The name of the ship commemorated the Russian ship of the line , the flagship of the Russian squadron in the Battle of Navarino. The name of that ship, in its turn, referred to the Azov campaigns of Peter the Great. After the battle Nicholas I of Russia decreed that after the retirement of "Azov" the Imperial Navy must perpetually have a ship named "Pamyat Azova" (English: "The Memory of Azov"). The cruiser commissioned in 1890 was the third ship carrying this name.