- The Secretary of the Navy is charged with naming new US Navy ships, but there are rules to how those ships are named.
- The Navy sometimes breaks the naming rules, which is itself a tradition, a new report from the Congressional Research Service says.
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The Secretary of the Navy is in charge of naming US Navy ships, under the direction of the president and with the guidance of Congress.
But it's not just a random choice; there have long been rules and traditions concerning how ships are named.
On Monday, the Congressional Research Service released a report on the current rules for naming ships recently obtained by the Navy and those that will be procured in the future. The report outlines the rules for naming ships for Congress, but the ultimate decision rests with the Secretary of the Navy, so of course there are exceptions.
In fact, the report says exceptions to the naming rules are as much a Navy tradition as the naming rules themselves.
Learn about the Navy's ship-naming rules - and the exceptions - below.