Inspired by Boaty McBoatface, the name for a British polar research vessel operated by the British Antarctic Survey that eventually became the RRS Sir David Attenborough, though now used for an autonomous underwater vehicle carried by the RRS Sir David Attenborough alongside the cargo tender Terror and workboat Erebus, both of which are named after the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus[1] respectively, other organizations have followed suit in naming vehicles in that style through a public naming poll. Many, but not all follow the formula of Namey McNameface.

Trainy McTrainface (unit number 74005), a MTRX Stadler Flirt at Gothenburg Central Station in 2019, named following the disappointment of the McBoatface decision.

Spoofs

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A Cambridge punt (belonging to Clare College) named Punty McPuntface

A wide range of companies or organizations have renamed items or items in their business. This includes:

  • A beer: The British television presenter and farmer Jeremy Clarkson revealed he planned to call a beer made from ingredients grown on his Diddly Squat Farm as "Lager McLagerface" (which would then be shortened to "McFace"). This was rejected by the advertising executive who said it did not give a premium image so the beer was named Hawkstone Lager instead.[2]
  • A bookmobile: The mobile library for Orkney Library and Archive is called "Booky McBookface." It is a bright blue bus which is ferried from island to island to bring books to rural and remote areas.[3]
  • A fish statue: "Fishy McFishFace" the largemouth bass fish statue is a mascot and tourist attraction for the Hixton Travel Plaza and Timber Valley Restaurant in Hixton, Wisconsin, USA. The fiberglass statue is approximately 15' (3.8m) long, 6' (1.5m) wide, and 8' (2m) high.[4]
  • A chain ferry: in March 2017, the Isle of Wight Council, which operates the Cowes Floating Bridge (a chain ferry across the River Medina between Cowes and East Cowes), stated it was open to suggestions from residents for a new name for the vessel, after originally registering it as Floating Bridge no. 6. Despite council officials ruling out Floaty McFloatface as a name,[5] a petition was later created to name the vessel Floaty McFloatface, attracting over 2,000 signatures,[6] and even caused the council to rescind its decision to veto the name.[7]
  • A ferry: Sydney Ferries allowed the public to name its fleet of Emerald-class ferries through a naming competition.[8] It was announced that the most popular name was Boaty McBoatface but, as it had already been taken, the judges opted to go instead for the second-place choice, and one of the ferries was thus named Ferry McFerryface.[9] After the Maritime Union of Australia refused to crew the vessel in protest at the name, it entered service named Emerald 6, with a Ferry McFerryface sticker below the bridge.[10][11][12]
  • A grandma: One of the grandmas in the popular online idle game Cookie Clicker is named "Grandma McGrandmaface," a custom name submitted by one of the Patreon supporters of the game. [13]
  • A Business Work Team: Within a large scale professional business, a team ended up with the name "Teamy McTeamFace. Affectionately named after the original </ref>
  • A howitzer: Center of Assistance to the Army, Veterans and Their Families, an NGO in Ukraine, held a twitter voting contest to name an M777 howitzer on the 18th of August of 2022.[14] At the time of the contest, the howitzer was in use by the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The name was inscribed on the gun barrel. The winning name chosen was Cannon McCannonface.
  • A language parser: In 2016, Google released SyntaxNet, a neural network framework. The English-language parser is called Parsey McParseface.[15]
  • A marble: Jelle's Marble Runs, a YouTube channel centered on marble racing, launched their Sand Marble Rally series in June 2016. One of the marble competitors was named Marbly McMarbleface.[16][17]
  • A megabus: Megabus' United Kingdom operation hosted a Twitter poll in late 2017 to name some of their brand-new Plaxton Elite bodied Volvo B11RT inter-deck coaches. Mega McMegaface won, and the name was applied to one of the vehicles.[18]
  • A racehorse: Sydney's Warwick Farm Racecourse named their new racehorse Horsey McHorseface in 2016.[19] Horsey McHorseface was put to auction and sold for $17,325,[20] but in 2017 was euthanised due to bone disease.[21]
  • A satellite terminal: The U.S. space launch provider and satellite operator firm SpaceX has named the terminal used to receive internet signals from its Starlink constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites Dishy McFlatface.[22]
  • A skate park: In June 2019, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council named a skate park Skatey McSkateface after a public vote.[23]
  • A sluice gate: In November 2020, the Dutch municipality of IJmuiden refused to name the new sluice lock Sluice McSluiceface or Sluisje McSluisface in Dutch. The name eventually chosen was Zeesluis IJmuiden (Sea Sluice IJmuiden).[24]
  • A snow plow: In 2019, an online poll via Twitter and email was held to determine the name of the newest snowplow for the Washington state DOT fleet. Plowie McPlow Plow was overwhelmingly chosen. The tow plow lives in west Spokane and covers a portion of I-90. Its fellow plows at the time were named The Big Leplowski (a pun on the title of the film The Big Lebowski) and Sir Plows-a-lot (a pun on rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot).
  • Another snow plow: In February 2021, the Minnesota Department of Transportation arranged a contest to name a new fleet of snowplows. Out of the fifty finalists selected from about 24,000 entries, Plowy McPlowface was the top of the eight winners of a public poll, receiving support of over half of the voting pool, and was assigned to the Metro District's new snowplow.[25][26]
  • A stock car race: Busch Beer held a contest to name one of the two races it sponsored for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series, held at Kansas Speedway on May 2.[27] The winning name chosen was 2021 Buschy McBusch Race 400, with the race itself coincidentally won by NASCAR driver Kyle Busch.
  • A train: Swedish rail transport company MTRX conducted an online poll soon after the one involving Boaty McBoatface, to name a new train on the Stockholm to Gothenburg line. Trainy McTrainface won the poll with 49% of the vote, and the train was named accordingly.[28][29]

