I have searched and see that the moniker Kearsarge is very old.
What is the origin? Is Kearsarge a person, place, or thing?
USS KEARSARGE (LHD 3) is the fourth ship in the history of the U.S. Navy named for Kearsarge Mountain in New Hampshire. Previous ships named KEARSARGE include a Civil War-era sloop of war famous for defeating CSS ALABAMA; a turn-of-the-century battleship that sailed as part of President Theodore Roosevelt's "Great White Fleet;" and an aircraft carrier, known internationally for its part in the Project Mercury space program. KEARSARGE is only one of two United States ship names mandated by Congress to be used more than once.
http://www.kearsarge.navy.mil/History.htm
When I was on the Kearsarge, (the carrier) there was an area where they had ship models in a glass case of the 3 (I think) ships that had carried the Kearsarge name. I don't recall the origin of the others but the carriers at that time (postWW II) were all named after famous battles. For example in task force seventyseven, we had with us the Yorktown, Antietem, and the Oriskany. The next class of carriers had names like the Coral Sea, Phillipne Sea and the Midway. Don't know exactly when they stopped naming them after battles.