leaning with the mast pointing away from the shore, so I couldn't make out what  type of sailboat it was.  The next morning I stopped at the marina and Sea Smoke was not at her slip.  A trip to the marina office confirmed that it was Sea Smoke.  Apparently when Sea Smoke hit the submerged boulders, she got driven ashore  by the onshore breeze.  The owner called the Coast Guard, and they were quite confused, and thought the owner was saying "see smoke" and was reporting a fire.  I guess you should see what your boat name would sound like if you were calling the Coast Guard!!
Rob

[tmw]

My girl hasn't been inked, so I change her name at will. 

A neighbor was admiring my com-pac (cleaning her up getting ready for the season) and noticed that she had been inked, and was named Escape in Clark Lake.  Clark Lake makes sense with the former Wisconsin registration, but I'm in a little bit of shock that I hadn't noticed the faint residual lettering on her stern....

[rbh1515]

A neighbor was admiring my com-pac (cleaning her up getting ready for the season) and noticed that she had been inked, and was named Escape in Clark Lake.  Clark Lake makes sense with the former Wisconsin registration, but I'm in a little bit of shock that I hadn't noticed the faint residual lettering on her stern....

I was just at Clark Lake 2 weeks ago...just about 25 minutes south of our place in Sister Bay.
Rob

[Bristol14]

After a succession of boats named Look-Out, Indulgence and Look-Out Too, we named our new-to-us 23/2, Mudlark. The back story is that when we went to move the boat from the previous owner's front lawn in Maine, my buddy's pickup truck got stuck in the mud as we were lining up the coupler with receiver. Seems we forgot about mud season in Maine. Luckily, we found an amiable tow truck driver who pulled the pickup by cable to safer ground, lay down two sheets of wood sheathing and pulled the boat out of the mud as well. I wish the story ended here, but we then had to deal with a rusted coupler that we jury-rigged to stay closed so we could pull the boat 30 miles to my friend's house. Everything held together though and with new coupler and new four new tires, Mudlark is now sitting in our backyard, undergoing a thorough cleaning.

[Dogboy]

We are naming our CP25 "Penultimate."  We tend to refer to her as Penny though.  Penultimate is the next to the last number in a series.  Our CP25 was the second to last one produced.  My wife and I are both kind of math nerds so it is a term we have used in actual conversation with coworkers.  It also represents the position we strive to attain in a race some day, as so far we've only managed DFL.   Still have fun though.

Our last boat (Sunday Cat) was named Water Witch.  The previous owner named her.  He was a firefighter and the name of the water pumps on the firefighting boats was water witch.  He had a relative that used a water witch to find locations to dig a well, so it also had multiple meanings.

[carry-on]

Was reading an article in SCA. Mentioned the term/condition "In the Moment". Struck me as a good name for a sailboat.

[hoddinr]

Named my SunCat NOMAD.  Just liked the way it sounded on the radio when calling bridge tenders or lock tenders.

I also like the idea of wandering about in boats, but Wanderer is way overused.  So Nomad it was.

Ron