An independent naming commission tasked with purging Confederate names from the U.S. Department of Defense has recommended that the Navy rename the USS Chancellorsville, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, and the USNS Maury, an oceanographic survey ship, according to a new Politico report.

The committee, though, did not offer recommendations for new names. That responsibility will be up to Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, retired Army Brig. Gen. Ty Seidule, the vice chair of the commission, told reporters in a briefing on Tuesday after the announcement.

USNI News reported that under U.S. law, the secretary of the Navy names ships, whereas the naming commission decides the new names for bases. Seidule noted that the naming commission decided early on that it would only offer new names for the Army bases.

Navy spokesman Capt. J.D. Dorsey told USNI News that there have been early discussions on potential new names but they have yet to settle on them.

“Secretary Del Toro appreciates the naming commission’s diligent work on this effort,” Dorsey said.

The decision to recommend renaming the Chancellorsville, which entered service in 1989 and is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2026, was unanimous, according to Seidule.

“We looked at the entire context and felt as though this commemorated the Confederacy as a unanimous decision among the eight commissioners,” he said.

Commission members confirmed that the Navy already has renamed about twenty ships while they were in active service. However, renaming an active ship at this late stage in its life cycle is rare, one expert said.

“I know of no other vessel on the U.S. list in the history of the Navy that would have been renamed seven-eighths of the way through its service,” Bryan McGrath, a retired naval officer and now managing director of the FerryBridge Group, told Politico.

The Chancellorsville is named for an 1863 Confederate victory by Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The ship’s hull reportedly contains bullets and shell fragments from the battle. As for the oceanographic survey ship, it was named for Matthew Fontaine Maury, who joined the Confederacy after a long career with the U.S. Navy.

The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which established the commission, prevents the Navy from naming ships that honor the Confederacy.

“There will not be another element, another asset that will commemorate the Confederacy or those who voluntarily served … in the Confederacy,” Seidule told USNI News.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Washington state-based Finance and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image: U.S. Navy / Flickr