USS Charles F. Adams (DD-952/DDG-2), named for Charles Francis Adams III, was the lead ship of her class of guided missile destroyers of the United States Navy. Commissioned in 1960, during her 30-year operational history she participated in the recovery operation for the Mercury 8 space mission, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as operations in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. Decommissioned in 1990, attempts to save her as a museum ship failed and she was scrapped in 2021.

Charles Francis Adams III was an American lawyer and politician, who served as the 44th United States Secretary of the Navy under President Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933. He was skipper of the Resolute which won the 1920 America's Cup.