Like the Argo from the greek myth of the Argonauts, did the ancient greeks give names to their ships ? I know they anthropomorphized them by painting large eyes on the hull.
Also historically sailors seem to have an intimate relation with their vessels refering to them as 'she', cursing them or cajoling them in rough weather, etc.
And do these names have the same significance as the names of ships in other eras such as 'Valiant', 'Endeavour' and others or were they names of people or things.
The short answer is, yes the ancient Greeks did name their ships, and several ship names do show up occasionally in plays and other Greek literature. The Argos is not alone. Although ship names only seem to show up when the ship itself is a character of note.
One rather incredible resource we have is the Tabulae Curatorum Navalium, which is a fragmentary annual report of Athenian naval assets running from 377 to 322 BCE, including the names of the ships in the fleet.
For the most part we’d recognize the names as usable in modern fleets. And some of their naming traditions would also be recognizable to us; for example nearly all the ships had female names.
Goddesses like Hebe and mythical feminine beings like Siren were popular. Even when names for male gods the ship would get a feminized form like Hephaistia. Place names were also common but again feminized like Delias (girl from Delos) rather than just Delos. Animals were used. So the USS Hornet and the HMS Lion would fit right in beside Melitta (Bee) or Leontis (Lioness). Other ships are named with concepts or descriptors like Nike (Victory) or Aglaia (Splendid). And if those don’t sound like 19th century British naval ships I don’t know what would.
So as best we can tell ships were named, and they were named in accordance with traditions we’d be familiar with today.