The german IS "Galeere" name for the Gargoyle/Man O'War was definitely because of Man O'War(or Man-of-War) being the expression the british Royal Navy used as a catch-all name for all ships that were commonly used in the line of battle during the age of sail. So they used a name for a warship as the german name. The problem is that they used a name describing a much older oar and sail driven warship type that was very uncommon in the age of sail. A better name would have been "Fregatte"(Frigate), because the larger frigates were actually called a Man O'War/Man-of-war.
And the Katamaran example also makes sense... it still sounds ridiculous as a Mech name to a native german speaker. Oh and fyi, there is a town named Markat in Albania... xp
And as others have pointed out, Galeere and Katamaran actually were two of the least bad examples! :D
Funny thing, the translation compulsion only extended to english names. Some of the Clan Omni's that the Smoke Jaguars used the most during the Invasion - Mist Lynx/Koshi, Stormcrow/Ryoken, Warhawk/Masakari and Dire Wolf/Daishi - got off easy. Their codenames were japanese instead of english, and weren't changed at all!
Oh, and the name "Stadtkoloß" for the Urbanmech was either nothing short of ludicrous OR a meme worthy in-joke for the Urbie... because Stadtkoloß would translate to "Colossus/Giant/Juggernaut of the City"! ;D