Ever wondered how to name a boat? It’s not easy. I spent hours and days trying to come up with a name for my pontoon, and it was the same with a new fishing boat I recently bought. I looked at what seems like hundreds of websites, compiling a spreadsheet of the best fishing boat names I could find.
I finally settled on something, and I will publish a blog post on that soon. But I didn’t want my research to go to waste, so decided to list here all of the good fishing boat names I found.
Some of the best fishing boat names ever (in my opinion at least!) are listed below. I hope they help… and I’ve categorized them into sections for funny, sports, cool, good, and best.
Table of Contents
Funny fishing boat names
Funny boat names for fishing boats are personal and completely depend on your sense of humor. What I think is funny, you might not so much. But it’s a starting point at least. Take a look below and see what you think before scrolling onto what I believe the coolest names are – some of these would be very cool bass boat fishing names.
I think it’s funny, but do you? Image found via Pinterest to unsure who to credit.
- A-Fishy-Nado
- Aqua-Holic
- Aquaquack
- Bacon in the Sun
- Baits Motel
- Beeracuda
- Bent Rods
- Berth Control
- Breakin’ Bass
- Bye the Nauts
- Called in Sick
- Chum Bucket
- Chum Runner
- Drivin’ Miss Lazy
- Eat Drink and Remarry
- Eat Ship and Dive
- Filthy Oar
- Fin and Tonic
- Fishfull Thinkin
- Flounder Pounder
- Future Poor Person
- Happy Hooker
- Hell on Reels
- Here Fishy Fishy
- In Deep Ship
- Knot So Fast
- Knot Working
- Master Baiter
- Midlife Crisis
- Moby Debt
- Morning Wood
- Reel Big Financial Liability
- Salty Test Tackles
- Saul Goode
- Shameless Hooker
- She Got the House
- Ship Faced
- Ships n Giggles
- Shore I Am
- Sir Docks-a-lot
- Titan Uranus (click here for more rude and offensive boat names)
- Unsinkable II
- Usain Boat
- Viaqua
- Wet Dream
- What’s Up Dock
- Why Knot?
Sport fishing boat names
Sport fishing boats are designed for big adventures and big catches. Unfortunately, they don’t often have big and bad-ass names to suit. The sport fishing boat names below I think would suit something of this magnitude.
- Absolute Power
- Adrenaline
- Bad Attitude
- Cleared for Take Off
- Cool Your Jets
- Fishy Business
- Full Throttle
- Golden Rod
- Reel Obsession
- The Incredible Hull
- V8 Bait
Good fishing boat names
The names below made my shortlist before I finally settled on a name. I’ve removed the name that I ended up choosing for now, so thought I’d let you guys possibly take advantage of one of these monikers that made my master list. It’s what I felt were the best names. You might not agree, so continue scrolling for some clever names that have puns and plays on words in them.
Master Baiter isn’t what I would choose, but it did make me laugh. Image credit unknown, found via Pinterest.
- Baroness
- Bella Rosa
- Calypso
- Cast and Cruise
- Cast Off
- Cool Breeze
- Corsair
- Crewless
- Dory
- Escapade
- Fishful Thinking
- Liberty
- Life is Good
- Neverland
- Reel Deal
- Reel Magic
- Serenity
- South Shore Sun
- Summer Moon
- The Good Life
Clever fishing boat names
Many fishermen and women deliberately choose a clever name. Most of the time they will be constructed by misspelt words, or something nautical with a little twist. I love these names, but can’t take credit for them, as I’m not that clever. See what you think though.
This is just one of the names in the list of clever ideas – image found via Pinterest, so unsure who to credit.
- A Fish Too Far
- A Fishin Sea
- A Reel Lady
- A Salt Weapon
- Abercrabby and Fish
- Afishscent
- Anchorman
- Anger Dangler
- Angler Management
- Anita Reel Job
- B Reel
- Beeracuda
- Benny Fish All
- Catch 22
- Cod Squad
- Debaitable
- Dock Holiday
- Error 404 Fish Not Found
- Filet-o-Fish
- Fish Tales
- Fishin’ Impossible
- Gone Fission
- Knot On-Call
- License To Chill
- Liquid Assets
- Men Who Stare At Boats
- Murphy’s Lure
- Nauti Boy
- One Moor Time
- Reel Busy
- Reel Therapy
- Rest A Shore
- Sea-Battical
- Seas the Day
- Shore Thing
- The Cod Father
- The Rod Father
- Virtual Reel-ality
- What’s Knot to Like?