Similar polling strategy

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In December 2016, after an online poll for children, Oldham Council chose to name one of their new gritter trucks (salt truck) Nicole Saltslinger following more than 5,000 entries.[30] In November 2017, following public submissions, Doncaster Council announced the names for two new additional gritter trucks to their fleet; namely Gritsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Anti-Slip Machiney (with 52.6% of the vote), and David Plowie (47.4% of the vote). This follows its five previously named gritters: Brad Grit, Gritney Spears, The Subzero Hero, Mr. Plow, and Usain Salt.[31] The following year, in October 2018, Shropshire Council followed the similar theme, and named one of its gritter trucks Gritty McGritface after a public vote.[32] Many other local authorities in Britain have also asked the public for name suggestions for their winter maintenance fleet.[31] In 2011, the German city of Schwäbisch-Gmünd polled to name a new street tunnel, and after a Bud Spencer fan group on Facebook took note, the name suggestion "Bud Spencer Tunnel" won by far. After the city refused to assign that name, as a compromise the public swimming pool was renamed to "Bud Spencer Bad" (German for Bud Spencer Bath). The fun in this name is that the German "Bad" is pronounced the same way as English "Bud".[33]

References

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  1. ^ "Boaty McBoatface to Sir David Attenborough: Naming the Polar Ship". www.rmg.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  2. ^ "Jeremy Clarkson reveals what he really wanted to call his new lager Hawkstone". Evening Standard. 2021-11-28. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
  3. ^ "Orkney Library and Archive". 2021-07-01. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09.
  4. ^ "About Hixton Travel Plaza". 4 September 2023.
  5. ^ "Council torpedoes 'Floaty McFloatface' idea". www.NewsHub.co.nz. Newshub. 4 March 2017. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  6. ^ "Floaty McFloatface? Petition launched to name the new Isle of Wight floating bridge". www.YBW.com. YBW. 29 March 2017. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  7. ^ "Floaty McFloat Face 'still an option' as council looks for new bridge name". www.DailyEcho.co.uk. Southampton: Southern Daily Echo. 28 March 2017. Archived from the original on 28 August 2018. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  8. ^ Visentin, Lisa (22 July 2016). "Ferry McFerryface? NSW government launches naming competition for new ferries". www.SMH.com.au. The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 13 November 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  9. ^ Transport NSW. "It's official. We have named the final ferry in the new fleet. Welcome to Sydney, Ferry McFerryFace". www.Facebook.com. Transport NSW, via Facebook. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
  10. ^ "Ferry McFerryface to be name of new Sydney ferry after public vote". www.ABC.net.au. ABC News. 13 November 2017. Archived from the original on 13 November 2017. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  11. ^ "Ferry workers to boycott Ferry McFerryface". www.SBS.com.au. SBS World News. 14 November 2017. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  12. ^ "Ferry McFerryface sets sail as union, government agree to name change". Au.News.Yahoo.com. Seven News. 17 December 2017. Archived from the original on 14 January 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  13. ^ "Grandma names". orteil.dashnet.org. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  14. ^ SignMyRocket.com [@SignMyRocket] (Aug 23, 2022). "The first signed #NAFO vehicle. @LivFaustDieJung text "Cannon McCannonface" won in the previous tweet. Most likely tomorrow I will publish a super cool video of it firing. 