In theRoyal Navy there have been a variety of naming conventions fordestroyers.

Destroyers were originally developed as a defence against torpedo boats, and the firsttorpedo boat destroyer (TBD) in the Royal Navy wasHMS Havock of 1893. From 1906, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" began to appear in the shortened form "destroyer" when referring to destroyer flotillas. There is no officialAdmiralty order pertaining to the change and the abbreviated term "TBD" is present in the Navy List up to 1919, even though destroyer was the term used in most official orders from 1917.

Up to 1913, names were allocated under no fixed system, leading to a heterogeneous array, although two groups were named systematically; after rivers and tribes (later theE andF classes, respectively). In 1913, with burgeoning numbers of TBDs, the Admiralty took the confusing situation in hand;Havock and her similar "27knotter" sisters with two shafts were grouped as theA class, and similar groups of "30 knotter" TBDs were grouped as theB class (four-funneled ships),C class (three funnels) andD class (two funnels). Later classes of ships were grouped as the E to K classes, although there was no J class. These are ships that the observer would recognize as being the forerunners of the modern destroyer, with the turtleback and low conning tower replaced by a forecastle and wheelhouse with a compass platform above.

The last class of ships built with mixed names were theAcasta or K class of the 1911–1912 program. From theL class of the 1912–1913 program onwards, ships took the initial letter of their name from the class letter, although large classes such as the M, R, and S were allocated more than one initial letter.Flotilla leaders were generally named after famed historical (and generally, naval) characters and vessels building for other countries that had been commandeered for the Royal Navy were not allocated into the letter system (e.g. ex-Turkish ships received "T" names and ex-Greek ships "M" names with aGreek mythology theme).

Post war, flotillas were ordered as eight ships and a separate leader (later seven ships and a leader, later eight ships and no specialised leader). Each class was allocated an initial letter from which names were taken, and leaders were again often named after historical figures. These ships, up to the I class, are known as the "interwar standard". Again, vessels appropriated from other nations were not allocated into the class letter system, but took letter names of similar Royal Navy designs.

The programme of 1936 produced sufficiently novel ships to warrant a change in convention; "tribal" names again being applied, although subsequent ships returned to the letter system. The O through Z classes were ordered under theWar Emergency Programme. Having exhausted the alphabet, the next emergency flotillas returned to the next unused letter start of the alphabet. This was C, theC class of 1930 having been completely transferred to theRoyal Canadian Navy. As five flotillas were ordered, groups of two initial letters were used;Ca-,Ch-,Co-,Cr- andCe-, although the latter flotilla was later cancelled.

The proposed G class of 1943 were the penultimate ships to be allocated letter names, after this systematic themes for names were adopted; Battles, Weapons, Counties and Towns. The exception was theDaring class of 1949 with names beginning with D. Since theCounty class of 1959,type numbers have also been allocated to destroyers.

TheType 45 destroyers, the Royal Navy's latest vessels of this type, have resurrected the letter naming convention, taking D names, and repeating some of the previousDaring class.^[1]

• Type system of the Royal Navy

• Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893–1981, Maurice Cocker, 1983, Ian Allan,ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
• Destroyers, Antony Preston, 1977, Bison Books,ISBN 0-86124-057-X