The Flag-waving Names of Ocean Liners

Abstract

Proper names not only serve as identifiers of people, places and other entities, they may also function as markers of personal and national identity. Eponymous and toponymous names of ships often function as metaphors or metonyms, signifying country or place of origin. During the first half of the twentieth century, ocean liner names became tropes of nationhood, empire, and might, signifying the homeland, foreign destinations and celebrating royalty and national heroes, etc. This article analyses the names of liners from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century, and shows how the names reflect contemporaneous national socio-cultural and political mindsets.