Bogle chose this name after a dealer in antique prints left him a book about Great Britain's naval achievements that featured HMS Vanguard.
The founders named their firm "Blackstone," using a cryptogram derived from the names of the two founders (Schwarzman and Peterson). "Schwarz" is German for "black"; "Peter", "Petros" or "Petra" (Πέτρος and πετρα, the masculine and feminine rendering of the word, respectively), in Greek means "stone" or "rock".