Aircraft names: Lufthansa’s cities and other airlines’ naming systems

You have the registration safely in the can, zoom into the picture on your laptop – and below the cockpit window, in smaller letters, it says “Nordrhein-Westfalen.” Or “Dag Viking.” Or the name of an Irish saint. Aircraft christening names are one of the nicest side layers of plane spotting: they are not part of an aircraft’s official data but often tell you more about an airline than any livery. This article explains the best-known system in the German-speaking world, the city names at Lufthansa, introduces the name series of other airlines and shows how to use christening names for your collection.

Christening name and registration: the short answer

A christening name is a voluntary airline tradition, while the registration is the aircraft’s official identity. The registration is in the aircraft register, begins with the country prefix and usually stays with an aircraft for a long time – how to read it is explained in the guide Understanding aircraft registrations. The name, by contrast, is the airline’s business. It can assign, change or transfer it to another aircraft without anything changing in the register data.

For you as a spotter, that means: the registration remains your collecting key. The name is the additional information that brings a sighting to life – and sometimes the reason why a particular aircraft suddenly lands on your wish list.

Lufthansa: cities and federal states as godparents

No naming system is probably as familiar to German spotters as that of Lufthansa. Since 1960, its aircraft have carried christening names that sit on the forward fuselage below the type designation. As a rule, German cities or federal states are the godparents. The idea behind it is simple: the airline carries the names of its home country out into the world, and the sponsoring cities get a flying figurehead.

Federal states for the big ones, cities for the rest

The names of the federal states are especially closely tied to the jumbo. Early Lufthansa Boeing 747s already carried state names such as “Hessen” or “Baden-Württemberg” – the 747-130 D-ABYB was called “Hessen” and the 747-200B D-ABYD “Baden-Württemberg.” State names also appear in later jumbo generations up to the Boeing 747-8. Otherwise city names dominate – from metropolises to smaller towns such as Landshut.

Names that move on

A peculiarity collectors should know: when a Lufthansa aircraft leaves the fleet, a newer aircraft usually takes over its name. “Berlin” shows this most clearly: the name was carried in succession by, among others, a Boeing 707, a 747-200, a 747-400 and an Airbus A380. A christening name therefore never unambiguously describes a single aircraft – only in combination with the registration does it become an unambiguous sighting.

The Landshut: a name that made history

How strongly a christening name can merge with an event is shown by the Boeing 737-230C D-ABCE “Landshut.” The aircraft was hijacked on October 13, 1977; since then, the name has stood for one of the best-known chapters of German postwar history. Since 2017, the aircraft has been in Friedrichshafen, and in October 2024 the fuselage was brought to an exhibition hall at Friedrichshafen Airport. There, the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung) is setting up a place of learning and remembrance. If you are interested in the type, you will find background in the profile of the Boeing 737-200.

The exceptions: when Lufthansa departs from the scheme

Precisely because the system is so consistent, the deviations stand out. A few examples that are especially popular among collectors:

Aircraft	Christening name	Background
Airbus A380 (first deliveries 2010)	“Frankfurt am Main,” “München”	the airline’s two hubs
later Airbus A380s	e.g. “Peking,” “Tokio,” “New York”	international metropolises instead of German cities
Airbus A380 D-AIMN	“Deutschland”	christened in 2015 by Chancellor Angela Merkel
Airbus A340-300 D-AIFC	“Gander/Halifax”	thanks to the places that took in diverted aircraft after September 11, 2001
Airbus A321 D-AIRA	“Finkenwerder”	reference to the Airbus plant in Hamburg-Finkenwerder
Airbus A350 (taken over in 2020)	“Freiburg”	name for the city’s 900th anniversary

There are also aircraft whose special livery – such as the retro livery in the style of the 1970s – gets a presence of its own. Which liveries German airlines are currently flying and have flown in the past is summarized in the overview Special liveries of German airlines. The group level with all subsidiaries is in the profile of the Lufthansa Group.

KLM: one theme per fleet

At KLM, the principle is different: instead of one fixed category for all aircraft, the airline chooses its own themes for individual fleets. That has a long tradition. As early as the 1930s, KLM aircraft carried bird names – the Douglas DC-2 “Uiver” came second in the 1934 air race from England to Australia, and the DC-3s “Pelikaan” (PH-ALP) and “Ibis” (PH-ALI) have also gone down in the history books.

Further themed series were added later:

• Famous women: The now-retired MD-11s were named after important women, such as Florence Nightingale.
• Aviation pioneers: On the Boeing 747s, for example, there was the name “Louis Blériot.”
• Places and landscapes: On the Boeing 777s, you find names such as “Pont du Gard” (777-200ER) or “Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe” (777-300ER).
• Artworks: For the Airbus A350, whose first example arrived at Schiphol on October 2, 2026, KLM has chosen well-known Dutch artworks as namesakes. The first aircraft carries the name of Rembrandt’s “Night Watch,” and the second is named after Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring.”

For spotters at Schiphol, for example on the Panoramaterras, that is appealing: if you want to collect a KLM fleet completely, the names give you a second, thematically closed list. The group framework is explained in the profile Air France-KLM.

