Russian ship naming conventions

The Russian and Soviet Navy's naming conventions were similar to those of other Nations. A problem for the non-Russian reader is the need to transliterate the Cyrillic names into the Latin alphabet. There are often several different Latin spellings of the same Russian name

Pre Revolution

Before the revolution the Imperial Russian Navy used the following convention

Battleships

Russian Battleships were named after:
*Battles e.g. Gangut, Petropavlovsk, Poltava, Sinop, Chesma, Borodino
*Royals e.g. Imperator Pavel I, Pyotr Veliky, Tsesarevich
*Saints e.g. Georgy Pobedonosets = St George, Andrei Pervozvanny = St Andrew
*Generals e.g. Knyaz Suvorov, Knyaz Potemkin Tavricheskyy
*Traditional e.g. Retvizan

Cruisers

Russian Cruisers were named after

*Mythical figures - e.g. Rurik, Askold, Bayan
*Admirals - e,g Admiral Makarov, Admiral Lazarev
*Gemstones - e.g. Zhemchug = pearl

Destroyers

Russian destroyers were named after adjectives e.g. Burnyi = Stormy, Smeliy=Valiant

Frigates/Gunboats

*Named after birds or animals e.g. Albatross
*Ethnographic names e.g. Donskoy Kasak = Don Cossack

ubmarines

Named after fish or animals e.g. Morzh = Walrus, Akula=shark

oviet Times

Renaming

The Soviets changed the names of many ships after they took power in 1917

* Royal names were changed to republican names e.g. Volya=Freedom, Grazhdanin = Citizen
* The Gangut Class dreadnoughts were named after Revolutionary themes, but two reverted to original names during World War II
* Cruisers were renamed after Communist themes e.g. Chervona Ukraina = Red Ukraine
* Many destroyers were renamed after Political figures e.g. Karl Liebknecht

New Construction

* Planned Battleships were named after Soviet themes e.g. Sovietsky Soyuz
* Cruisers were named after revolutionary heroes e.g. Kirov
* Destroyer leaders were named after cities, e.g. Moskva = Moscow
* Destroyers reverted to being named after adjectives e.g. Grozny = Terrible
* Frigates/Gunboats were named after animals, or weather phenomena e.g. Uragan = hurricane
* Submarines were initially given political names (e.g Dekabrist), or fish names but later given only numbers

Post War

* Aircraft Carriers and helicopter cruisers were named after cities, Tbilisi and Baku were changed to Admiral Kuznetsov and Admiral Gorshkov respectively on the collapse of the Soviet Union
* Battle Cruisers were named after revolutionary heroes , this was changed to Admirals after the end of communism
* Cruisers were mostly named after Admirals, Generals, Cities or given traditional names e.g. Slava=glory
* Destroyers and large Frigates were named after adjectives, although a few were named after the Komsomol
* Frigates were named after birds or animals e.g. Lev=Lion
* Submarines were rarely named during Soviet Times but after the end of the Soviet Union many were renamed after animals eg Yaguar or Cities e.g. Kursk

Project Designations (Class Names)

The Soviets assigned a project number to each new design. The numbers were non sequential, submarine classes had numbers 600-900, small combatants 100-200 and large ships 1000 plus. The classes also had names, Major ship classes were named after Birds e.g. Orlan = sea eagle, Berkut = Golden eagle, Kreschet = Gyrfalcon. Submarine classes were given fish names e.g. Akula=Shark, Som = Catfish etc.

* see List of ships of Russia by project number for more details

Nato Naming

"Also see NATO reporting name"

NATO assigned its own reporting names to Soviet ships. This was because the official Soviet designation was unknown or difficult for English speakers to pronounce.

*Initially surface ship classes were named after the place where they were first identified, e.g. Kotlin, Poti etc. It soon became apparent that this convention would rapidly become obsolete as the Soviet Union had only a limited number of Naval bases. A new convention based on vaguely Slavic sounding names beginning with the letter K was then used.
*Fast patrol and torpedo craft classes were named after the Russian name for Insects e.g. Osa=wasp, The soviets also named their missile boats after insects leading to confusion
*Minesweepers and small Frigates were given diminutive first names e.g. Alyosha,Vanya, Petya
* Hovercraft were named after Russian words for birds e.g. Aist = Stork
*Submarine classes were given Phonetic alphabet names e.g. Delta, Alpha, Victor etc

References

* McLaughlin , S. What's in a (Russian) name, Warship 2005 Conway's maritime Press