Proper names not only serve as identifiers of people, places and other entities, they may also function as markers of personal and national identity. Eponymous and toponymous names of ships often function as metaphors or metonyms, signifying country or place of origin. During the first half of the twentieth century, ocean liner names became tropes of nationhood, empire, and might, signifying the homeland, foreign destinations and celebrating royalty and national heroes, etc. This article analyses the names of liners from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century, and shows how the names reflect contemporaneous national socio-cultural and political mindsets.

专有名称不仅可以作为人、地点和其他实体的标识符，还可以作为个人和国家身份的标记。船舶的同名和同名通常起到隐喻或转喻的作用，表示原籍国或地点。在二十世纪上半叶，远洋客轮的名称成为民族、帝国和力量的比喻，象征着祖国、外国目的地、歌颂皇室和民族英雄等。本文分析了十九世纪中叶的客轮名称到二十世纪末，并展示了这些名称如何反映当代国家的社会文化和政治心态。