Any criteria for giving two ships the same name?

[csaba]

Over the past few years I have noticed that occasionally I see two different ships with the same name. For example, one is a bulker, the other a general cargo. Are there any criteria for giving the same name to different ships?
Thanks...

[pieter melissen]

Many people are called JOHN...there are many obvious names to which an individual shipowner might be attracted, and there is no "copyright" 

[davidships]

There are restrictions for some national registers. 
Back in the 1990s new UK regulations no longer allowed an identical name to one already on the register (but did not require existing ships to change); for some time prior to that there had been only a requirement that they did not "confuse" - so identical names could not be used for two vessels of the same type, eg passenger ships.

[coasterwatcher]

The June edition of "Coastal Shipping" magazine included a photograph of Vanquish (IMO 9116199) passing Vanquish (IMO 9375135) when both were on the Cronus service linking Avonmouth and Warrenpoint.

[Trucker001]

 there is 1 factory freezer  trawlers named  mv Northern Eagle one up in Alaska and the other is based out of Nova Scotia  the FT Northern Eagle is IMO number 9128348   the Alaskan FT Northern Eagle is(IMO: 6701462
   

[simonwp]

I remember in the mid 1990's a tanker named Lady Elizabeth calling at South Killingholme on the Humber. The local tug company, Humber Tugs, had  one also called "Lady Elizabeth" and there was much amusement when the tugs was scheduled as one of the berthing tugs for the tanker. The operations guy at Humber Tugs had being trying to arrange it from the time the tanker stemmed, and was well happy to have actually managed it. It certainly confused the ships master!!! Fortunately she had a local river pilot taking her from the anchorage to berth, and he and VTS etc used the tugs local nickname "Lizzy" over the radio, so there was no real danger of confusion, but the tankers movement log looked a bit odd when the pilot read it afterwards.