Report to Congress on Navy Ship Names
U.S. Naval Institute Staff
July 1, 2025 11:42 AM
The following is the June 30, 2025, Congressional Research Service Report on Navy Ship Names.
From the report
Overview of Naming Rules for Ship Types
Evolution Over Time
Rules for giving certain types of names to certain types of Navy ships have evolved over time. Attack submarines, for example, were once named for fish, then later for cities, and most recently (in most cases) for states, while cruisers were once named for cities, then later for states, and most recently for battles. State names, to cite another example, were once given to battleships, then later to nuclear-powered cruisers and ballistic missile submarines, and most recently to (in most cases) Virginia-class attack submarines.
The Naval History and Heritage Command states the following: “How will the Navy name its ships in the future? It seems safe to say that the evolutionary process of the past will continue; as the fleet itself changes, so will the names given to its ships. It seems equally safe, however, to say that future decisions in this area will continue to demonstrate regard for the rich history and valued traditions of the United States Navy.” The July 2012 Navy report to Congress states that “US Navy ship-naming policies, practices, and ‘traditions’ are not fixed; they evolve constantly over time.” The report also states that, “[j]ust as [ship] type naming conventions change over time to accommodate technological change as well as choices made by Secretaries, they also change over time as every Secretary makes their own interpretation of the original naming convention.”
Exceptions
There have been numerous exceptions to the Navy’s ship-naming rules, particularly for the purpose of naming a ship for a person when the rule for that type of ship would have called for it to be named for something else. The July 2012 report to Congress cites exceptions to ship-naming rules dating back to the earliest days of the republic, and states that “a Secretary’s discretion to make exceptions to ship-naming conventions is one of the Navy’s oldest ship-naming traditions.” The report argues that exceptions made for the purpose of naming ships for Presidents or Members of Congress have occurred frequently enough that, rather than being exceptions, they constitute a “special cross-type naming convention” for Presidents and Members of Congress. This CRS report continues to note, as exceptions to basic class naming rules, instances where ships other than aircraft carriers have been named for Presidents or Members of Congress.
https://news.usni.org/2025/07/01/report-to-congress-on-navy-ship-names-10
