Some I've been looking at stem from real-world names of vehicles.
Mars.
(God of War)
Abraham.
(From the M1A2 "Abrams", which is Abraham shortened.)
Where the heck did the other two names I had in mind go? I'll try to find them again. :hmm:
I'm bad at coming up with names so I've been trying to figure out how things get names IRL.
Some are named after animals (Cobra). In The Halo universe everything is named after animals. (Scorpion tank, Mongoose ATV, Hornet gunship, Pelican dropship, Warthog, etc. etc.) That's worked pretty well for them.
Modern spaceships are named after exploratory vessels and such, I remember reading. Even ones like Discovery, that seem like they're named after themselves, are named after old science/exploring sailing ships.
Space Probes are usually named after scientists. (Galileo, Cassini, Huygens, etc.)
Then there's the ones with the self-naming names: Voyager 1, 2. Spirit, Mars Science Laboratory, Opportunity (named after unusually good planetary alignment, I have a suspicion.)
I suspect the Viking probes were named after Vikings since they were the first to discover Greenland, and the New World (Don't quote me on the second one: Confidence level: low.), and they didn't settle there but were the first, just like the first probes.
Oh, and I have a sneaking suspicion that there's now a tradition of naming helicopter gunships after Native American tribes... (Apache, Commanche.)
Warships are named after battles, generals and places: Nimitz, Bunker Hill, Ohio, Los Angeles.
There's some good places to start. Of course occasionally there's an original name, though. Like Seawolf.