- Y-Knot
Cool fishing boat names
What one person thinks is cool, can be really cringe-worthy to another person. I think I’m cool, my son thinks I’m embarrassing, and he probably thinks the names below are un-cool. See what you think, but I think they sound better than your standard boat names that you always tend to see.
I think this one is very cool, what do you reckon? Image credit unknown, found via Pinterest.
- Abracadabra
- Absolution
- Alabama Slammer
- Alone Ranger
- American Wave
- Amerlin
- Aquaholic
- Artifishal
- Aurora
- Bad Buoy
- Baitwaister
- Bass Hole
- Bite Me
- Casa Aqua
- Cat Fish Hunter
- Chill Pill
- Crappie Time
- Fear Knot
- Fish n Chicks
- Fish Tank
- Hakuna Matata
- Hot Flash
- Knot 2 Bad
- License 2 Chill
- Lucifer
- Lucy in the Sky
- Misty Dawn
- Nice Rods
- Octopussy
- Off Da Hook
- Paradise Pirate
- Reel Crazy
- Rock Bottom
- Rooster Cruiser
- Seaduction
- Shark Bait
- Shark Byte
- Shenanigans
- Sunburn
How to name a boat
Now that hopefully you have a better idea for some of the best fishing boat names available, you need to get choosing what you’re going to have.
In the United States, there are no laws that say you can’t choose the same name as another fishing boat already has. So, don’t worry if you think it might already be taken.
The name can be as long or as short as you want it to be. I’d advise on something shorter as if you get into trouble and need to call for help, a shorter and snappier fishing boat that you don’t have to spell out will be much easier to explain!
If you need to make a distress call over your radio, an easy to remember and spell name is going to be much easier to explain to the coastguard.
So, before you do settle on a cool fishing boat name, give some thought about the future and any situation where you choice of name could lead to problems.
A lot of fishermen and women will name their fishing boat after a wife, husband, partner, child or even a pet. Perhaps you might want a fishing boat name that you think will bring you luck? It might be a name that advertises your business, or something that you think sounds like a clever fishing boat name.
Where to put the boat name?
Where you put and display your fishing boat name is always something that’s hotly debated on web forums.
In fact, I recently saw this post on one of the more popular fishing boat forums:
“Can any of you explain to me where the best place is to put your boat’s name and whether there are any rules on where it should be. Should it be on the stern, are there any rules on how large the lettering should be, or what type of font that should be used?”
Here is a selection of two of best answers received back on this question:
“I don’t believe that there are any rules on where the name should be displayed. Most people will stick the name on the transom and on boat sides of the boat as standard. However, the SSR number will need to be in a minimum size and spaced in a certain way.”
“There are no rules or laws on where the boat name should be placed, if your boat isn’t documented. If your boat is documented, then the name should be clearly displayed on boat bows and on the stern.”
Fishing boat names you should not use
Are you superstitious? Do you believe in bad luck?
If do, don’t tempt providence.
A name such as “On the Rocks” or “Titanic II” might sound like one of the best fishing boat names you could imagine, but… could that be tempting fate?
I will leave that up to you!
I’d also be wary about naming your fishing boat after a partner. You never know what the future holds, and whilst everything might be sweet now, what happens if that’s not always the case.
Future proof yourselves my friends, for every eventuality in life!
Also, don’t use anything that’s too rude or could invite trouble.
The coastguards I have come across during my pontoon trips most of the time don’t seem to have a sense of humor. Perhaps I have just been unlucky, but if you’ve got a name like “Pablo Escoboat” it might attract some unwanted attention.
And one last thing, before you settle on one of these clever fishing boat names or one of your own choosing, make sure there’s nothing local to you already using it.
Two boats can have the same name, but why give yourself the potential confusion and headache of having the same name as another boat in your local marina or port – it just doesn’t make any practical sense.
