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We all know Nurgle was named after the Babylonian God Nergal, what other interesting references can you find in 40k Names?

Ahriman, for example, is the name of the Zoroastrian Devil, more commonly called Angra Mainyu.

Horus is horus, an egyptian god, the ultrasmurfs are the romans, so all of their names are roman-ish, (also sicarius is a kind of spider) Ferrus Mannus means 'iron hands', Celestine was an angel (or saint, can't remember) Fuegan is many a latin-based language word for fire (or similar to it, anyways.) Ragnar Blackmane: Ragnar Lodbrok. Ezekiel was a prophet, Asmodai is a hebrew name for one of the lords of the nine rings of hell, Azrael is the name of the angel of death (in hebrew, again.) I'm pretty sure the dark angels are based on the Israelites. Corbulo was a roman general, and that's all I've got off the top of my head.

Alot of these are very obvious, like Typhus being named after the disease, Huron is called Blackheart because of his black heart, Abbadon is another hebrew devil name, אֲבַדּוֹן‎, (jews tend to give their deities lots of names..... I would know from experience.)

Sanguinius, the primarch is Latin for blood.

MC

Ghazgul's second name:

Mag Uruk Thraka.

Sounds an awful lot like Margaret Thatcher, doesn't it?

Mekboy wrote:Ghazgul's second name:

Mag Uruk Thraka.

Sounds an awful lot like Margaret Thatcher, doesn't it?

I lol'd.

Wish GW would show anti-blue prejudice more regularly

A lot of the Dark Angels are named after (or very similarly to) the fallen angels exiled to earth in Christian Apochrypha, the Grigori. There's an awful lot of early Judaeo-Christian mythology floating around the 40k universe, though. Not least the entire idea of the Emperor. For example, the War in Heaven (Old Ones vs Necrontyr) is, unsurprisingly, named after the War in Heaven (God vs Satan)

In other news, the Praetorian Guard (the old Zulu War-style Imperial Guard) are much more likely to be named after Pretoria, current capital of South Africa and an area previously involved in the Zulu wars, than named for the PrAEtorian Guard, from the Roman Army.

Dante is obviously named after the poet, writer of The Inferno, a poem about hell.

Mephiston is a corruption of Mephistopheles, the demon in Faust

Also, according to his fluff Huron Blackheart was a passionate hunter and that's how he got his Hamatula... Huron is the Celtic god of forest and the hunt.

Horus was the son of the Emperor. In Egyptian mythology Horus was the son of Ra.
Wolftime is like the Norse Ragnarok, a battle in which all life is destroyed.
Sorta on topic sort of not the Autaurch for the striking scorpion's look's like the predator.

The Death Korps of Krieg (if non-personal names count in this thread ) is a nice army, but it's name is a blazing example of lack of creativity, as "Krieg" is simply the German word for "war". At least it's not stolen from some culture's mythology

Mekboy wrote:Ghazgul's second name:

Mag Uruk Thraka.

Sounds an awful lot like Margaret Thatcher, doesn't it?

Uruk is Black Speech for Ork.

Black Speech is the language of Mordor from Lord of the Rings.

^^
*snicker*
clarification...
*/snicker*

To be more useful, many of the primarchs are named in a way that phenomically links them to their temperments/strategic proclivities.

Angry Angron
Mortarion-mortis, death
Rowboat Gullyman sounds honorable-ish
Dorn-upstanding, strong name
Lorgar-Lord
etc

ArbitorIan wrote:A lot of the Dark Angels are named after (or very similarly to) the fallen angels exiled to earth in Christian Apochrypha, the Grigori. There's an awful lot of early Judaeo-Christian mythology floating around the 40k universe, though. Not least the entire idea of the Emperor. For example, the War in Heaven (Old Ones vs Necrontyr) is, unsurprisingly, named after the War in Heaven (God vs Satan)

In other news, the Praetorian Guard (the old Zulu War-style Imperial Guard) are much more likely to be named after Pretoria, current capital of South Africa and an area previously involved in the Zulu wars, than named for the PrAEtorian Guard, from the Roman Army.

Dante is obviously named after the poet, writer of The Inferno, a poem about hell.

Mephiston is a corruption of Mephistopheles, the demon in Faust

It's also very loosely based on greek mythology. Ares (Khaine,) the god of war, beleived Hephaestus, (Vaul) the forge god was a weakling, hence the dislike between them.


Hephaestus is also known in latin as Vulcan, hence Vulkan, the blacksmith primarch.

I reckon they got tzeencth by rolling on a chart ( they loved charts so much in the olden times ).. its such a weird name.

Perturbo is peturbed which IMO is the worst of the names.

Lion el johnson was named after some poet.. who worte about a dark secret.

Mekboy wrote:Ghazgul's second name:

Mag Uruk Thraka.

Sounds an awful lot like Margaret Thatcher, doesn't it?

lol that's briliant. never noticed.

These are prbably well known...

Sly Marbo is a combination of Sylvester Stalones nickname Sly and his character rambo.

Konrad Curze is an echo of Marlon brando's character Colonel Kurtz in Apocolypse Now. And the assasin that killed him M'shen is from Martin Sheen who was the assasin in Apocolypse Now.

Shaman wrote:Lion el johnson was named after some poet.. who worte about a dark secret.

Lionel johnson was a poet who wrote a peom called Dark Angel. "The secret" was actually his homosexuality, which as a catholic he anguished.

A lot of the space marine names are derived from latin and Vulkan, as in the primarch is probably derived from Vulcan, a fire god from some culture.

Conrad Curze is probably from Joseph Conrad author of The Heart of Darkness

There is a pessimistic quote in one of the Ciaphas Cain novels from a philosopher Eyor de Donki (Eeyore the Donkey)

I love this thread....

Bjorn, named after an old norse name, Bjorn, meaning bear.

Khorne is a Spartan name for Ares, the Greek god of war.

whatwhat wrote:

Shaman wrote:Lion el johnson was named after some poet.. who worte about a dark secret.

Lionel johnson was a poet who wrote a peom called Dark Angel. "The secret" was actually his homosexuality, which as a catholic he anguished.

Once I read in a e-zine a HUGE list of references compiled by a spanish gamer. If I find again...

Just to add in one that (hopefully) most people are unaware of - Termagant.

French in origin, the dictionary definition is "A quarrelsome or overbearing woman. "

Draw from this whatever conclusions you may choose.

Lol love the termagaunt one.

Most of tyranid specis names are from old honourifics:

Lictor, advisor to caesar,
Heirophant, type of priest,
Hyrodule court concubine, there's lots.

Also these are probably well duh but Corrax is the latin name for raven and well ifyou think about the words manipulate and ferric then Ferrus Manus isn't really a stretch.

Emmkay wrote:Also these are probably well duh but Corrax is the latin name for raven and well ifyou think about the words manipulate and ferric then Ferrus Manus isn't really a stretch.

In Spain is still easier, because our language is an evolution of Latin so... Iron = Ferrum = Hierro, Hands = Manus = Manos, Raven/Crow = Corvus = Cuervo (Corvo in Portuguese and Italian)...

Ahriman - The first personification of the Devil in Zoroastrianism

Commander Farsight (O'Shovah) - Shovah is the Goa'uld word for traitor From the Stargate SG-1 series.

Termagant - A name given to a god that the Europeans believed Muslims worshipped during the Middle Ages, also a word used to describe a shrewish woman.

Dominatrix - A Kinky woman who is probably more associated with the vices of Slaanesh, ask your parents .

I read in a book once, there was some old witch who to keep young bathed in childrens blood or something and she was refered to as a hormagaunt.

Obviously it was fiction..

Carnifex is latin for excutioner I believe.

Carnifex literally means something like "flesh-maker". It was used to mean "executioner" or, i believe, "butcher" as well.

whatwhat wrote:

...

Konrad Curze is an echo of Marlon brando's character Colonel Kurtz in Apocolypse Now. And the assasin that killed him M'shen is from Martin Sheen who was the assasin in Apocolypse Now.

Emmkay wrote:Conrad Curze is probably from Joseph Conrad author of The Heart of Darkness

You're both right. Apocalypse now was based on Heart of Darkness.

ashrog wrote: You're both right. Apocalypse now was based on Heart of Darkness.

Ahh see I didn't know that, I confess I've never actually got round to reading the book.

Corax and the Raven guard are both heavy references to Edgar Allen Poe's literature. Hence Corax saying "Nevermore"

C'tan is an archaic spelling of Satan. Hence the "war in heaven"

Mon'Keigh and Gue'La are both phonetic types of mispronunciation of Monkey and Guerrilla

Cain refers to imperial guard emergency rations as Soylens Veridians (Soylent Green)

In the BFG Book there is a reference to a Commodore Vier und Seichzig (Commodore 64)

Erebus was the son of the god Kaos in Greek mythology and the personification of evil

Also to crazypsyko666 horus in egyptian lore is the son of the "king" of the gods his favorite son i think