Ship Name Generator

Ship Name Generator – Create a ship name by blending two names into one — Brad and Angelina become Brangelina. Try classic, romantic, cute, funny and other styles, then save or copy your favorite couple-name ideas.

What is a ship name?

A ship name — also written “shipname” or called a couple name or relationship name — is a single word made by combining two people’s names. So, if you love a TV show, you may send two characters and call them by a name or a couple may adopt one as a pet name, a social handle or a hashtag. It’s a very basic concept: use some of the name of one person, some of another, and combine them into a word that is yours and theirs.

The most popular one is Brangelina, which is the name of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. That one word changed the whole internet conversation about celebrity couples. The trend quickly took off; Bennifer (Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez), Kimye (Kim Kardashian and Kanye West), TomKat (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes). As soon as you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it—at fan events, at weddings, everywhere.

How the ship name generator works

This generator extracts the letters from both the names and generates a list of candidates based on some of the classic blending rules. A classic fusion, a start with the first name and the end of the second, which is how Brangelina works: ‘Br’ from Brad and ‘angelina’ from Angelina. A reverse blend is the opposite of that, with the beginning of the second name being retained, but often resulting in a different melody since it usually creates different rhythms and can sound more natural, depending on what number of syllables is used.

There are other rules that apply to the shapes that people use. Celebrity style blends go with the shortest, most punchy join, the sort a headline writer would go for. To get a smooth join, soft connecting letters are used in romantic blends. As a result of cute blends, so many couple nicknames sound like baby talk. Nature nudges the outcome toward words that sound like flowers or weather or the outdoors or funny blends; it nudges the outcome toward words that are not exactly the same as the others, but are similar.

Playful blend score (based on length, vowel balance and consecutive consonants) given to each candidate. It’s defined as being difficult to read, rather than as a measure of compatibility or of the relationship.

How to use it

1. Enter both first names in the two boxes. Nicknames fit best — “Nick” fits in as “Alexander”.
2. Choose a style or begin with Classic and experiment with the other styles to see the differences.
3. Select the number of names you want, and then click Create ship names.
4. Save (to add favorites to this browser), Generate another set (to add more favorites) or download a text list (to download a list to your computer).

The chart below the generator shows the blend scores, which are on a 0–100 scale. Individual names may also be reproduced from their individual result cards.

Ways people use ship names

• Couples. A social media ‘handle’, a social photo album title or a ‘playful’ card signature. A good ship name is a brand for you and your ship.
• Fandom. Readers, viewers, and gamers – we need characters’ names to ship! These blends are the foundation for fan-fiction tags, ship weeks and community wikis.
• Parties and games. Baby showers and wedding showers have couple names as a guessing game. Make a few blends and have guests select the best one.

Pro tips for better ship names

• Call people by their real names. A nickname mix-up can almost always be better combined than a legal name.
• Protect the vowel. Blends where there is a vowel at the boundary (e.g. Br-angelina) are smoother than blends where two consonants collide. Say it out loud. If you can’t read it, they can’t read it! The name of a ship must be easy to say.
• Check the accidental word. Sometimes a mix produces a real word or an unnatural one. Use the Funny style to see the funnier and then choose a clean one and use it everyday.
• Keep a shortlist. Make a dozen, duplicate three of them and then live with them for a day and then make a decision.

Common mistakes to avoid

The largest of these is compelling a mashup where the names don’t sound alike. A ship’s name should be called out, so a perfect letter switch that is difficult to pronounce is not a useful change. Another frequent error is to make it too long – a four or 5 syllable name is practically shortened in use. Last but not least, don’t agonize over it — ship names are short, cozy and a bit silly!

Looking for specialized Random Generators

FAQ

About Author

Emma Collins

Emma Collins is a Writing & Language Tools Editor at A Free Tools. She focuses on text formatting, writing utilities, character and word counting, capitalization, and other language-related tools. Her goal is to make writing tools easier to understand and use.

Calculators | Converters | Games | Generators | Random | Web Tools | Developer Tools