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Now I know that back in the day, GW named plenty of characters with humorous titles, like everyone's favorite warboss being named after Mrs. Thatcher. However, while binge learning, I found out plenty about the bird species named Shrike, like Capt. Shrike. They look like a generic songbird, similar to a house finch, but they are actually fierce predators. They kill their prey (insects and small creatures) by impaling them on sticks and sharp objects that they have prepared around their nest. Their mating ritual contains the usual dancing and featherwork, except in the later stages the male's collection of corpses around his nest must be sufficient to impress the female, or he's single. I found it funny, after finding out that their sharpened sticks are often called "shrike's talons". Big guy w/ claws doesn't equal killer songbird in my head.

Anyway, has anyone ever noticed other examples of this?

The planet Metalica? Named after...the metal band?

Did you learn that from Cracked?

coolyo294 wrote:Did you learn that from Cracked?

That's where it started, but I read into it beyond our favorite list-based humor site.

In The Traitor's Hand there is a quote from a book called "Memoirs of a Pessimist," written by Eyor Dedonki...

I heard Nurgle was named after yo momma.

Yeah I went there.



... it's very late where I live. I think I need sleep.

Vel'cona is probably a bastardization of "volcano." Pyriel is probably based on the word "pyre."

And then there's the speculation around the Dark angel's primarch, and the poet Leon Johnson. He even had a poem iirc called Dark Angel.