The Argo in the Golden Fleece and the lists of ships in Homer's works imply boat naming's been around for a long time- and there are mentions of boat names in other world lit as well... do we have any idea when this might have started?
The short answer is - we don't. It likely started as soon as people started making boats. I live in British Columbia, and every coastal nation has names for boats, names for houses,going back to the boats and houses that came from the sky with the first ancestors. Its very likely that the first named boat was the first boat encountered or constructed by the first humans to have language.
The short answer is - we don't. It likely started as soon as people started making boats. I live in British Columbia, and every coastal nation has names for boats, names for houses,going back to the boats and houses that came from the sky with the first ancestors. European myths often name the boats of heroes or of gods, and so on. It's also hard at times to define what is and is not a name. For example "Utnapishtim's boat" - is this a name or a description? If you say description, how about cultures where all names are decided based on birth order? Is your name "first-born-daughter" a name or a description? Its very likely that the first named boat was the first boat encountered or constructed by the first humans to have language.