Here's a little something I've been working on for many a year: The names of Tigress class dreadnaughts. AFAIK only three Tigress class ships have ever been named, the Tigress (of course), the Pantheress, and the Lioness (If anyone knows of any other canonical reference to a Tigress, please let me know). But there are between 160 and 224 Tigresses in all, depending on how you interpret the statement 'Additional Tigress class BatRons are generally assigned one per sector'. Is that one BatRon per sector with an Imperial presence, even those with only two Imperial subsectors? Or is it one per 16 subsectors? Or something in between? Currently I'm going with 160, 20 squadrons' worth, but I wouldn't object to 22 or 24 squadrons. 28 seems unlikely to me. YMMV.
Until recently I just maintained a list of names that I added to whenever I stumbled across a new one, but recently I began trying to figure out the order they were built, going with the more well-known species and subspecies first and more complex, awkward and dubious names later. Currently I have 60 names on the list:
18527 Smilodontess
18528 Mountain lioness
18529 Catamountess
18530 Spotted Lioness
18531 Margayess
18532 Caracaless
18533 Ouncess
18534 Servaless
18535 Katanga Lioness
18536 Malayan Tigress
18537 Asiatic Lioness
18538 Indochinese Tigress
18539 Masai Lioness
18540 Malayan Tigress
18541 Transvaal Lioness
18542 Indian Tigress
18543 Tigoness
18544 Ligeress
18545 Tigardess
18546 Leoponess
18547 Tiguaress
18548 Leguaress
18549 Jaglioness
18550 Liguaress
18551 Jaguarundiess
18552 Lipardess
18553 Pumapardess
18554 Jagupardess
18555 Black Tigress
18556 Red Lioness
18557 Blue Tigress
18558 Golden Tigress
18559 White Lion
18560 White Tigress
18561 Red Tigress
18562 Black Jaguaress
18563 Sabertoothed Tigress
18564 Cave Lioness
18565 Caspian Tigress
18566 Barbary Lioness
18567 Javan Tigress
18568 Cape Lioness
18569 Bali Tigress
18570 Ceylon Lioness
I have another 30 names or so from Earth nature and mythology, including such gems as North East Congo Lioness and Loupcervierss (but not media awards, so no golden leopards or golden lions (though I was very tempted to include Jad-bal-ja, Tarzan's golden lion
)).
But I was thinking that at about this point, the Imperial Navy's Office of Coming up with Names for Ships might have begun to look for offworld inspiration, both actual great cats (descendants of great cats transplanted by the Ancients) and animals from other biospheres that looked enough like great cats to be named after lions and tigers and... well, other great cats.
At the moment I only have a handful of ideas for alien great cats.
Snowcat is canonical; it is native to Fulacin and to a great many other (unnamed) worlds in Charted Space (multiple different species with the same name). But I can't think of a usable female form of 'cat', so that's not much help. (You may think that 'catess' is just as good as 'lynxess' and 'margayess', but I don't
).
The zebralion I came up with many years ago when I was naming boloball teams for the Spinward Marches league (IMTU, of course). It's native to Zivije, though now that I actually get around to checking up on Zivije and note that it has a corrosive atmosphere, I wonder just how close the resemblance to great cats would be
.
The rest of the handful I just came up with a few days ago:
Nearlion
Mocklion
Fauxlion
Near-tiger
Mock Tiger
Faux Tiger
... Leopard, Panther, Cougar, Jaguar, Cheetah, Ocelot.
Don't ask me why the tiger versions differ like they do. It just seemed right to me.
Any of these could be found in multiple versions.
Well, that's about what I have so far, except that I have a notion that the very last name in the original production run would be Early Middle Pleistocene European Cave Lioness (EMPEC Lioness for short).
I've also thought about adding some replacement <Name> II's. GT mentions a Lioness II built to replace the Lioness, lost in the 5FW. But how many, if any, Tigresses would have been lost prior to 5FW and for what reasons? Opinions? Suggestions?
EDIT: Sep 11th 2014: I've added some details to the first sixteen entries.
Hans
--------------------
I hereby give permission to anyone doing legitimate work in the Traveller Universe (including work for pay) to use any ideas and/or text in this post, paraphrased or verbatim, if they like.
Until recently I just maintained a list of names that I added to whenever I stumbled across a new one, but recently I began trying to figure out the order they were built, going with the more well-known species and subspecies first and more complex, awkward and dubious names later. Currently I have 60 names on the list:
Code:
No. Name Laid Down First Builder Notes
Flight
18511 Tigress 025-1078 172-1082 Semath No. 1
18512 Lioness 042-1078 218-1082 Silverring AB
18513 Leopardess 077-1078 236-1082 Menkhakre
18514 Pantheress 092-1078 254-1082 Greyfleur A
18515 Cougaress 120-1078 279-1082 Datta
18516 Jaguaress 144-1078 312-1082 Yard 23
18517 Cheetaess 146-1078 300-1082 Shaan Gig
18518 Ocelotess 171-1078 351-1082 Yard 19 No. 5
18519 Bengal Tigress 170-1078 337-1082 Ball Chaser
18520 Sibirian Tigress 177-1078 011-1083 Yard 19 No. 4
18521 Sumatran Tigress 206-1078 068-1083 C&I
18522 Cape Lioness 212-1078 007-1083 Semath No. 2
18523 Snow Leopardess 227-1078 046-1083 Shibashliim
18524 Lynxess 235-1078 034-1083 Dromedari Nawab
18525 Gynosphinx 258-1078 155-1083 Nirkre + Aarnas
18526 Pardess 257-1078 224-1083 Sharammir No. 7
18527 Smilodontess
18528 Mountain lioness
18529 Catamountess
18530 Spotted Lioness
18531 Margayess
18532 Caracaless
18533 Ouncess
18534 Servaless
18535 Katanga Lioness
18536 Malayan Tigress
18537 Asiatic Lioness
18538 Indochinese Tigress
18539 Masai Lioness
18540 Malayan Tigress
18541 Transvaal Lioness
18542 Indian Tigress
18543 Tigoness
18544 Ligeress
18545 Tigardess
18546 Leoponess
18547 Tiguaress
18548 Leguaress
18549 Jaglioness
18550 Liguaress
18551 Jaguarundiess
18552 Lipardess
18553 Pumapardess
18554 Jagupardess
18555 Black Tigress
18556 Red Lioness
18557 Blue Tigress
18558 Golden Tigress
18559 White Lion
18560 White Tigress
18561 Red Tigress
18562 Black Jaguaress
18563 Sabertoothed Tigress
18564 Cave Lioness
18565 Caspian Tigress
18566 Barbary Lioness
18567 Javan Tigress
18568 Cape Lioness
18569 Bali Tigress
18570 Ceylon Lioness
Code:
Builders:
Ball Chaser = Ball Chaser Group. LIC
C&I = Cuschapesc and Inremiirshii Comprehensive Constructions
Datta = Hong Datta and Siblings, Inc
Dromedari Nawab = Dromedari Nawab
Greyfleur = Greyfleur Yard
Menkhakre = Menkhakre Shipbuilding and Construction Company, LIC
Nirkre + Aarnas = Nirkre + Aarnas
Palastrup Værft = Palastrup Shipyard
Semath = Semath Infrastructure and Shipbuilding Company
Shaan Gig = Shaan Gig & Company
Sharammir = Sharammir Shipbuilding Corporation
Shibashliim = Shibashliim Naval Yards
Silverring = Silverring National Yards
Yard 19 = Yard 19
Yard 23 = Yard 23

