The ocean liner "Queen Elizabeth 2" (or QE2) was, I believe, named
after the previous ocean liner "Queen Elizabeth".  I read this
somewhere.  Other people very adamantly insist that the ship "Queen
Elizabeth 2" was named after the Queen of England Her Royal Highness
Queen Elizabeth II.  Their argument, they insist, is proved correct
because the first ship "Queen Elizabeth" was indeed named for the
Queen of England at that time. I say this is not so, as the use of the
numeral "2" distinguishes the ship from Her Majesty who uses "II". 
Can you please confirm beyond any doubt how "Queen Elizabeth 2" was
named?  Was this ship "QE2" named for the Queen or named after the
earlier ship, in other words, the 2nd ship to have that name.  Thank
you.

Stowaway..

Thanks for a very interesting question.  I had always been under the
assumption that the QE2 was the second ship named the Queen Elizabeth
and therefore it received that designation.  I have never heard the
story behind the naming, so your question piqued my interest.

In 1958, the people at Cunard shipping began thinking about replacing
two older cruise ships, the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. 
Initially, the intentions were to build two replacements and receive a
government subsidy from the UK in order to help build the ship.  A
committee was formed to study if this was economically feasible and
determined that it would be better to build a single, larger ship as
opposed to two.  Unfortunately, for shipping industry, at this time,
more and more people were flying to cross the Atlantic and the cost
for maintaining a ship of this size was prohibitive.  Therefore, in
1963, the plan was altered it was decided that a smaller liner would
be built and the government provided 18 million Pounds.  The keel was
laid in July, 1965 with a delivery date of January, 1969.  This is
where the naming gets interesting.

On September 20, 1967, HRH Queen Elizabeth II launched the hull and
christened the ship the Queen Elizabeth 2.  Legend has it that the
name of the ship was given to HRH Queen Elizabeth the Second in a
sealed envelope.  However, they say, that she never opened the
envelope and named the ship after both herself and the original Queen
Elizabeth liner.  Cunard decided to use the numeral 2 to distinguish
the ship from the Queen.

Another story is that Cunard had originally wanted to move away from
the the 'traditional' names of liners and go with something like
'William Shakespeare' or 'Winston Churchill'.  However, the decision
was made to christen her 'Queen Elizabeth 2' as an honor to the
original liner, the Queen Elizabeth and to use the numeral '2' as
oppsed the 'II' to distinguish it from the reigning monarch. So, the
name is more along the lines of Queen Elizabeth #2 as opposed to Queen
Elizabeth the Second.

While the first story is a very nice legend, in my research, it
appears that the second (no pun intended) is more along the lines of
what probably happened as that version is the one that comes up more
than the first.  The QE1 had been a great asset to Cunard and honoring
her by naming their last great liner after her was, and still is,
quite appropriate.

Thanks for your question and I hope the above information has been
helpful.  If you need any additional clarification, please let me know
prior to rating my answer.

Regards,

-THV

Search Strategy:
History of the QE2

References:
Queen Elizabeth 2-The Last True Ocean Liner
http://members.iinet.net.au/~cunard/history.htm

Four million miles and still going strong
http://www.seaview.co.uk/cruiselines/cunard/QE2_History.html

History
http://members.tripod.com/~Tziper/history.htm

Welcome aboard the QE2 Home Page!
http://www.qe2.org.uk/

The Great Ocean Liners - Queen Elizabeth 2
http://www.greatoceanliners.net/qe2.html

Facts about the QE2
http://members.iinet.net.au/~cunard/q2fact.htm

Queen Elizabeth 2
http://members.iinet.net.au/~cunard/1qe2.htm

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Request for Answer Clarification by stowaway-ga on 17 Jan 2003 20:14 PST

thank you for all the information.  Do you think it possible to
receive word directly from Cunard as to the naming of QE2?  I don't
mind waiting for the work week to begin to make inquiries easier.

Thanks again.

Kyle

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Clarification of Answer by tar_heel_v-ga on 17 Jan 2003 20:43 PST

Stowaway...

I have emailed Cunard to get their response to the question.  As soon
as I receive a response, I will post it here.  To let you know, I
looked at their website and saw no mention of the history of the
naming of the QE2.

-THV

---

Clarification of Answer by tar_heel_v-ga on 20 Jan 2003 07:23 PST

stowaway..

I received the following from Cunard:

"I'm pleased to say that you are correct, the QE2 is named after the
original Queen Elizabeth liner which is why we use a '2' rather than a
Roman Numeral. She is simply the second ship to bear the name Queen
Elizabeth. Originally, Cunard wanted to name the ship simply 'Queen
Elizabeth'. When the Queen launched her on 20 September 1967, she said
'I name this ship Queen Elizabeth the Second'. Whether Her Majesty
made a mistake or did it deliberately is not known. This gave Cunard a
rather large problem at the time for the simple reason that Her
Majesty is the first Queen Elizabeth of Scotland. Cunard didn't want
to upset the Scottish (where the ship was being built) so that's
another reason for using '2' - plus it was also more modern which was
in keeping with the new image of Cunard at that time.

However, Buckingham Palace still insist that the ship is named after
the Monarch - we won't argue with them but the ship isn't!

I hope this answers your query.

Thanks for writing.

Michael Gallagher
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS EXECUTIVE
Europe, the Middle East and Africa"

Thanks again for a great question!

-THV

VERY well done!