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Hey guys,

I am making a space marine chapter and have a question about space marine naming. Space marine heroes tend to have two names, such as Cato Sicarius or Darnath Lysander. Their last name is used when addressed: Captain Sicarius, Captain Lysander. But I read the Blood Angels omnibus and the main character is Brother Rafen. Rafen has a brother (a real blood brother) who is also a Blood Angel, and his name is Brother Arkio, so it appears they use first names for average marines. My question is would an average battle brother have two names? and which one would be used when addressed?

I would say their surname but... that wouldn't make sense.
They might use their forenames in that situation to avoid confsion, or more likely the culture of Baal doesn't have the same naming traditions as we do.

In fact, few Blood Angels have surnames if any. Commander Dante, Librarian Mephiston, Captain Tycho, Brother Moriar, Chaplain Lemartes, etc. They're all first names. Blood Angels series is a great read, by the way.

Remember alot of Marines have two names, their original name before they joined and their Chapter name. A good example would be the DEATHWING Story, where the Native American Indians have traditional names like "Two Heads talking" but their Chapter name is "Ezekiel" or whatever.

Surnames or family names are a pretty recent invention in many places - as I recall they've been a matter of law here for just a hundred years or so. Before that commoners used patronymics and that's exactly what people use in a lot of cultures to this day. I'd imagine the marines where surnames are common usually recruit from the sort of cultures where they use such, whereas a chapter recruiting from primitive worlds will stick to one name and possible honorifics earned.

how about Steve...

mwnciboo wrote:Remember alot of Marines have two names, their original name before they joined and their Chapter name. A good example would be the DEATHWING Story, where the Native American Indians have traditional names like "Two Heads talking" but their Chapter name is "Ezekiel" or whatever.

Not sure how accurate this is.

While the Dark Angels have a practice of re-naming their recruits, most chapters that I can remember do not. Specifically the Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Salamanders and Imperial Fists all do not give them 'Chapter names', at least if you take the Black Library works as the most up-to-date fluff. These Chapters all have recent works where the protagonist was either a non-Astartes at the beginning of the book (Ragnar Blackmane, Jean-Robur du Queste) or can remember being addressed by their name before they became one (Rafen, Da'kir). 'Tis also specifically stated that the Dark Angels have this practice, so I'm not sure how wide-spread it is outside of the Unforgiven.

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I think the easiest solution is to keep in mind with hundreds of thousands of different cultures, it makes sense that their naming conventions may not be the same. The Blood Angels recruit from tribes on Baal Secundus, so they may actually identify themselves as -insert name here- of tribe -tribe name-.

Generally speaking, military ranks are followed by the surname such as Captain Tycho. Religious titles often use the first name, at least in Christianity from whence the inspiration for the Ecclesiarchy comes. An example might be Brother Captain Erasmus (Tycho's first name) or Brother Zael.
According to Lexicanum, Mephiston is something of an assumed name that he took after he conquered his red thirst and learned to control it.
Marines are named after the local fashion of the people they are recruited from. As Chapters tend to recruit from a limited number of sources or even just one like the Space Wolves, marines within a Chapter tend to have names (and traditions) that represent specific human cultures.

It depends on the chapter, I believe. Some may use their original names, like the IF, or in some cases embellish their names as appropriate. A lot of the more reknowned SW have taken monikers in the style of Norse heroes, such as Ragnar Blackmane (named after the wolf he killed during initiation) or Lukas the Trickster (named after his own jackassery). Even more orthodox chapters sometimes take on monikers, such as Mephiston, as Cadbren points out.

Most likely it varies from chapter to chapter.

Some chapters, which have a strong sense of history, allow recruits to keep their own name, and maybe have two names.

Other chapters probably just assign a unique name when they mind wipe the recruit during the psychological conditioning.

I may challenge myself to naming my marines and painting them on the bases - with Polish names! I may need to use 40mm bases though
edit - ever since I read this Captain Kossobudzki sounds like a fitting inspiration