But I was thinking that at about this point, the Imperial Navy's Office of Coming up with Names for Ships might have begun to look for offworld inspiration, both actual great cats (descendants of great cats transplanted by the Ancients) and animals from other biospheres that looked enough like great cats to be named after lions and tigers and... well, other great cats.
At the moment I only have a handful of ideas for alien great cats.
Snowcat is canonical; it is native to Fulacin and to a great many other (unnamed) worlds in Charted Space (multiple different species with the same name). But I can't think of a usable female form of 'cat', so that's not much help. (You may think that 'catess' is just as good as 'lynxess' and 'margayess', but I don't

The zebralion I came up with many years ago when I was naming boloball teams for the Spinward Marches league (IMTU, of course). It's native to Zivije, though now that I actually get around to checking up on Zivije and note that it has a corrosive atmosphere, I wonder just how close the resemblance to great cats would be

The rest of the handful I just came up with a few days ago:
Nearlion
Mocklion
Fauxlion
Near-tiger
Mock Tiger
Faux Tiger
... Leopard, Panther, Cougar, Jaguar, Cheetah, Ocelot.
Don't ask me why the tiger versions differ like they do. It just seemed right to me.
Any of these could be found in multiple versions.
Well, that's about what I have so far, except that I have a notion that the very last name in the original production run would be Early Middle Pleistocene European Cave Lioness (EMPEC Lioness for short).
I've also thought about adding some replacement <Name> II's. GT mentions a Lioness II built to replace the Lioness, lost in the 5FW. But how many, if any, Tigresses would have been lost prior to 5FW and for what reasons? Opinions? Suggestions?
EDIT: Sep 11th 2014: I've added some details to the first sixteen entries.
Hans
--------------------
I hereby give permission to anyone doing legitimate work in the Traveller Universe (including work for pay) to use any ideas and/or text in this post, paraphrased or verbatim, if they like.
Last edited: