The United Kingdom, and England before it has always had a large navy and has tremendous pool of former ship names to draw from. More recent ships are often named for former ships. The conventions in naming ships can be both organized and erractic depending on the time period and the class. Even with in the same time period some classes with be standardized based of a pattern and another class seeming randomly named.


<UL><B>Paterns</B>
<LI>By initial letter. R-class battleships (Ramillies, Resolution, Revenge).
<LI>By a category.
 Towns, Mythological figures, Colonies, Fox Hunts, Tribes of the empire, Captains that served with Nelson, Rivers, Lochs, Battles, Admirals, Scotts, Flowers, Castles, Race Horses, Birds, Lakes, Coastal towns, trees, flies, racecourses, 
<LI>Words related by ending:  Furious, Courageous and Glorious. This may be mixed with Letter themes (Seacher, Slinger, Smiter)
<LI>Historical ships: Ark Royal will most likely be the name of the next Supercarrier in the Queen Elizebeth class rather than the proposed Prince of Wales in order to continue the tradition of a carrier named Ark Royal being in service.


<TABLE><CAPTION>Scout Cruisers</CAPTION>
	<TH>Class
	<TH>Named for
	<TH>Examples
	<TH>commission Dates
<TR>

	<TD>Topaze/Gem Class
	<TD>Gemstones
	<TD>Topaze, Sapphire, Diamond, Amethyst
	<TD>1904-5
	
<TR>
	<TD>Adventure Class
        <TD>Letter "A"
        <TD>Adventure, Attentive
        <TD>1904
<TR>
        <TD>Forward Class
        <TD>Letter "F"
        <TD>Forward, Foresight
        <TD>1904
<TR>
        <TD>Pathfinder Class
        <TD>Letter "P"
        <TD>Pathfinder, Patrol
        <TD>1904
<TR>
        <TD>Sentinal Class
        <TD>Letter "S"
        <TD>Sentinal, Skirmisher
        <TD>1904-5
<TR>
        <TD>Boadicea Class
        <TD>Letter "B"
	<TD>Boadicea, Bellona
        <TD>1908-9
<TR>
        <TD>Blonde Class
        <TD>Letter "B"
        <TD>Blonde, Blanche
        <TD>1910-11
<TR>
        <TD>Active Class
        <TD>Letter "A" w exception
        <TD>Active, Amphion, Fearless
        <TD>1911
</TABLE>

<BR CLEAr=ALL>
<TABLE><CAPTION>Light Cruisers</CAPTION>
        <TH>Class
        <TH>Named for
        <TH>Examples
        <TH>commission Dates
<TR>

        <TD>Town Class
        <TD>Towns in the UK
        <TD>series 1: Bristol, Glasgow, Glouchester, Liverpool, Newcastle<BR>
		series 2: Weymouth, Yarmouth, Dartmouth, Falmouth<BR>
		series 3: Chatham, dublin, souhthampton, sydney, melbourne, brisbane<BR>
		series 4: birmingham, lowestoft, nottingham, adelaide
		series 5: birkenhead, Chester
	
        <TD>1910-1916

<TR>



        <TD>Arethusa
        <TD>No consistancy
        <TD>Arethusa, Aurora, Galatea, Inconstant, Penelope, Paeton, Royalist, Undaunted
        <TD>1914
<TR>
	
        <TD>C-class
        <TD>The letter "C"
        <TD>Caroline, Carysfort, Cleopatra, comus, Conquest, Cordelia, Calliope, Champion, Cambrian, cantebury, Castor, Constance, Centaur, Concord, Caledon, Calypso, Cassandra, Caradoc, Ceres, Cardiff, coventry, Curacoa, Curlew <BR>
	series: Cairo, Calcutta, Capetown, carlisle, columbo
        <TD>1914-1916
<TR>
<TR>

        <TD>D-class or Danae Class
        <TD>The letter "D"
        <TD>Danae, Dauntless, Dragon<BR>
	Series: Delhi, dunedin, Durban<BR>
	series: Despatch, diomede, deadalus, daring, desperate, dryad
        <TD>1918
<TR>
	
        <TD>Emerald Class
        <TD>The letter "E"
	<TD>Emerald, Enterprise, Euphrates
        <TD>1918
<TR>
        <TD>Leander Class
        <TD>Mythological characters, Australian cities for Australian navy.
        <TD>Leander, Achillies, Ajax, Neptune, Orion, Amphion-> Perth, Apollo->Hobart, Paeton->Sydney
        <TD>1930s
<TR>
        <TD>Arethusa Class
        <TD>Mythological characters in previous Arethusa class
        <TD>Arethusa, Glaetea, penelope,Aurora
        <TD>1933
<TR>
        <TD>Town Class
        <TD>Towns
        <TD>Newcastle, southhampton, sheffield, glasgow, birmingham, liverpool, manchester, belfast, eninburgh
        <TD>1936
<TR>
       <TD>Dido Class
        <TD> figures of Greek mythology
        <TD>Bonadventure*, Naiad, Phoebe, Dido, Euralus, Hermione, sirius, cleopatram argonaut, scylla, charibdis, spartan
	<BR>
	Bellona series: Royalist, Bellona, Black prince, diadem
        <TD>1940
<TR>
    <TD>Crown colony Class
        <TD>Crown colonies
        <TD>Fiji, Bermuda, Gambia, Jamaica, Kaenya, Mauritius, nigeria, Trinidand, Ceylon, Newfoundland, Uganda
        <TD>1940
<TR>
    <TD>Minotaur/Swiftsure
        <TD>none
        <TD>Minotaur, Swiftsure, Supurb, hawke, tiger, blake, defence, bellerophon
        <TD>1944
<TR>
	<TD>Tiger
        <TD>none
        <TD>Tiger, Lion, Blake
        <TD>1944
<TR>



</TABLE>
<TABLE><CAPTION>Heavy Cruisers</CAPTION>
        <TH>Class
        <TH>Named for
        <TH>Examples
        <TH>commission Dates
<TR>
       <TH>Hawkins
        <TD>Explorers?
        <TD>Hawkins, Frobisher, Effingham, Raleigh, Cavendish
        <TD>1916
<TR>
<TR>
       <TH>County
        <TD>Counties
        <TD>Kent, Berwick, Cornwall, cumberland, suffolk (australia, Canberra for RAN), norfol, dorsetshire, london, devonshire, shropshire, sussex, york ,exeter
        <TD>1916
<TR>

</TABLE>









 









	

<P>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_conventions_for_destroyers_of_the_Royal_Navy