Kuroi Akuma at Proxima b (Patreon)

We have a winning name! "Kuroi Akuma" meaning Black Demon or Black Devil got the most votes and the guys have registered their ship's name and had the new name and a symbol painted on their ship.

I did some research and learned that the reason civilian Japanese ships nearly always have the word "Maru" - meaning circle or return - is due to a tradition or a superstition that doing so ensures the ship's safe return to port. Science fiction borrows a lot from naval tradition for space and so I did too. So, the official name is "Kuroi Akuma Maru" or just "Kuroi Akuma" or even just "Akuma".

Now an explanation of the Japanese text on some of these images. The vertical text is the ship's name and I provided an explanation on the "b" versions of the posters to explain which part of the kanji means what. The first kanji means "black", the next one seems to be an adjectival marker, the final two taken together means "devil" or "demon" and the last kanji is "maru".

The rest of the text: エリックとドミトリーの宇宙船 is pronounced "erikku to domitorī no uchūsen" which means "Eric & Dmitri's spaceship".

If there are any Japanese-speakers out there - feel free to point out if I have made any mistakes as I do not speak Japanese.

I hope you enjoy - thanks for participating in the voting!