Page 1 of 2
IJN CV Names
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 4:46 am
by John 3rd
I had a player ask me for a few additional IJN CV Names. My knowledge of Japanese is ZERO and would like to see if anyone could come up with anything? Japanese CVs were named after birds or mythical creatures. If you have an idea, please Post with the name ie Shokaku and its translation 'Flying Crane.'
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:19 am
by CT Grognard
Firstly, the historical ones, they were named after mythical creatures or birds at first, but it appears that towards the end of the war a large number were being named for mountains (especially holy ones):
DRAGON:
Ryujo: "Prancing Dragon"
Soryu: "Blue Dragon"
Hiryu: "Flying Dragon"
Unryu: "Cloud Dragon"
CRANE:
Shokaku: "Flying Crane"
Zuikaku: "Fortunate Crane"
PHOENIX:
Hosho: "Flying Phoenix"
Zuiho: "Fortunate Phoenix"
Shoho: "Auspicious Phoenix"
Taiho: "Great Phoenix"
Ryuho: "Dragon Phoenix"
HAWK:
Taiyo: "Goshawk"
Chuyo: "Soaring Hawk"
Unyo: "Cleaving Hawk"
Hiyo: "Flying Hawk"
PLACES:
Akagi: Mount Akagi
Kaga: Kaga Province
Amagi: Mount Amagi
Katsuragi: Mount Katsuragi
Kasagi: Mount Kasagi
Aso: Mount Aso
Might I suggest the following for Japanese carriers named after sacred shrines and places:
"Fuji", "Tate", "Haku", "Taisen", "Kaimon", "Koya", "Izumo", "Kumano".
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:25 am
by Puhis
Kurama (neme of a mountain) and Kaimon (name of a volcano) were planned carrier names.
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:29 am
by castor troy
ORIGINAL: John 3rd
I had a player ask me for a few additional IJN CV Names. My knowledge of Japanese is ZERO and would like to see if anyone could come up with anything? Japanese CVs were named after birds or mythical creatures. If you have an idea, please Post with the name ie Shokaku and its translation 'Flying Crane.'
lol, I love the moments when I'm bitten in the ass for being a non native English speaker because the first thing that came to my mind was "wth why did they name it Flying crane?" as I've thought about this, a "flying crane":
just to figure out the next moment they meant a bird of course.
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 6:37 am
by Puhis
ORIGINAL: CT Grognard
Might I suggest the following for Japanese carriers named after sacred shrines and places:
"Fuji", "Tate", "Haku", "Taisen", "Kaimon", "Koya", "Izumo", "Kumano".
During WWII, Izumo was old training cruiser.
Kumano is a Mogami-class cruiser. [:-]
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 7:58 am
by Hiltibrant
If you want some more traditional names, here are the names of some mythical places/creatures that follow the common naming traditions of the Japanese at the time:
Seiryu (azure dragon)
Suzaku (vermillion bird; Red bird – another name for the phoenix)
Zuiryu (auspicious dragon - a modern Soryu-class submarine of the same name exists)
Kenryu (sword dragon - a modern Soryu-class submarine of the same name exists)
Hakuryu (white dragon - a modern Soryu-class submarine of the same name exists)
Shiryu (the 4 dragon kings)
Shinryu (Spirit Dragon - NB! this was also used to name rocket-propelled kamikaze planes)
Kuzuryu (nine-headed dragon)
Ryugu (the undersea palace of Ryugin, the dragon god of the sea.)
Remember that in some cases, the Japanese simply recycled the names of older ships – before WWI, it seemed there was no guideline as to what kind of ship was named how – this is reflected in that many later warships reused names carried by a variety of 19th century vessels – Akagi, Hiei, Hosho, Ryujo, Katsuragi, etc.:
Tenryu (Heavenly dragon – the original Tenryu was sunk in late 1942, so why not recycle the name and use it for a carrier - one of the Unryu's, for example?)
Choyo
Chinyen (means: “striking from a long distance” – quite a fitting name for a carrier, no?)
Saiyen (means: “help from a distance”)
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:13 pm
by John 3rd
ORIGINAL: castor troy
ORIGINAL: John 3rd
I had a player ask me for a few additional IJN CV Names. My knowledge of Japanese is ZERO and would like to see if anyone could come up with anything? Japanese CVs were named after birds or mythical creatures. If you have an idea, please Post with the name ie Shokaku and its translation 'Flying Crane.'
lol, I love the moments when I'm bitten in the ass for being a non native English speaker because the first thing that came to my mind was "wth why did they name it Flying crane?" as I've thought about this, a "flying crane":
just to figure out the next moment they meant a bird of course.
Castor: You CRACK me up! Nearly spewed my tea when I read/saw this!
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:14 pm
by John 3rd
Those are great and some are very creative. THANKS!
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 3:27 pm
by HansBolter
Open up the Iron Man Japan scenario. It has a slew of additional ahistorical CVs in it. A good source for CV names.
