Randolph and Hancock may have shared names with founding fathers, but I believe they were given the names of two of the group of thirteen Continental frigates.

Just as Hornet, Wasp, Essex and most of the rest were named for previous "famous" ships. I couldn't find a reference to an early ship named Yorktown.

It looks to me that they ran out of famous ship names toward the end of the first sixteen Essex class ships that were ordered in 1940 and 41, just prior to the declaration of war.

We know Lexington and Saratoga were names assigned to battlecruisers, and it seems those six names found their way onto carriers eventually, although United States was never completed.

As for the DANFS entry about Franklin's name, I wouldn't give a Continental dollar for the validity of a non-operational detail found in DANFS. I believe it ranked right up there with Wikipedia for "street knowledge", supplied by some guy.

I don't think Langley counts because it was an experimental thing and there was no certain expectation that there would need to be a naming convention established for that ship type.

Rick