John Kuthe wrote in
:

River Wild wrote:

Okay, this is a silly question, but has anybody here ever "named" a
kayak before?
[snip]

No. When I first got into kayaking, I posed this questions and was told
(and I agree with!) that since a kayak is like a part of your body,
unless you are in the habit of naming parts of your body (some people
are, but I don't do that either!), that it's completely inappropriate to
name your kayak.

I heard the same thing and it is based on traditional kayakers that used
their boats for hunting. The kayak wasn't just an extension of their body.
The kayaks that greenlanders built (and still do) are sized based on their
body size, and in fact various body parts are used to determine the
dimensions (okay, no quips about the size of the cockpit). As traditional
greenlanders used their kayaks for sustenance their primary existance was
directly tied to their boat. Giving it a name was thought of as giving it a
separate entity, and as hunters, their kayak was part of who they were.

That said, I've built a couple of wood kayaks and if I build another I'm
really tempted to call it "Sportin' Wood".