History Main / ReportingNames

* Smugglers, pirates and other groups without the means to afford proper starfighters may resort to mix-and-matching parts to produce something flyable, which are broadly referred to as "Uglies." Specific designs include the "X-TIE" (TIE solar panels on an X-Wing fuselage), its "X-Ceptor" variant (using TIE Interceptor wings), and the "Clutch" (a TIE cockpit "clutched" directly by three Interceptor wing-blades). The most notorious Ugly design sticks a Y-Wing's engines on a TIE Fighter's ball cockpit[[note]]TIE cockpits are incredibly common material for making "Uglies", because almost all TIE variants use the same ball, and [=TIEs=] were manufactured in immense numbers and also shot down or damaged to the point of being abandoned in huge numbers due to being considered completely expendable by the Empire. One character quips that they're the third most common thing in the galaxy after hydrogen and [[WhatAnIdiot stupidity]].[[/note]], creating a slow, cumbersome, shieldless, under-armed flying coffin variously referred to as a "T-Wing," "TYE-Wing," "Die-Wing," or [[WhatWereYouThinking "Why-Fighter."]]

* "Fred" - Perhaps the most obscure of the NATO reporting names, but notable for being the only ''American-made'' aircraft to get one. The Bell P-63 Kingcobra was exported in large numbers to the USSR under Lend-Lease during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and by the early 1950s when the reporting name system was created there were still over a thousand of them in active service.

* Zombie games like ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' and ''VideoGame/StateofDecay'' feature groups of "special" infected with consistent abilities, and their in-universe names appear to be reporting names rather than official designations. This becomes somewhat confusing in ''State of Decay,'' where some classes of infected have multiple names even in hint text within the game itself; a very large, nigh indestructible infected is referred to as a "Big Un" when assigned the radiant "Hunt X Infected" quest, a "Juggernaut" on the achievement for killing one with a vehicle, and as a "Big Bastard" when spotted during surveying. What makes this even more bizarre is the two in-game names can be given to the identical infected by the same character.

* ''Lightnovel/FullMetalPanic'' carries on the NATO tradition of using S-names to refer to Soviet weapons, in this case including "Shamrock", "Savage", and "Shadow". The Codarl family of Lambda Driver-equipped Arm Slaves is given the collective codename "Venom".

* All Other Aircraft (reconnaissance, tankers, AWACS) begin with "M"- Miscellaneous.

* All Surface to Surface missiles (anti-tank, anti-ship, tactical nuke, ICBM, whatever) start with "S".

** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'', the Alliance and OZ simply assigns each of the five Gundams a number -- Wing is 01 (Zero-One), Deathscythe is 02, etc. Of course, these names all match up perfectly with the show's NumericalThemeNaming.

** There is a real-life "Candid" AWACS version- but this was a Beriev project and is called the A-50 "Mainstay". It remains in Russian service, with examples exported.

* Rebel X-Wings are dubbed "Pointers" by Imperial pilots due to their long fuselages, while Y-Wing bombers are "Wishbones" thanks to their flight profile, A-Wings are "Slims" owing to their small size, and B-Wings are "Crosses" because of their unusual flight mode. Of course, there's no rules against coming up with nicknames for your own side's ships, so one young Rogue Squadron pilot [[InterserviceRivalry described the Y-Wings they were escorting]] as [[MightyGlacier "Wallowing Pigs."]]
* Smugglers, pirates and other groups without the means to afford proper starfighters may resort to mix-and-matching parts to produce something flyable, which are broadly referred to as "Uglies." Specific designs include the "X-TIE" (TIE solar panels on an X-Wing fuselage), its "X-Ceptor" variant (using TIE Interceptor wings), and the "Clutch" (a TIE cockpit "clutched" directly by three Interceptor wing-blades). The most notorious Ugly design sticks a Y-Wing's engines on a TIE Fighter's ball cockpit, creating a slow, cumbersome, shieldless, under-armed flying coffin variously referred to as a "T-Wing," "TYE-Wing," "Die-Wing," or [[WhatWereYouThinking "Why-Fighter."]]

* During the Clone Wars, many GAR units took to referring to the ubiquitous B1 battle droids as "clankers" to differentiate them from the significantly more deadly Super Battle Droids, officially called B2s. Clones troopers fighting on Geonosis referred to the native insectoids as "bugs," for obvious reasons.

