OK, so you’ve gone to the bank and signed the papers on your new boat. Whether it’s a fishing boat or a houseboat that sleeps 18, it’s going to be your pride and joy. One of the most exciting things surrounding the purchase of a new boat is when you get to name the boat. (Not that buying boat insurance isn’t exciting. It’s just that naming is way cooler.)

Your boat name tells a lot about you and about your boat. Take, for example, these famous boat names:

• Privacy. Tiger Woods named his yacht “Privacy.” I assume that we have the paparazzi to thank for this one. Keep in mind that he bought the boat in March, 2006, and it’s rumored that some of his now-famous liaisons may have occurred on the yacht.
• ORCA. The ORCA was the boat captained by Quint in the movie Jaws. Quint (Robert Shaw was the masterful actor who played the character) named his boat for the one creature in nature that hunts sharks (besides human beings). An “Orca” is also known as a “killer whale.”
• The Minnow. You don’t need anyone to tell you who captained this boat, or what the name of its first mate was. The name evokes images of a small fish being batted around in a large ocean, much like the ship of the same name. The “tiny ship was tossed,” after all.
• The Beagle. This was the two-mast sloop that, on its second voyage ever, carried scientist Charles Darwin to the Galapagos Islands.
• The Olive. This boat was named by a mighty sailor after his lady friend. If you don’t know who it was, I’ll give you a hint: he really, really likes spinach.
• The Bismarck. This boat, which fired on the British ship the HMS Hood in May of 1941, was named for 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the man who was in large part responsible for unifying the various German states.
• The Calypso. This was the ship used by Jacques Cousteau as a mobile sea research laboratory. It’s no coincidence that the ship shares the name with an exotic dance, and urban legend suggests that Cousteau was particularly fond of the dance.
• The USS Enterprise. This was the first aircraft carrier in the world powered with nuclear power. It was also the eighth vessel in the United States Navy to have that name.

Photo via thelastminute