Who actually names United States warships?

Can the president of the United States directly name Navy ships?

Ship naming formally runs through the Navy and its civilian leadership, although presidential political influence can still shape the result.

Ship naming formally runs through the Secretary of the Navy, while a president can exert political influence on the choice. The participants anticipate a possible dispute over late Ford-class names and discuss the commitments inherited by a new administration. They distinguish presidential and personal commemorations from the older carrier names Enterprise, Yorktown, and Hornet. Doris Miller provides an example of a personal commemoration outside that older pattern. State names for ballistic-missile submarines and the Royal Navy's Vengeance supply further comparisons between naming conventions.