USS Claxton (DD-571), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Thomas Claxton, born in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Fletcher class was a class of destroyers built by the United States during World War II. The class was designed in 1939, as a result of dissatisfaction with the earlier destroyer leader types of the Porter and Somers classes. Some went on to serve during the Korean War and into the Vietnam War.