Can two boats have the same name?
Don’t worry if some of the cool fishing boat names you’ve seen on this page have already been taken, as two boats can have the same name.
There are no restrictions on how many boats can have the same name. In fact, if you go to the website of the Office of Science and Technology and enter boat names into the search function on the USCG Vessels section, you will see lots of boats with the same name.
What makes two ships unique in the heavy shipping industry is their hull ID number. They can have the same name, but the hull ID will always be different.
What is the most common name for a boat?
It probably won’t surprise you to hear that many of the funny fishing boat names listed on this page have been used before. But, honestly, it’s very unlikely that you will ever come across another fishing boat on your trips with the same name if you choose something from this page, as they are in main, quite unusual.
However, not all boat owners are as creative or original, and there are certain boat names that crop up again and again.
In 2015, the Boat Owners Association of The United States website released statistics on the most common boat names in the country from the preceding 12 months.
Here are the most common names for boats from 2015 according to that research:
- Serenity
- Seas the Day
- Andiamo
- Aquaholic
- Second Wind
- Island Time
- Happy Ours
- Journey
- Serendipity
- Relentless
The number 1 name, Serenity, hit the top position for the second year running, and even now you see new boats being registered with this name. Personally though, I don’t it’s a good name for a fishing boat – as things aren’t always that serene!
Yes, you will have calm and peaceful times, but when that catch snags on your line it’s time to jump into action so it’s not one of the good fishing boat names in my view.
A spokesman for the Boat US website had this to say when the list of most common boat names was published:
“Picking a boat name can be harder than naming one’s own child. Boat names can reflect your lifestyle, your relationship to loved ones or what you do for a living. And that’s only the beginning.”
Is it bad luck to change the name of a boat?
If you do decide to pick one of the good fishing boat names from the lists above, whether you think they are funny, cool, the best, or just give off a sports vibe, you might change your mind in the future.
But, if you do, undoubtedly you would have heard the old-fashioned tales that say it’s bad luck to change the name of a boat. But is this really the case?
Whether it’s bad luck to change the name of a boat all depends on how superstitious you are. I’m not, but many fishermen and boaters are.
There is absolutely no data or statistics to back up the belief that changing fishing boat names brings you bad luck.
However, to understand why this belief is held, we need a quick history lesson.
The first reference to the superstition that I have found documented online was in the Treasure Island novel, where Long John Silver says:
“What a ship was christened, so let her stay.”
Throughout literature there are tales of ship captains coming to sticky ends after re-naming their ship, with the legend suggesting that when a ship is first named, the name goes into a Ledger of the Deep, maintained by Neptune himself.
Re-name your ship and you face the wrath of the gods!
Now, you probably don’t give that too much credence, and I don’t blame you. But there is a more sensible suggestion as to why people believe it’s bad luck to change the name of your boat which holds more reason.
In the olden days, when ships were used to transport precious cargo across the globe, each boat had a reputation when it came in to port.
If the name of the boat was changed, it would mean the boat was unrecognizable to those in the receiving port, and thus, its reputation was no longer what is was. That explanation holds more water as far I am concerned.
If you thought that bad luck as a result of name changing was the only superstition around the boating community, you’d be wrong. Here are more superstitions relating to boats you might not have heard of.
- Whistling on a boat is bad luck.
- Bringing bananas on a boat is bad luck.
- Never sail on a Thursday or Friday.
- If you see a redhead before boarding a ship, it’s bad luck.
- Dolphins swimming alongside a ship are good luck.
The last word…
I hope that you have found this list of best fishing boat names useful and it gives you some inspiration.
If there’s one last piece of advice I can give you, remember that how you name your fishing boat will become what other boaters become to know you by.
The other boaters you come across will remember it, and it’s more likely than not that the cool fishing boat name you have is remembered more than your actual real name.
With that in mind, name it something that won’t embarrass you, your friends, and family.
Would you be happy for people to know you as the guy who goes fishing in a boat called The Aquaholics? Perhaps you might be, but would it make people laugh at you? You might not care what other people think but it’s still worth considering.
Whatever fishing boat name you come up with, I hope that you enjoy it for years to come and it suits you and your personality!
