Navies of the world have various schemes for naming their ships, and Japan's traditional ship names have a few twists that are not found in other navies. One is that, in contrast to navies like those of the US or the UK, Japan never named its warships after famous persons.
The basic scheme for naming major Japanese combatants by the Imperial Japanse Navy [IJN] which was employed for decades before the end of WW2 was as follows.
Battleships -- Ancient names of regions in Japan or names for Japan itself
Aircraft Carriers -- Names of mythical birds and animals
First Class Cruisers -- Names of mountains
Second Class Cruisers -- Names of rivers
First Class Destroyers -- Names of meteorological phenomena
Second/Third Class Destroyers -- Names of trees or flowers
Torpedo Boats -- Birds
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/japan/jmsdf-names.htmOne interesting feature is that nobody ever expects the name Yamato to be assigned to a JMSDF ship, perhaps in the belief that the name has been retired, much as a uniform number would be retired in US sports.
Battle ship Yamato The Yamato State
