Stuck on a name? Find the one worth cutting in steel.

Say it out loud before you cut it

A boat name is spoken far more often than it is read. You will give it to the harbourmaster, to the fuel dock, to a marine operator on a bad line, and to whoever answers when something has gone wrong. Names with double letters, silent letters or a spelling that has to be explained cost you a sentence every single time. If you find yourself saying “that’s with two Ls” on the first phone call, it will be that way for the life of the boat.

Count the characters, not the words

Lettering is priced and cut per character, and spaces cost nothing. A six-character name is the most common transom order we cut. Past about ten characters, most owners drop a size so the whole word still fits inside the flat of the transom — which is usually the better trade, because a long name in small letters reads worse from the dock than a short name in large ones.

The typeface changes the width more than the height does

The same name at the same letter height can be nearly twice as wide in one typeface as in another. A condensed face fits a long name into a narrow transom; a script runs wide and needs room to breathe. That is why every idea above can be viewed in the face you are actually considering rather than in a preview font — and why the design tool measures the finished width in inches and millimetres before you order.

Borrowed names carry a story, invented ones do not

Names drawn from navigation and the night sky — Polaris, Meridian, Southern Cross, Compass Rose — work because they already mean something at sea. Names from myth carry the same weight: Calypso, Nereid, Thalassa, Amphitrite. A pun will earn a smile on the dock for one season and then sit on your transom for ten years, which is worth thinking about before it is cut in steel rather than after.