The Frigates
The frigates were originally designated by the letters A through F until March 1795, when Secretary of War Timothy Pickering prepared a list of ten suggested names for the ships. President Washington was responsible for selecting five of the names: Constitution, United States, President, Constellation, and Congress, each of which represented a principle of the United States Constitution. The sixth frigate, Chesapeake, remained nameless until 1799, when Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert designated her a namesake of Chesapeake Bay, ignoring the previous Constitutional naming protocol.
Read more about this topic: Original Six Frigates Of The United States Navy