👉http://SignMyRocket.com - order your own message" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  15. ^ Petrov, Slav (2016-05-12). "Announcing SyntaxNet: The World's Most Accurate Parser Goes Open Source". Google Research. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  16. ^ Clayton, Jack (2016-07-01). "Marble Racing: Introducing One Of The Weirdest "Sports" In The History Of The Internet". Mpora. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  17. ^ Keshishoglou, Jonathan (2019-01-31). "High-intensity marble races are your new favorite extreme sport". Mashable. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  18. ^ "Kein neues "Boaty McBoatface"" [No new 'Boaty McBoatface']. apps.DerStandard.de (in German). Der Standard. 2 November 2018. Archived from the original on 14 July 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  19. ^ "High hopes for Horsey McHorseface". www.BBC.co.uk. London, England, UK: BBC. BBC News. 15 April 2016. Archived from the original on 19 November 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  20. ^ Sheehan, Luke (30 June 2017). "Horsey McHorseface for sale". www.Racing.com. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  21. ^ Sheehan, Luke (22 October 2017). "Sad end to McHorseface tale". www.Racing.com. Archived from the original on 28 December 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  22. ^ "SpaceX Starlink factory in Texas will speed up production of Dishy McFlatface". Ars Technica. 4 March 2021. Archived from the original on 24 September 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  23. ^ "'Skatey McSkateface' wins public vote for Southend skate park". www.BBC.co.uk. London, England, UK: BBC. BBC News. 17 June 2019. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  24. ^ "Sea lock won't be called Sluice McSluiceface". www.NU.nl. 25 October 2020. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  25. ^ "Plowy McPlowface? Voting opens in MnDOT snowplow naming contest". www.kstp.com. 18 February 2021. Archived from the original on 25 September 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  26. ^ Minnesota Department of Transportation [@MnDOT] (Mar 2, 2021). "The votes are in: After more than 122,000 votes cast, we're excited to announce the winners of our Name a Snowplow contest! These eight names will soon be on snowplows across the state. Learn more: http://mndot.gov/nameasnowplow/" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  27. ^ "Busch Beer gives fans the chance to name NASCAR Cup race at Kansas Speedway". Jayski's Silly Season Site. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. February 23, 2021.
  28. ^ Hern, Alex (19 July 2017). "Trainy McTrainface: Swedish railway keeps Boaty's legacy alive". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  29. ^ "It's official! Sweden names new train Trainy McTrainface". www.TheLocal.se. Stockholm: The Local. 17 October 2017. Archived from the original on 23 January 2018. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  30. ^ "Road gritter named after Nicole Scherzinger". www.BBC.co.uk. London, England, UK: BBC. BBC News. 2 December 2016. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  31. ^ a b "Doncaster's new gritters named David Plowie and Gritsy Bitsy". www.BBC.co.uk. London, England, UK: BBC. BBC News. 17 November 2017. Archived from the original on 11 December 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  32. ^ "'Gritty McGritface' wins naming ballot". www.BBC.co.uk. London, England, UK: BBC. BBC News. 27 October 2018. Archived from the original on 11 December 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  33. ^ Swimming Pool in Schwäbisch Gmünd named after Bud Spencer