Where did the name RMS Titanic come from?
The RMS part is simple. Royal Mail Steamer denotes a ship that had a contract to carry mail with the British Royal Mail service.
As to the Titanic part. There was a very big competition in the industry. Everyone wanted to build the biggest and fastest. To that end the White Star Line built a trio of Olympic Class ships: the Titanic, the Olympic and the Britannic (originally Gigantic). They’d given up trying to be the fastest, so they were focusing on being the most luxurious. That drive to show off included big names that referenced whole empires and mythological beings.
