Jack and I were recently talking about changing our boat name to something that is meaningful to both us as a couple and us as a family.  The current boat name is “Kitty Hawk” and it came with the boat.  We think that names are special – they are given to a person and/or object and evoke emotion or embody the essence and character of what is being named.  The Bible puts great emphasis on names and their meaning; not only can they signify something to do with essence or character, but they may also be prophetic.

We’ve tossed back and forth various names that would be good for our floating home.  The name will need to have certain attributes:

1. Be easily spoken in several languages and clearly understood on a crackling radio.  Strong choppy syllables are better.
2. Short enough to paint on the back of the boat and be legible.
3. Be nice on a surface level and emotion-evoking on a deeper level.
4. Envelop who we are and what we believe about life.
5. Be somewhat original,  unlike “Carpe Diem” which is seriously overused in many forms and spellings such as “Seas the Day”.

We walked the docks here in Charleston one morning looking for inspiration and found a few boat names that brought a smile to our faces.

“Aye Lean II”. Appropriate for a sailboat, ay?

“Breaking Wind”. Enough said.

Cut’n Wind

“PsyQuatic”

“Cell Away”

We thought about “Oh the Places” or something to do with our blog name but nothing really struck us as being “it.”  A lot of boats have been named a lot of silly things mostly using funny plays on words.  How many fishing boats have you seen out there with names like “Reel Action” or “Reel Deal”.  By the same token, how many sailboats have you seen with the name “Dream….something or other” or involving “Sea…or “C”…something or other”.  We want to avoid such as these.

We feel the name should embody the “soul” of our boat and because this is the way sailors of old felt about the name given to boat it was considered bad luck to change the name.  However, the name could be changed, but this involved some sort of ritual, and there are several, which would make it kosher, for lack of a better word.

We would love to hear ideas of what YOU think our sailboat should be called. Please share any suggestions you might have and we’ll set up a poll with some of the possibilities. Show off your boat christening skills and you might just win the prize of choosing the new name for our noble vessel!