* The SS-N-22-Sunburn designation was applied to two entirely unrelated missiles, though until the fall of the Soviet Union no one in NATO realized this. The NATO and [=DoD=] designation were given without ever actually seeing the missile(s), because like many Soviet anti-ship missiles they used fully enclosed launch tubes. It was assumed that these tubes fired only a single type of missile, because that had always been Soviet Navy practice in the past. But the launch tubes of the Sovremenny class destroyers (Project 956 ''Sarych'') and Tarantul III class corvettes (Project 12411) were initially used for the rocket-propelled P-80 Zubr, but these were replaced but the more capable ramjet-powered P-270 Moskit, which was designed to use the same launch tubes. For several years, some ships even carried a mix of Zubr and Moskit missiles before the former was retired.

Torpedoes form an odd exception to the usual scheme: they were designated by two numbers, the first being the diameter of the torpedo in centimeters, and the second being the year the torpedo was introduced. Hence, the 53-65 wake-homing torpedo is a 53cm wide torpedo first seen in 1965, and the 65-76 torpedo is 65cm wide and was introduced in 1976. There are a lot of 53-'s as this was a standard torpedo size for the USSR during most of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar.

See UsefulNotes/FromRussiaWithNukes, RedsWithRockets and UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRustingRockets for more examples of Soviet/Russian reporting names. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_reporting_name The Wikipedia entry]] covers this in a lot more depth.

* The early [[HumongousMecha BattleMechs]] used by the Clans in ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'' usually have two names: The more famous names used by the Inner Sphere they're invading (such as the Thor and Mad Cat), and the 'Mech's true clan designation (Summoner and Timber Wolf respectively). Which ones are used by any individual fan are a matter of preference. Later Clan mechs have only one name, as the Clanners maintain contact with the Inner Sphere and share some data. Then the Clans themselves would go on to use this trope themselves, when a secret cabal of Clan scientists attacked the Clans, using a design that the Clans themselves were unfamiliar with. The Clans code named the new mech "[[MeaningfulName Pariah]]".
** One Clan, Diamond Shark, started using the names themselves when making successor designs for the old Omnimechs. So the heavier variant of the Timber Wolf is the Mad Cat Mk II.
** The Cauldron Born is a 'mech only known by its reporting name: Clan Smoke Jaguar originally named it the Ebon Jaguar, but since the Inner Sphere were the first to encounter the 'mech in the process of exterminating the Smoke Jaguars, its Inner Sphere reporting name spread to the other Clans before its original name did. Hence, everyone who is not a Smoke Jaguar refers to it as the Cauldron Born (and everyone who is a Smoke Jaguar is too dead to argue).

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Lancer}}'', the mechs produced by the hacker collective / techno-cult HORUS have reporting names taken after mythological monsters, since no one knows what their "proper names" are supposed to be (or if they even have any).

* "Foxbat" - The [=MiG-25=] interceptor aircraft. Capable of reaching a blistering Mach 3.2 and an altitude of over 80,000 feet, but had a very short range and wasn't very maneuverable, as the Americans learned when a Soviet pilot defected with one of them (when they were done with it, they gave it back to the USSR. In over 60 boxes). It sacrificed a lot of combat ability for its phenomenal performance, but it was nevertheless the only aircraft able to cause trouble to SR-71 flights, and fast enough to outrun many air-to-air missiles. The above-mentioned "Foxhound" is a greatly-improved evolution of the "Foxbat" design.

* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', the Zeon refer to the titular HumongousMecha and its carrier as "White Devil" and "Trojan Horse" respectively before learning their true names from Cozun Graham. Oddly, the Guncannon and Guntank apparently don't get reporting names and are simply referred to as "The Red One" and "You Call That A Mobile Suit?". The Core Fighters are referred to as "Mosquitoes" more than once, but this may simply be an insult. On the other side, the Zeon MS, especially the Zakus are often referred to as "Cyclops" by the Feddies due to their [[CyberCyclops distinctive optic sensors]], but this may just be a colloquialism, as the Zakus, at least had been known since before the start of the war. And up until episode 19 (near the halfway point of the anime and the 11th month of the One Year War) that Zeon ''had'' any operational mobile suits that weren't Zakus. [[LightningBruiser Doms]] are also refered to as "Skirts" at first due to their distinctive armor.

