How to Name and Letter Your Boat

Last Updated: May 6, 2021

Buying boat lettering is easy, the hard part is deciding on the boat name for your watercraft. Pick a name that creates the mood and personality you wish to convey.

Steps

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Choose a name carefully: If you have ever owned a boat or have planned to buy one, you'll ultimately have to name your boat and purchase boat lettering. It is seemingly an easy step but you'll soon find naming a boat is far from an easy task for most of us. There are a few basic things you should know ahead of time. Boat lettering comes in two basic types. Painted on boat lettering is generally done by a local lettering artist (preferably one with boat lettering experience). The quality of the lettering will depend on the experience of the craftsman and his brush. If you decide to have your boat lettering hand painted, a marina is a great place to start. Not only will you see many examples of how others have displayed their boat name, you might also ask the marine operator for a few references for your own painted on project.^{[1]
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- More popular now is computer fabricated vinyl boat lettering which can be made at many local sign shops and hundreds of places on the web. There's no shortage of vendors that can make boat lettering for you. Picking one of them is the easy part. The real task at hand is deciding exactly what you will be naming your boat. Take your time and give your boat a really great name. Conventional wisdom might be to grab a list of the most popular boat names and simply pick one of them and head down to your boat lettering vendor. That would be great if you want to be just like the other 500 or so boats in your state sharing the same name! The 10 best boat names from whatever list you find should be your blacklist of boat names to avoid!
- Think about the name. Picking your boat name should be something you take time with! Don't settle for the very first thing that pops in your mind. Here are the key components you should consider when picking a boat name:^{[2]
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- Decide on the personality of your boat. Fishing Boats have a much different personality than Cigarette style boats. It wouldn't make much sense to name a racing body boat with a hook and sinker type of name like - well - "Hook and Sinker" for example!
- Is there anything special about your boat such as an unusual story behind the purchase of it, or possibly something unusual about yourself? For example, I know a guy that has flipped his speedboat twice and the same number of times he had to recover the boat from the sea bottom. He named his boat "Sunk Twice". There is no doubt it is truly a unique name and it's even a story in itself, but is it a good boat name? I'm sure his drinking buddies adore the name. But if you plan to invite your neighbors 13 year old kid to go fishing with you and your 12 year old, lots of luck persuading other parents to let the kid come along! Trying to find the right boat name can be a chore, but don't be tempted to resort back to the best boat name listings found on the net. Everyone uses these names over and over. Some of the real popular names are used so much there are several of these already moored in the marina of your choosing, all claiming to be "Miss Behaving or Aquaholic or Obsession", just to name a few.
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If you find you need help from these name lists to find a boat every bit as good as "Wet Dream or Liquid Asset" or Wind Dancer", then customize a popular name to make it your own. For example "Obsession" is one of the very popular boat names. Why not customize it, such as "Kristy's Obsession" or even more daring but cool "My Wet Obsession" to add a bit of dark humor to the name.
- Pick a name that means something to you or to someone you love. The number one mistake in picking a boat name is picking a name that might be impressive to others! Instead pick a name that is the most valuable to you. You are paying for the boat so why name it for the amusement of strangers. Name the boat for your own purpose and select a name that actually provides you the amusement or the enjoyment.^{[3]
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- There are a number of places to research your boat name. There are books in the library that cover the subject very well. You can also take a popular name and tailor it to your own liking. Or better yet, consider using an interactive boat name tool such as StreetGlo's free Live boat lettering name suggestions database. This boat name tool is unique because it's tied to a network of sources for new boat names, one of which comes from a pool new boat owners designing their own boat names. It also compiles new boat names by monitoring the "boat name" searches on Google and other search engines. It also captures names from boat lettering order entries thus insuring someone liked these new names enough to invest in boat lettering. Have a look yourself and see new boat lettering names along with a suggested font and color plan that supports the personality these new boat lettering names.
- Another great tool to help you name your boat is the NOAA fisheries Vessel Documentation Search. NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service is a federal agency, a division of the Department of Commerce, responsible for the stewardship of the nation's living marine resources and their habitat (as per the official identity per the NOAA website). But for your purpose, you can find out just how often your choice in boat name is used by doing a simple boat name search in NOAA's Vessel Documentation. If you think you've come with an awesome new name, you can check it at NOAA's site. Likewise, you might be surprised to find out the name you picked has already been used 10,000 times and this doesn't even include the millions of small watercraft not linked to the NOAA's database.
- Investing a little time in your boat name can provide greater enjoyment of your watercraft by helping establish and preserve the mood that motivated you to buy the boat in the first place. There are few things about your boat which will continue to provide satisfaction, comfort and rest to you over and over without ever costing you again and again. I can only think of two things that fit this category, the Porta-Potty and the boat name! No doubt they both will be the constant source of stress relief and substantial contributors to your overall sense of comfort and release!

Community Q&A

Question

Where on the boat do I put its name?

Community Answer

Most boats have the name on both sides and the transom.
Question

Should I put the name of my boat on both sides, or just one side?

Community Answer

Both sides, Port and Starboard, midships or Bow. Make sure that your lettering does not interfere with the registration numbers at all. If they do, or even seem like they do, you have wasted money on the vinyl lettering plus the cost of a ticket.
Question

Can I use my old boat numbers on my new boat?

Community Answer

If you're registering the boat in the same state, the registration numbers probably won't change, so yes. If not, you are unlikely to get the same number. And the numbers rip when you take them off. At best, you could build around one or two of the existing numbers - but good luck matching the font.