Editorial Guidelines

Who writes this site

Content is written and reviewed in house by the PirateShipName editorial desk. We do not publish under invented expert bylines. If a page carries a claim about history, the page also says where that claim comes from.

How historical claims are handled

Every factual claim about a real ship, a real person or a real flag is checked against published maritime history, museum interpretation or archaeological record before it goes live. Dates, tonnages, gun counts and locations are the details most often repeated wrongly online, so those get checked individually rather than taken from another site.

Where the record is genuinely uncertain, the page says so. Whether Blackbeard grounded Queen Anne's Revenge deliberately is not settled, the origin of the phrase Jolly Roger is not settled, and the attribution of specific flag designs to specific captains often rests on later illustration rather than contemporary evidence. Writing around that uncertainty would be easier and would also be dishonest.

How the name lists are made

Names are written by hand, grouped by how they behave rather than by theme, and each group carries a note on when that style works. We do not scrape lists from other sites.

Every name is checked against a content standard before publication. Nothing sexual, nothing targeting a real living person, nothing that mocks disability, race or religion, and nothing that a tournament organiser would refuse to read aloud. This rules out a category of pirate humour that is easy to find elsewhere, and the constraint produces better jokes.

Corrections

If we get something wrong we fix it and update the page date. Email hello@pirateshipname.com with the page and the specific claim. Corrections on historical pages take priority over everything else.

Advertising and independence

This site is supported by advertising. Advertisers have no input into what is written, which names appear, or how history is described. There are no affiliate links and nothing is sold here.