Commodore was an early title and later a rank in the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard and a current honorary title in the U.S. Navy with an intricate history. Because the U.S. Congress was originally unwilling to authorize more than four ranks (captain, master commandant, lieutenant, and midshipman) until 1862, considerable importance was attached to the title of commodore. Like its Royal Navy counterpart at the time, the U.S. Navy commodore was not a higher rank, but a temporary assignment for Navy officers, as Herman Melville wrote in his 1850 novel, White-Jacket.

Commodore was established as a temporary rank in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was discontinued in 1947, its previous incumbents having all been advanced to Rear Admiral or retired. Nearly forty years later, it was reinstated as an official rank with a pay grade of O-7, replacing the previously titled Rear Admiral (lower half), which were U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard flag officers paid at the one-star rank of an O-7, but who wore the two-star rank insignia of an O-8. In 1982, following years of objections and complaints by the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps, the rank of Commodore was again reintroduced in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard as an O-7 rank. Confusion soon followed in the Navy and Coast Guard between the O-7 flag officers with the rank of Commodore and the multiple O-6 Captains concurrently in command of functional air wings, destroyer squadrons, submarine squadrons, etc., holding the honorary title of Commodore. In 1983, after a very brief redesignation of Commodore Admiral, the O-7 paygrade in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard was again redesignated as Rear Admiral (lower half), but with the single star for collar insignia and applicable shoulder insignia (i.e., flight suits, jackets, etc.), single silver star on top of solid gold background shoulder board insignia, and a single broad gold sleeve stripe insignia for dress blue uniforms.

Commodore may refer to:

The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest navy in the world, with a battle fleet tonnage that is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S. Navy also has the world's largest carrier fleet, with 11 in service, one under construction (two planned), and one in reserve. The service had 328,516 personnel on active duty and 101,689 in the Navy Reserve in January 2011. It operates 283 ships in active service and more than 3,700 aircraft.

The Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was essentially disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. The United States Constitution provided the legal basis for a military force by giving Congress the power "to provide and maintain a navy".

Depredations against U.S. shipping by Barbary Coast pirates in the Mediterranean Sea spurred Congress to employ this power by passing the Naval Act of 1794 ordering the construction and manning of six frigates. These ships were used to end most pirate activity off the Barbary Coast. In the 20th century, American blue-water navy capability was demonstrated by the 1907–1909 world tour of the Great White Fleet.

United States Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry (August 23, 1785 – August 23, 1819) was born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, the son of USN Captain Christopher Raymond Perry and Sarah Wallace Alexander, a direct descendant of William Wallace. He was an older brother to Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry who compelled the opening of Japan to the West by threat of force.

He served in the War of 1812 against Britain. After supervising the building of a fleet at Erie, Pennsylvania, at the age of 27 earned the title "Hero of Lake Erie" for leading American forces in a decisive naval victory at the Battle of Lake Erie, receiving a Congressional Gold Medal and the Thanks of Congress. His leadership materially aided the successful outcomes of all nine Lake Erie military campaign victories, and the fleet victory was a turning point in the battle for the west in the War of 1812.

Perry became embroiled in a long standing and festering controversy with the Commander of the USS Niagara, Captain Jesse Elliott over their conduct in the battle, and both were the subject of official charges that were lodged. In 1815, he successfully commanded the Java in the Mediterranean during the Second Barbary War. So seminal was his career that he was lionized in the press (being the subject of scores of books and articles), has been heavily memorialized, and many places and ships have been named in his honor.

Abraham Whipple (September 26, 1733 – May 27, 1819) was an American revolutionary naval commander in the Continental Navy. Whipple was born near Providence, Rhode Island and chose to be a seafarer early in his life. He embarked upon a career in the lucrative West Indies trade, working for Moses and John Brown. In the French and Indian War period, he became a privateersman and commanded privateer Game Cock from 1759 to 1760. In one six-month cruise, he captured 23 French ships.

He sank the first British ship of the American Revolution, the British schooner HMS Gaspée, in the 1772 Gaspée Affair. The first to unfurl the Star Spangled Banner in London, he was also the first to sail an ocean-going ship 2000 miles down river from Ohio to the Caribbean, opening trade to the Northwest Territory.

Abraham Whipple was born on September 26, 1733 to Noah Whipple, Jr. Abraham Whipple, and Sarah Hopkins were married on August 2, 1761. They had three children: John, Catherine, and Mary. Catherine's husband, and Commodore Whipple's son-in-law, was Colonel Ebenezer Sproat of the Continental Army.