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The Ship Naming Rules Mc Kinnon Could Have Missed

USS, USNS, service craft, chartered vessels and hull classifications make naval identities harder to verify than a simple name search suggests.

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Preview for The Ship Naming Rules Mc Kinnon Could Have Missed

On this page

  • USS, USNS and vessels merely in service
  • Hull classifications, renamed ships and unnamed craft
  • How naming conventions affect retrospective verification

Introduction

One of the assumptions behind Gary McKinnon’s recollection of unfamiliar ship names is that a genuine United States Navy vessel should be easy to identify through a straightforward name search. In practice, US naval administration is considerably more complicated. Commissioned warships, civilian-crewed support vessels, service craft, leased ships, renamed vessels and hull classification systems all use different naming conventions. As a result, an unfamiliar name—or the inability to find one quickly—does not by itself indicate the existence of a secret fleet.

Naval Naming illustration 1

This matters because McKinnon did not preserve the spreadsheet he described, nor did he record the ship names he believed were unusual. Any attempt to verify his recollection retrospectively therefore depends on understanding how the Navy actually identifies vessels and how those systems can frustrate simple searches. Rather than proving or disproving his claim, naval naming conventions illustrate why retrospective verification is more difficult than it first appears.

Naval Naming illustration 3

The Ship Naming Rules McKinnon Could Have Missed

USS, USNS and vessels merely in service

Many casual searches assume every naval vessel carries the prefix USS (“United States Ship”). In reality, that designation applies only to commissioned Navy vessels. Ships operated by the Military Sealift Command are generally designated USNS (“United States Naval Ship”), because they are civilian-crewed vessels in active service rather than commissioned warships. Other Navy service craft may have no USS or USNS prefix at all and can instead be identified primarily by their hull classification and number.[Naval History and Heritage Command]history.navy.milNaval History and Heritage Command Ship NamingNaval History and Heritage CommandShip NamingMay 20, 2026…Published: May 20, 2026

This distinction creates several opportunities for confusion:

  • A search limited to “USS” names may miss active naval vessels operating under the USNS prefix.
  • Smaller support craft may never have carried a familiar prefix.
  • Administrative documents may refer to vessels by hull designation rather than by a recognisable public name.
  • Logistics systems may abbreviate vessel identities differently from public historical sources.[Naval History and Heritage Command]history.navy.milNaval History and Heritage Command Ship NamingNaval History and Heritage CommandShip NamingMay 20, 2026…Published: May 20, 2026

Consequently, someone encountering an unfamiliar spreadsheet entry without surrounding context could reasonably fail to locate an immediate public match, even if the vessel itself were entirely conventional.

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Hull classifications, renamed ships and unnamed craft

The Navy also identifies vessels through hull classification symbols, combinations of letters and numbers describing the vessel’s function rather than simply its name. Examples include destroyers (DDG), aircraft carriers (CVN), amphibious assault ships (LHA) and numerous auxiliary categories. Federal law authorises the Navy to establish and modify these classifications as operational needs change.[U.S. Code]uscode.house.govU.S. Code

Names themselves are not fixed identifiers over a vessel’s entire life.

Several factors complicate historical searches:

  • Renaming. The Secretary of the Navy has statutory authority to rename certain vessels, particularly acquired ships.[U.S. Code]uscode.house.govJuly 25, 2026…Published: July 25, 2026
  • Changing naming traditions. Different classes have followed different naming conventions over time. Attack submarines, cruisers and other ship types have all shifted between themes such as states, cities, battles and individuals across different eras.[Naval History and Heritage Command]history.navy.milNaval History and Heritage Command Navy Ship Names: Background for CongressNaval History and Heritage CommandNavy Ship Names: Background for CongressJune 13, 2025…Published: June 13, 2025
  • Auxiliary and support vessels. Many logistics ships attract far less public attention than combat vessels, making them harder to recognise from memory alone.
  • Service craft. Some smaller craft are identified primarily by classification and hull number rather than by a distinctive ship name. Navy regulations explicitly distinguish these from commissioned vessels.[Naval History and Heritage Command]history.navy.milNaval History and Heritage Command Ship NamingNaval History and Heritage CommandShip NamingMay 20, 2026…Published: May 20, 2026

These administrative practices mean that “I could not find the ship name” is not equivalent to “the ship did not officially exist.”

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Naval Naming illustration 2

How naming conventions affect retrospective verification

McKinnon’s account presents a particularly difficult verification problem because none of the crucial identifying information survives. He has consistently said he cannot remember the ship names, only that they appeared unfamiliar and did not correspond to vessels he could identify publicly.

Even if investigators wished to test the claim today, they would face several obstacles created by naval naming practice:

  • Without the precise spelling, even minor differences in wording could point to completely different vessels.
  • A remembered name might have belonged to a support ship rather than a commissioned combatant.
  • Administrative spreadsheets could have used abbreviations, hull numbers or shortened forms rather than formal public names.
  • A vessel might later have been renamed, transferred or removed from active service.

The official Naval Vessel Register is itself not a complete historical catalogue. It records ships and service craft through their operational life cycle but acknowledges that vessels disposed of before 1987 are still being added gradually to the historical database. Therefore, absence from a modern search does not automatically demonstrate that a historical vessel never existed.[NAVSEA]navsea.navy.milNAVSEANaval Sea Systems Command > Resources > Naval Vessel RegisterNAVSEANaval Sea Systems Command > Resources > Naval Vessel Register

For these reasons, naval nomenclature weakens one of the central inferences sometimes drawn from McKinnon’s recollections. An unsuccessful search for an unfamiliar vessel name cannot, on its own, distinguish between several possibilities: an incorrectly remembered name, an obscure auxiliary vessel, an administrative shorthand, a renamed ship, an incomplete historical record or, less likely, a genuinely classified programme. Because the underlying spreadsheet was never preserved, the naming conventions themselves become part of the reason the claim remains impossible to verify conclusively.

