On looking around sector space today I saw a plethora of ships with odd or at least interestingly names ships, not least the USS Baby Jesus and the USS Spiced Rum A. It got me thinking about what inspires people’s ship name choice.
For this captain, all my ships so far have been named for ships from the Patrick O’Brien Aubery Maturin series (i.e. Sophie, Lively, Surprise). My previous commanders have had ships named for Royal Navy vessels (especially the heroic virtues such as Illustrious, Daring and Tireless). Other ships have had basis in no Trek sci-fi, including a USS Serenity.
What inspires others here in their ship names and are there any interesting stories behind them?

Apparently I'm not the only one then, I'm currently CO on the USS Surprise as my RA (of the blue)vessel. I've also commanded Sophie, Lively, Niobe and Polycrest. And as I'm an RL Seaman as well, it kinda seemed fitting plotting out my character around Aubrey somehow, and perhaps even a bit conceited come to think of it.

Now Aubrey is my second character, as I had to start over as I realized running with an tactical aboard a cruiser wasn't as smart as I first thought it to be. First time around I had the USS Mirrors Edge from ENS to RA, but I never worked out an story for that char.

She's still there though, Aubrey was born on the ECS Mirrors Edge in 2983.

Little is known about Jack Aubrey before he enrolled with Starfleet in 2404, and what is known is mostly classified. Aubrey graduated from the academy 2nd in his class, with honors in Advanced Relativistic Mechanics, Basic Warp Design, Elementary Temporal Mechanics, Robotics and Temporal Mechanics. Aubrey holds degrees in Advanced Theoretical Physics and Engineering. After graduation, Aubry has attended two Post-graduate options, Advanced Tactical Training and Starfleet Command School.

During his first assignment on USS Kithomer, the vessel was badly hit by the Borg, and for his valor to save the ship he was promoted to Liutenant and given command of the Sophie, since then he has moved quickly up the ranks and enrolled with the Firefly Fleet soon after the Kithomer incident. Jack Aubrey currently operates out of Serenity Station

It's a work in progress. Also, Aubreys bridge staff is entirely female. I've managed to make my science officer quite identical to T'pol. His next goal is making ambassador so he can get that Orion sla..science crew member on his quarterdeck.

I take inspiration from mythology, songs, books anything really. The Tuireann which is Baerwas's main ship name comes from Irish mythology and is a variation of Thor I believe. The Thunderchild which I sometimes use for my tactical officers ship is the name of the ironclad warship in H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds and though I've read the book several times I still prefer Jeff Waynes musical version. My tac officers current ship is the USS Scorched Earth and that is quite simply the title of one of my favourite songs by my favourite band Van Der Graaf Generator. On the Klingon side his ship is named Night Haunter, taken from the name assumed by Konrad Curze in W40K mythology. Otherwise I tend to use place names and use the gps coordinates as the NCC number.

Ah the ill fates HMS Thunderchild- I must admit, I have the musical version of War of the Worlds on my iPlayer- good for long train journies.