The Name Game

There are many theories regarding the naming of boats. Most sailors recognize that the name of a boat should reflect something about its owner, but that is where the agreement seems to end.

When we bought our first boat, we thought long and hard about what we wanted to call her. The name on the boat was Water Dancer, in light blue sans serif letters about 5 inches high on the back of the boat. The “W” in Water was missing, so it read “ater Dancer.” Yuck. For one, Water Dancer is obvious and boring. I absolutely refuse to use the word “water” in any boat name. The same goes for “wind.”

We scraped off the remaining letters, did our best to sand the remaining shadow of the former name, and started the search for the perfect name for our new boat.

We consulted many websites that offer hundreds of possibilities. We looked at 10,000 Boat Names. And coolboatnames. And even hilariousboatnames. I wanted something clever, but not too clever. Too clever names seem to suggest that you aren’t really that serious about what you are doing. I also did not want a name that was common or too obvious (see “water” above!). We thought about names for various gods in different cultures. We thought of song titles we liked, translated them into various languages, and started over when they didn’t seem right. Meanwhile, our new boat sat unnamed for quite some time. Poor boat.

Other cruisers have strong feelings about how to name a boat. Bumfuzzle, a young family of cruisers, had this funny and interesting perspective for boat naming. While I appreciate his great passion for the subject, I can’t say I agree 100%. Another cruising couple, Windtraveler, also thought long and hard about the name of their new boat. The name they chose for their Brewer 44, Asante, is lovely, and it reflects their personality perfectly. The same holds true for another sailing blog we follow, Zero to Cruising. Their name reflects exactly how they became cruisers, and it fits them and their adventures quite well.

One day, as I was grading papers and thinking about how lovely it would be to grade them as I was sitting in the cockpit of my future (much bigger!) boat in the warm, refreshing waters of the Caribbean, the right name popped into my head. I was sure it had already been used a thousand times over, though. It was obviously a great name, and it reflected exactly what we were hoping to do as full-time cruisers. Nauti Professor.

I did a quick Google search, and I was amazed that no one else had used that name. I saw a lot of “nauti” names, to be sure. But I liked the play on the words. Nutty professor. Naughty professor. Nauti Professor.

My biggest worry was that the name was a little too centered on me. Boats are often named after women, but the fact is that Captain Joe is the instigator of this little adventure we’re planning, and I certainly did not want to leave him out in our boat’s name. So I suggested it to see what he thought. He loved it. In fact, he designed a fantastic logo for us, had it made into a burgee, and started looking into getting the domain for us online.

Our little boat had her name! More importantly, we had a name for our adventure that suited our personality and focus.

Yes, we will be carrying this name with us on our new boat. I know many sailors argue that you should not rename a boat. Others probably don’t think you should keep naming different boats the same thing. My perspective is that any boat we choose will be the Nauti Professor, and that she has probably been incorrectly named in the past. In other words, our next boat will be the right boat for us. We’ll step on it and say, “Yes. This is the Nauti Professor. Glad we found you, old girl.”

Ultimately, there are no “rules” for boat naming other than this one: You should choose a name that feels right to you. Understand that you will have to spell the name out, and you will have to be able to communicate its name clearly over radio. However, I think it’s important that we avoid assuming that our rules should be everyone’s rules. After all, we can all agree that the goal is freedom, and what’s more free than being as Nauti as you want to be?

The Nauti Professor