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 8:02 pm
by lipty
ORIGINAL: castor troy
ORIGINAL: John 3rd
I had a player ask me for a few additional IJN CV Names. My knowledge of Japanese is ZERO and would like to see if anyone could come up with anything? Japanese CVs were named after birds or mythical creatures. If you have an idea, please Post with the name ie Shokaku and its translation 'Flying Crane.'
lol, I love the moments when I'm bitten in the ass for being a non native English speaker because the first thing that came to my mind was "wth why did they name it Flying crane?" as I've thought about this, a "flying crane":
just to figure out the next moment they meant a bird of course.
Ahaha That just made me LOL at work. Drew some looks.
Made me think of this sign in Japan.

RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 8:13 pm
by Onime No Kyo
ORIGINAL: CT Grognard
Firstly, the historical ones, they were named after mythical creatures or birds at first, but it appears that towards the end of the war a large number were being named for mountains (especially holy ones):
DRAGON:
Ryujo: "Prancing Dragon"
Soryu: "Blue Dragon"
Hiryu: "Flying Dragon"
Unryu: "Cloud Dragon"
CRANE:
Shokaku: "Flying Crane"
Zuikaku: "Fortunate Crane"
PHOENIX:
Hosho: "Flying Phoenix"
Zuiho: "Fortunate Phoenix"
Shoho: "Auspicious Phoenix"
Taiho: "Great Phoenix"
Ryuho: "Dragon Phoenix"
HAWK:
Taiyo: "Goshawk"
Chuyo: "Soaring Hawk"
Unyo: "Cleaving Hawk"
Hiyo: "Flying Hawk"
PLACES:
Akagi: Mount Akagi
Kaga: Kaga Province
Amagi: Mount Amagi
Katsuragi: Mount Katsuragi
Kasagi: Mount Kasagi
Aso: Mount Aso
Might I suggest the following for Japanese carriers named after sacred shrines and places:
"Fuji", "Tate", "Haku", "Taisen", "Kaimon", "Koya", "Izumo", "Kumano".
I recall that the Akagi and Kaga were laid down as BCs, and since the Japanese inherited the British notion that its unlucky to change a ship's name they stuck with it. [:D]
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 8:24 pm
by khyberbill
If you have an idea, please Post
If these are to be late war CV's what is the Japanese name for target?
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 9:00 pm
by Treetop64
The Japanese Navy had some rather creative and poetic names for virtually all of their "front line" naval vessels.
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 10:37 pm
by Commander Stormwolf
what was the name of the fourth Yamato hull?
was it Kii?
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:04 pm
by wdolson
Number 111 for hull #4. Hull #5 was ship 797. They were never named as far as I can tell.
Hull 111 was started, but scrapped early in construction, 797 was never started.
Bill
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:09 pm
by Commander Stormwolf
Hull #4 could be included in some type of scenario
player can either build it (expecting the economy to do well)
, and complete it in mid-late 1945, or be stuck with a half-complete
elephant
or scrap it as they did historically
interesting how they scrapped yamato #4 and decided to build
copies of the Hiryu instead of zuikaku / taiho
almost like they knew that completing the more elaborate designs
would be too little, too late
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 1:53 am
by CRations
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2012 11:26 am
by Shark7
ORIGINAL: Hiltibrant
If you want some more traditional names, here are the names of some mythical places/creatures that follow the common naming traditions of the Japanese at the time:
Seiryu (azure dragon)
Suzaku (vermillion bird; Red bird – another name for the phoenix)
Zuiryu (auspicious dragon - a modern Soryu-class submarine of the same name exists)
Kenryu (sword dragon - a modern Soryu-class submarine of the same name exists)
Hakuryu (white dragon - a modern Soryu-class submarine of the same name exists)
Shiryu (the 4 dragon kings)
Shinryu (Spirit Dragon - NB! this was also used to name rocket-propelled kamikaze planes)
Kuzuryu (nine-headed dragon)
Ryugu (the undersea palace of Ryugin, the dragon god of the sea.)
Remember that in some cases, the Japanese simply recycled the names of older ships – before WWI, it seemed there was no guideline as to what kind of ship was named how – this is reflected in that many later warships reused names carried by a variety of 19th century vessels – Akagi, Hiei, Hosho, Ryujo, Katsuragi, etc.:
Tenryu (Heavenly dragon – the original Tenryu was sunk in late 1942, so why not recycle the name and use it for a carrier - one of the Unryu's, for example?)
Choyo
Chinyen (means: “striking from a long distance” – quite a fitting name for a carrier, no?)
Saiyen (means: “help from a distance”)
I avoided recycling of names in my mod for the simple reason is that in game, it is entirely possible to keep a ship from being sunk until game end. In which case you end up with 2 ships with the same name active.
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 7:09 pm
by wadail
Name them after weapons with some "reach"?
Tetsubo - War Club
Naginata - Various Polearms
Daikyu - Longbow
Hankyu - Shortbow (a CVL o CVE?)
Ya - Arrow
Kama - A scythe
Tsurugi - Double-edged sword
Odachi, Nodachi, Tachi - Long swords
Yari - Sword blade on a spear pole
Nagamaki - Dismounted Samurai spear for use against mounted Samurai
etc.
RE: IJN CV Names
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2012 5:32 pm
by SpitfireIX
I'm not an expert, but I'm reasonably certain that the Japanese would never have named any ship after a deceased (or living) person, for a variety of reasons.