Prior to registry it is normal to reserve the ship’s name.

This can be done well in advance and once reserved it will be kept available for the proposed ship so long as the intent to register remains.

For Bermuda ships, names may be anything that the owner wishes except that the name may not:

• Be offensive,
• Be the same as an existing registered name for a Bermuda ship,
• Have Royal connotations without special permission from the Queen.
• Be derogatory.

The name may be as long or as short as the owner wishes. There is already a vessel named merely “A” and there are vessels with several words in the name.

When a company has a corporate naming policy and uses a word or a concept as a part of that policy the policy can also be reserved indefinitely for that owner so that no other ships may be accepted using that naming policy.