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Obviously "Enterprise" is pretty much synonymous with "Star Trek", so new shows and movies will continue to have an Enterprise.

However, in-universe, how many times does a ship of a given name need to be blown up before it would be considered unlucky? Alternately, hasn't at least one of the previous Enterprises been destroyed in such a manner as to merit an honorary retirement of the name?

Is there an in-universe reason that Starfleet didn't retire the name "Enterprise" after its predecessors suffered less than ideal fates?

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Simply put:No. The Enterprise had a storied history in Humanity, even pre-First Contact. They kept honoring the ship's long history by creating a new one whenever there was a new generation of ships. It's almost always been the flagship of Starfleet, and is known by several species outside of the Federation.

Also, can you think of a ship that wasn't destroyed that wasn't rebuilt later on in history? An example of a ship being re-commissioned would be the Missouri. It became a museum for the attack on Pearl Harbor, then in 2010 a submarine was commissioned with the same name. Also, the USS Wasp was sunk in WW2, and later on another ship was commissioned the Wasp.

Out of universe: Keeping the name Enterprise helps make it familiar with fans, and to show off the progression of technology of the federation.

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    While the USS Enterprise (CV-6) survived WW2, the USS Hornet (CV-8) was sunk and quickly replaced 8 months later with the USS Hornet (CV-12). Other carriers quickly replaced with a new namesake were the USS Wasp (as you mentioned, CV-7 replaced with CV-18), USS Yorktown (CV-5 replaced with CV-10), and USS Lexington (CV-2 replaced with CV-16). This caused much confusion for the Japanese, who thought they had sunk various carriers to find a new one with the same name.
    – Marshall Tigerus
    Commented Jun 29, 2016 at 16:52
  • Additionally it was mentioned in the films itself that the A Enterprise got its name in honor of the doings of the (non A) Enterprise. It was to honor kirk and thus all later crews
    – Thomas
    Commented Jul 23, 2016 at 16:52

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