Saints, Vikings, volcanoes: more naming systems in Europe

Many European airlines have maintained their name series for decades. The best known at a glance:

Airline	Naming theme	Examples
Aer Lingus	Irish saints	historically DC-3 “St. Kevin” and “St. Kieran,” the 747 EI-ASI “St. Patrick”
SAS	Vikings, name ends in “Viking”	A319 OY-KBO “Christian Valdemar Viking,” 737-700 LN-RRB “Dag Viking”
Icelandair	mostly Icelandic volcanoes	special aircraft such as the 757 TF-FIR “Vatnajökull” with glacier livery (retired in 2025)
Norwegian	personalities as a portrait on the tail (“Tail Fin Heroes”)	Roald Amundsen, Edvard Munch, Jean Sibelius, Karen Blixen, Freddie Mercury
Virgin Atlantic	mostly female names and puns	“Maiden Voyager,” “Ruby Tuesday,” “Queen of the Skies,” “Lady Penelope”
Brussels Airlines	“Belgian Icons”: name plus matching special livery	“Rackham” (Tintin), “Trident” (national soccer team), formerly “Magritte”

Aer Lingus: constancy for decades

The Irish are a prime example of continuity. Their aircraft are named after Christian saints from Ireland – the 747 EI-ASI “St. Patrick” carried Pope John Paul II in 1979. The naming theme thus stands above all fleet changes – from the DC-3 to today’s Airbus. If you spot in Dublin, for example at the Mound on Old Airport Road, you can work your way through whole series of saints.

SAS: the Viking in the name

At SAS, every name traditionally ends in “Viking.” Individual aircraft also stand out through their paint, such as the A319 OY-KBO “Christian Valdemar Viking,” which received a retro livery in 2006 for the airline’s 60th birthday. The 737-700 “Dag Viking” was the airline’s last Boeing 737 and was retired on November 19, 2023 – farewell flights with well-known names like this tend to attract many spotters.

Norwegian: the name sits on the tail

Norwegian goes its own way. Instead of lettering at the nose, the tail carries a large portrait of a historical personality. At first they were Norwegians, Swedes, Danes and Finns; later, people from other countries in Europe and the Americas were added – such as the aviation pioneer Amy Johnson or the Spanish women’s rights activist Clara Campoamor. For collectors, this is a special case: here you recognize the “naming” from far away, and some people appear on several aircraft.

Far beyond Europe: pioneers and personalities

Christening names are also widespread outside Europe. A well-known example: the first Airbus A380 delivered to Qantas, VH-OQA, was named in honor of the Australian aviation pioneer Nancy-Bird Walton. At Qantas, however, you should keep christening names and livery names apart: several aircraft carry paint schemes by Indigenous artists, whose titles refer to the artwork, not to the aircraft itself.

At Virgin Atlantic, the name is almost part of the brand personality. The first 747-200 G-VIRG, with which the airline flew its first scheduled flight in 1984, was called “Maiden Voyager.” The name “Queen of the Skies” was given by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004 to G-VEIL; in 2023, the new A330-900 G-VEII received it. Here you see again the moving on of names that you already know from Lufthansa.

The christening: what happens

A christening is above all a public moment. At Lufthansa, the sponsoring city or federal state acts as godparent; representatives of the city often carry out the ceremony, and for special names also celebrities or – as with the “Deutschland” – the chancellor. The christening often takes place at the home airport, sometimes also at a place connected to the name.

For spotters, christenings and the first arrival of a new type are closely related: at some airports, new aircraft are welcomed with a water fountain from the airport fire service. What this ritual is about is explained in the article Water salute. Around such events, visitor areas such as the Zeppelinheim viewing platform in Frankfurt or the Munich visitors’ hill (Besucherhügel) are well filled – if you are there early, you get the best places.

How to use christening names when spotting

Christening names are no substitute for registrations but a valuable addition. With this routine, you make them a fixed part of your collection:

If collecting individual aircraft appeals to you, you will find strategies for working through whole fleets systematically in the article Collecting registrations. And if a name suddenly shows up on a different registration, the guide to Re-registering aircraft helps you work out whether the name, the registration or both have changed.

What to watch out for

• Names are not unambiguous. At Lufthansa and other airlines, names move from old to new aircraft. Always rely on the registration for identification.
• Livery names are not christening names. Especially with special paint schemes, the design often has a title that is not the aircraft’s name. When in doubt, check both.
• Names change without a register trace. A renaming does not show up in the aircraft register. Current photos are therefore often the best source.
• Spellings vary. Depending on the source, names are translated or kept in the original language – for example the KLM painting as “Girl with a Pearl Earring” or “Meisje met de parel.” Stick to one variant in your collection.
• Farewells are appointments. When a well-known aircraft is retired, demand for photos rises sharply for a short time. How to judge how rare a sighting is, is described in the article How rare is my sighting?

Conclusion

Christening names are the personal touch in a world of registrations, type codes and fleet numbers. Lufthansa has linked its aircraft to German cities and federal states since 1960 and passes the names on across generations. KLM changes the theme from fleet to fleet, down to Dutch artworks for the new A350s. Aer Lingus sticks with its saints, SAS with the Vikings, Icelandair with the volcanoes, and Norwegian paints its namesakes right on the tail. For you as a spotter, the registration remains the key – the name is what gives your sighting a story.