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Endnotes

1. Source: history.navy.mil
Title: Naval History and Heritage Command Ship Naming
Link:https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/customs-and-traditions0/ship-naming.html

Source snippet

Naval History and Heritage CommandShip NamingMay 20, 2026...

Published: May 20, 2026

2. Source: history.navy.mil
Title: Naval History and Heritage Command The Evolution of Ship Naming in the U.S. Navy
Link:https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/customs-and-traditions0/ship-naming/the-evolution-of-ship-naming-in-the-u-s–navy.html

3. Source: navsea.navy.mil
Title: NAVSEANaval Sea Systems Command > Resources > Naval Vessel Register
Link:https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Resources/Naval-Vessel-Register/

4. Source: uscode.house.gov
Title: U.S. Code
Link:https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?edition=prelim&num=0&req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title10-section8661

5. Source: history.navy.mil
Title: Naval History and Heritage Command Navy Ship Names: Background for Congress
Link:https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/library/online-reading-room/ships/images/navy-ship-names-crs-report-sept-2016.pdf

Source snippet

Naval History and Heritage CommandNavy Ship Names: Background for CongressJune 13, 2025...

Published: June 13, 2025

6. Source: navy.mil
Title: us navy to christen future usns robert ballard
Link:https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/display-news/Article/4416880/us-navy-to-christen-future-usns-robert-ballard/

Source snippet

Navy to Christen Future USNS Robert Ballard > United States Navy > News DisplayFebruary 27, 2026 — U.S. NAVY TO CHRISTEN FUTURE USNS ROBE...

Published: February 27, 2026

7. Source: navy.mil
Link:https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/Press-Releases/display-pressreleases/Article/4406325/keel-laid-for-future-usns-ruth-bader-ginsburg/

Source snippet

February 13, 2026 — KEEL LAID FOR FUTURE USNS RUTH BADER GINSBURG 13 February 2026 SAN DIEGO - The keel for the future USNS Ruth Bader Gi...

Published: February 13, 2026

8. Source: navy.mil
Link:https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/Press-Releases/display-pressreleases/Article/3528247/secnav-names-ship-after-american-abolitionist-social-activist-harriet-tubman/

9. Source: navy.mil
Link:https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Article/2474454/secnav-names-future-vessels-while-aboard-historic-navy-ship/

10. Source: navy.mil
Link:https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/Press-Releases/display-pressreleases/Article/2239018/military-sealift-command-introduces-new-official-seal/

11. Source: navsea.navy.mil
Link:https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Resources/Naval-Vessel-Register/NVR-Ships/

12. Source: navy.mil
Link:https://www.navy.mil/Resources/Fact-Files/Display-Fact-File/Article/2567333/uss-columbia-ssbn-826/

13. Source: navsea.navy.mil
Link:https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Resources/Naval-Vessel-Register/NVR-Ships/?%5Bnextlink%5D=%5Bpreviouslink%5D

14. Source: uscode.house.gov
Title: U.S. Code
Link:https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?edition=prelim&num=0&req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title10-section8662

Source snippet

July 25, 2026...

Published: July 25, 2026

15. Source: uscode.house.gov
Link:https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?edition=prelim&req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title10-chapter863

Additional References

16. Source: congress.gov
Title: Navy Ship Names: Background for Congress | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
Link:https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RS22478

Source snippet

Upon the SECNAV's selection of a name(s) of new construction ships, the SECNAV PAO prepares a SECNAVNOTE 5030 with input from NHHC for th...

17. Source: youtube.com
Title: US Navy Hull Classification Systems and Configurations
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvrukELGfjA

Source snippet

Gary McKinnon UFO hack non terrestrial officers Gary McKinnon about non terrestrial officers Ancient Aliens Hacking NASA Secrets Season 1...

18. Source: legalclarity.org
Title: How Are Navy Ships Named?
Link:https://legalclarity.org/how-are-navy-ships-named-the-official-naming-process/

Source snippet

Conventions by Class - LegalClarityApril 1, 2026 — HOW ARE NAVY SHIPS NAMED? CONVENTIONS BY CLASS Navy ship names follow specific traditi...

Published: April 1, 2026

19. Source: youtube.com
Title: “I Found a List of Non-Terrestrial Officers” — Gary Mc Kinnon
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbQg5P5qGhI

Source snippet

UFO Hacker Shares New Secrets | Gary McKinnon...

20. Source: congress.gov
Title: Navy Ship Names: Background for Congress | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
Link:https://www.congress.gov/crs-products/product/pdf/RS/RS22478/195

21. Source: chanrobles.com
Link:https://chanrobles.com/usa/uslaws/cfr/title32/32-5.1.1.1.1.4.23.6.php

22. Source: militaryfactory.com
Link:https://www.militaryfactory.com/ships/us-navy-ship-classifications.php

23. Source: youtube.com
Title: Gary Mckinnon: The Hacker Who Found UFOs
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_1DuqeU8hw

Source snippet

US Navy Hull Classification Systems and Configurations...

24. Source: youtube.com
Title: UFO Hacker Shares New Secrets | Gary Mc Kinnon
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SOTGFj7BwI

Source snippet

The Dirty Politics Behind U.S. Navy Ship Names...

25. Source: youtube.com
Title: The Dirty Politics Behind U.S. Navy Ship Names
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KumJe4yapVU

Source snippet

Gary Mckinnon: The Hacker Who Found UFOs...