I don't know where people get the idea that it's something that never happens.
Maybe we should capture the Harvey Milk so we could rename it. LOL Like the Americans during the Revolution renaming the captured HMS George to the USS Enterprise. Or during the First Barbary War, the Americans captured the Mastico and renamed it the USS Intrepid.
It’s a crime that there hasn’t been a destroyer named after Ernest E. Evans for the last half-century. Seems they’re going to name a new Arleigh Burke after him, so that’s been a long time coming.