Our famous Archchancellor hasn´t already found the thread? Well, i´ll try to replace his wisdom as good as i can.
The first question: Who gave that U-Boot it´s name? Is it an official one? A "secret identity" name? Or a name it received from the crew? That´s really important to determine what´s appropriate.
I need to name a time traveling Nazi U-Boat something that sounds cool. I speak no German except for what I know from my Magic cards, like kugelblitz and zwergenkrieger. Apparently the Nazis didn't give actual names to their boats, just designations like U-48 or something. But I need a menacing sounding ship.
I was thinking something like:
Zeitwanderer. Timewalker.
Zeitmörder. Timekiller.
Zeitgeist. (It's a word people will recognize.)
Any ideas?
Forget Zeitgeist - it means something else, apparently. Zeitwanderer and Zeitmörder are okay as "funny quasi-occulty" names: used by the crew, perhaps, but not something official.
Hahah!
Zeitgeist is actually pretty good, the literal translation being "the spirit of the time."
Namenlos = Nameless (adjective, but also paradoxical!)
Unterzeit = Under-time
Todzeit = Time-death, time of death
If you want to do some research on your own, the dictionary I recommend is dict.leo.org, one of the best German-English dictionaries on the web.
No, Zeitgeist is terrible, because no German would ever think of that literal translation when hearing the word.
Namenlos is okay, but hasn´t something to do with the "subject matter", so to speak.
Both Unterzeit and Todzeit are not correct German, sorry.
Leiser Jäger = silent hunter/stalker
Tiefer Todesbefreier = Deep Death Deliverer
Silent Hunter works. Deep Death Deliverer sounds corny even in English, and the translation... is not, uh, perfect.
Zeitwanderer is your best bet. I don´t think that any German navy official would be caught dead calling a Submarine Zeitwanderer, but some kind of super-secret society responsible for building a time-travel device would.
Silent Hunter is also good, and cliche enough that even the Navy would use it as a call sing, IMHO.
Personally, i´d rather go for a mythological creature that has a connection to time and time travel. Chronos, greek god of time is the obvious fit.
Have fun!
Edit: Ah, more posts to review
Zeitjäger, yes. Not bad, but ultra-cliche. Works, but i can´t bring myself to imagine a Navy official using it as a secret callsign.
Zeitlos, no. Sounds simply not aggressive enough.
Zeitsturm = "Time Storm"
Zeitbombe = "Time Bomb"
Zeitsturm can work. Not that it means much by itself, but its appropriately misterious and aggressive. Zeitbombe could be fun in a corny way: "Leutnant, you have new orders! Your new asignment is aboard the Zeitbombe... Wait, where are you going! Stop!"
Uhrbrecher = "Clock Breaker"
Zeitbrecher
Zeithammer
Zeitfischer = "Time Fisher"
Uhrbrecher and Zeithammer don´t really work in German. Zeithammer is good, but calling a submarine a hammer? Hmm...
Immerfort = "Evermore or All the Time or always"
Niemehr = "Never more"
Zeitmehr = "Time More" or "More time" Not sure how that would translate. Sounds cool though.
All three work, if your submarine is painted in rainbow colors and has little gossamer wings at the stern.
Tagensanbruch/brecher = "Daybreak/breaker"
Rammstein = Name of my favorite band.
Tagesanbruch is too obviously something in real life - it´s like christening a girl Dawn: works in English, laugh-inducing in German.
Rammstein is cool, but of course without the catastrophe, the city has no special meaning at the time of the campaign.
