Boaty McBoatface: The runaway winner of ship naming public vote

The British public has decided the best name for the ship is 'Boaty McBoatface'. Photo / NERCscience Twitter

Shackleton, Endeavour and Falcon were just some of the names suggested in a public vote to name a £200m polar research ship, but one suggestion has defeated them all - Boaty McBoatface.

The suggestion is the runaway winner of the campaign by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to name a new state-of-the-art ship.

Boaty McBoatface was the public's number one choice by a clear distance, attracting 124,109 votes, with Poppy-Mai finishing second in the poll with 34, 371 votes.

NERC said the interest in the competition has been "overwhelming", but have insisted it will have the final say on its name and will announce its decision soon.

"Thank you to everyone who has taken part in the Natural Environment Research Council's Name Our Ship campaign," they posted online.

"We are no longer accepting suggestions to name our ship as we have now reached the closing date.

"We've had an extremely high volume of suggestions and will now review all of the suggested names. The final decision will be announced in due course."

Boaty McBoatface is probably not the sort of name they had envisaged when launching the competition back in March.

Universities and science minister, Jo Johnson, said at the time: "Can you imagine one of the world's biggest research labs travelling to the Antarctic with your suggested name proudly emblazoned on the side?

"The polar research ship represents a leap forward in securing Britain's place as a world leader in marine and climate change science - and illustrates this government's commitment to invest in research facilities on a record scale.

"With the eyes of the world on this ship, this campaign will give everyone across the UK the opportunity to feel part of this exciting project and the untold discoveries it will unearth."

The ship, backed by £200 million of government funding, will be built at the Cammell Laird shipyard on Merseyside and is set to sail in 2019.

Pingu, It's Bloody Cold Here, Usain Boat and What Iceberg were just a few of the thousands of suggestions by the public in the vote.

BBC Radio Jersey presenter James Hand, who suggested the Boaty McBoatface name, "apologised profusely" to NERC, adding: "It's all been really good fun".

Most popular suggestions

1. RRS Boaty McBoatface
2. RRS Poppy-Mai
3. RRS Henry Worsley
4. RRS Pillar of Autumn
5. RRS David Attenborough
6. RRS Boaty McBoatface the return
7. RRS Boat
8. RRS Pingu
9. RRS It's bloody cold here
10. RRS Usain Bolt
11. RRS Tiffany Aching
12. RRS Red Dwarf
13. RRS Tom Crean
14. RRS Ice Ice Baby
15. RRS Notthetitanic