A national competition to name Australia's new icebreaker will "avoid a Boaty McBoatface situation", Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt says.

Social media has been flooded with disappointed would-be icebreaker enthusiasts, who wanted to follow the lead of the British public who voted to name their icebreaker Boaty McBoatface.

But Mr Hunt was quick to put a stop to the frivolity.

"Boaty McBoatface is not a name that we will accept, I'm just ruling that out from the outset," Mr Hunt said.

The online world has set about finding a loophole to Mr Hunt's decision, though.

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The environment minister said he would consult with school children to find a name for the $500 million ship, which would be operational in 2019.

"What we really want to do is engage school children, we want to engage people in the scientific community, the general population in putting forward proposals," he said.

"Shortly after the contract is done we'll be launching a name campaign with the school children and students of Tasmania."

There will be a public competition for the name, although details on how the competition will work were yet to be finalised.

"The advice I have on the great nautical issue of good karma is that you don't launch a search for a name until you've got the contract done," Mr Hunt said.

The online outrage follows similar scenes in Britain when Boaty McBoatface was rejected by the British government's Natural Environment Research Council.

Public campaigns have worked before though, with a naming competition successful in calling a humpback whale "Mister Splashy Pants".

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