If you didn't understand that, you're probably not alone. [[note]]And if you ''did'' understand it, it probably [[NukeEm gave you the shivers.]][[/note]] That was an example of using Reporting Names, which are names given to military machines whose real names aren't known for some reason. For instance, if American forces keep encountering a particular type of Russian submarine, they might start referring to those submarines as "Tango" or something.

* "''Slava''"- the Project 1164 Atlant (Atlas) cruisers, also a "first-in-class" name. Large and heavily armed, although not nearly as much as the ''Kirov'' class. The reporting name remains the same, although ''Slava'' is now called ''Moskva''- the reporting name of another class.

** According to references in Wiki/TheOtherWiki, the Russian pilots liked the NATO reporting name so much (they found the [=MiG=]-29 to be rather "pivotal") that they started using the Fulcrum name themselves. This was somewhat common for Soviet aircraft; they didn't have official names, just model numbers, so if the pilots hadn't already come up with their own nickname (see next entry), they'd likely adopt the NATO reporting name.

A similar system was used for Japanese aircraft during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. "Zeke" referred to the Mitsubishi [=A6M=] Reisen fighter more commonly known as the "Zero".[[note]]Unlike most Japanese aircraft, the [=A6M=] series had a Japanese military designation ("Type 0 Carrier Fighter", due to entering service in Imperial Year 2600 or 1940) that was known to the US military. As a result, it ended up with the well-known nickname of "Zero" (incidentally, it had the same nickname among Japanese pilots) and as a result its reporting name was rarely used.[[/note]] (Although when a new version, the [=A6M3=], was issued, the Allies, unaware that it was a new iteration of the Zero, gave it initially the reporting name "Hap." However, [[ExecutiveMeddling General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold wasn't too thrilled with the name]], and it was changed in ''extremely'' short order to "Hamp.") The naming scheme was a mostly simple one, with fighters being given male names (Zeke, Oscar, Rufe, George, Frank), bombers/recon planes given female names (Betty, Kate, Val, Myrt, Dinah), trainers being named after kinds of trees (Maple, Ash), and a rocket-powered kamikaze guided bomb being quite appropriately referred to as "Baka" [[note]]"Idiot" in Japanese language[[/note]]. In case anyone's wondering about the choice of names here, the officer who selected most of these codenames, Captain Frank T. [=McCoy=], was from the DeepSouth and chose the names he was most familiar with.

The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, particularly the Literature/XWingSeries, is unsurprisingly full of this. Really big, impressive ships, like ''Executor''-class Star Dreadnoughts, got no nicknames, but ships that were encountered more frequently tended to attract short names that could be shouted by surprised pilots when they came out of hyperspace. Some of the more recurring names:

If you didn't understand that, you're probably not alone. [[note]]And if you ''did'' understand it, it probably [[NukeEm gave you the shivers.]][[/note]] That was an example of using Reporting Names, which are names given to units whose real names aren't known for some reason. For instance, if American forces keep encountering a particular type of Russian submarine, they might start referring to those submarines as "Tango" or something.

During the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, Western reporting names were one of the main ways to refer to Soviet, Chinese and North Korean military technology, for the reasons of language differences and because the actual designations (except for most aircraft), especially in the missile field, weren't generally known. Western military technology tends to get public names, often with help from the PR department (the companies make more sales if the item has a catchy name). The Soviet and Chinese technology was (is) secret and sometimes they didn't admit it even existed, never mind the name. Of course, some super secret ("Black") projects in the USA and other nations are given "reporting names" by other nations and the press when their rumored existence is guessed at.

In many ways (especially in the West, and ''very especially'' in the U.S.), they still are a main way to refer to these technologies, especially in naval and aerospace discussion. It helps that they are easy to remember.

** The Hind was featured in the ''Rambo'' series, ''Red Dawn'' and ''Film/BloodDiamond'', among other films, and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' went so far as to 'reveal' that Big Boss came up with the name "Hind". It also inspired the LAAT transport gunships in the ''StarWars'' prequels.

