Why Royal Navy ships carried the name Barfleur

What was HMS Barfleur named after?

The name commemorated the Anglo-Dutch victory over France at the Battle of Barfleur in 1692; the first Royal Navy Barfleur followed five years later.

A Royal Navy reference book identifies the first Barfleur as a 90-gun second rate built in 1697 and the next as another second rate from 1768. The name commemorated the Anglo-Dutch victory over France at Barfleur in 1692 under Admiral Edward Russell. A later painting shows the second Barfleur under Samuel Hood attacking the French flagship Ville de Paris at the Battle of the Saintes. The naming history joins battle honors and institutional memory to the later service of a namesake in the sailing navy.