Named after both Captain Nemo’s fictional submarine in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and the WWII submarine USS Nautilus (SS-168) ,the new nuclear-powered Nautilus was launched in 1954.
Because the USS Nautilus nuclear propulsion allowed prolonged submersion far longer than diesel-electric submarines, she broke many records in her first years of operation and traveled to locations previously beyond the limits of submarines (including beneath the North Pole).
Source: Wikipedia