The ''StarWars'' [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]], particularly the Literature/XWingSeries, is unsurprisingly full of this. Really big, impressive ships, like ''Executor''-class Star Dreadnoughts, got no nicknames, but ships that were encountered more frequently tended to attract short names that could be shouted by surprised pilots when they came out of hyperspace. Some of the more recurring names:

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' the vehicles used by the Tau are known only by their Imperial designations, which are all based on sea life: Hammerhead Tanks, Orca {{Drop Ship}}s, Barracuda fightercraft, ect...
** Tau Battlesuits are also known by Imperial designations. XV (short for the Tau term, which translates to "mantle of the hero"), followed by a number indicating weight class and a second number indicating specialisation. For example XV-8 is a general purpose heavy battlesuit, while XV-88 is the same class but fitted for fire support and XV-25 is a light stealth suit. The new XV-104 mech is therefore properly called "ten-four" rather than "hundred and four".

[[folder:Star Wars Franchise]]

* "Eyeballs" (TIE fighters)
* "Squints" (TIE Interceptors)
* "Dupes" (TIE Bombers)
* "Brights" (special models like TIE Advanced)
* "Trips" (TIE Defenders, which had three wing-bases)
* "Clutches" (Tri-Fighters, a TIE fuselage "clutched" by three wings)
* "Pointers" (X-Wings)
* "Wishbones" or, alternately, "[[InterserviceRivalry Wallowing Pigs]]" (Y-Wings)
* "Slims" (A-Wings)
* "Crosses" (B-Wings)
* "Uglies" (Cobbled-together mix and match ships)
** A sub-class of Uglies is the "die-wing", a particularly lethal combo of Y-wing and TIE fighter. (Lethal to the pilot, that is. TIE has no shields, and the Y-wing bomber is ''really'' slow. Do the math.)
** There's also the X-Tie, the rather amusing combination of the two great rivals. TIE solar panels on an X-Wing fuselage.
** And X-Ceptor, which is the X-Tie with TIE Interceptor wings.
* "Lambs" (''[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lambda-class_T-4a_shuttle Lambda]]''-class T-4a shuttles)
** Doubly so, as the Lambda is decidedly ''not'' well suited for ship to ship combat, so any encounter between them and space-superiority fighters like the X-Wing would result in the proverbial "lambs to the slaughter."
* There were two versions of the famed ''Imperial''-class Star Destroyers:
** Plain "Impstars" referred to the first version, the first ship being the [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_I-class_Star_Destroyer ''Imperator'']]
** The second edition went by "Impstar Deuce" or simply "Deuce" and its first ship was the [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_II-class_Star_Destroyer ''Empire'']]
* "Vics" (''[[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Victory-class_Star_Destroyer Victory]]''-class Star Destroyers)
* "Drag ships" ([[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Interdictor_Star_Destroyer Interdictor Star Destroyers]])
* "Skips" ([[Literature/NewJediOrder Vong ]] coralskippers)
* Identification of Yuuzhan Vong capital ships, which due to their OrganicTechnology nature are less identical than traditional ships, runs entirely off of reporting names based on their size and, sometimes, combat role. Hence, corvette-analogues, cruiser-analogues, carrier-analogues, interdictor-analogues, etc. In most cases, these matched only loosely with the Vongs' own categorizations.

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* Something similar is used in the ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6TheSeries'' episode "Fan Friction". Since Big Hero 6 [[ComicBookMoviesDontUseCodeNames don't have code names]], but ''do'' have secret identities, Karmi has to make up names for them in her fanfic. Gogo becomes Speed Queen, Wasabi is Chop-Chop, Baymax is Red Panda, Fred is Flame Jumper, Honey Lemon is Tall Girl, and Hiro is [[LovesMyAlterEgo Captain Cutie]].
[[/folder]]

* In ''VideoGame/ThunderForce V'', the people of Earth don't know that the wayward ship that landed on their planet (the player's ship in ''Thunder Force IV'', which hails from another part of space and which [[spoiler:was left to drift aimlessly after sustaining heavy damage against that game's FinalBoss]]) is called the Rynex, so they christen it as ''Vasteel''.

* In ''VideoGame/ThunderForce V'', the people of Earth don't know that the wayward ship that landed on their planet (the player's ship in ''Thunder Force IV'', which hails from another part of space and which [[spoiler:was left to drift aimlessly after sustaining heavy damage against the FinalBoss fight]]) is called the Rynex, so they christen it as ''Vasteel''.