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Hello there Dakkanauts !

We wargamers love our toyz so much we give them names. Don't you ? Even without creating a new chapter/klan/sept/what-have-you from scratch, naming your characters is a neat way to breathe some life into your army and its story !
So I'd like to identify the naming conventions used in 41M for each faction, be it inspiration from existing sources or in-universe rules of thumb concerning sounds. Even your own interpretation !

From the top of my head :

Space Marines often take their names from varied mythological figures.

Black Templars : German names and mythology, e.g. Siegfried from the Nibelungenlied.

Blood Angels : Renaissance Italy, e.g. Borgia, the famed Italian noble house ; angelic and heroic figures, e.g. Bellerophon, slayer of the Chimera and rider of Pegasus ; association with Hell, e.g. Dante, protagonist of the Divine Comedy.

Dark Angels : grim angelic figures, Hebrew names, e.g. Azrael, angel of Death.

Ultramarines : ancient Roma and Greece influence, Latin/Greek names, e.g. Sicarius.

Space Wolves : Nordic mythology, e.g. Loki, the Trickster God.

Chaos Space Marines

mythological figures associated with ruin and evil, e.g. Ahriman, the primordial entity of destruction in Zoroastrianism.

names related to the Chaos Gods' respective domains, e.g. Typhus, a group of parasitic diseases.

Orks

guttural, harsh sounds generally speaking.

orks who made a name for themselves are often a brutal Nounverba, e.g. Bonesmasha, Spinerippa.

The floor's yours !

Dark Eldar: Various influences.

- Lelith Hesperax. Lilith is, in Assyrian and Talmudic tradition, a she-devil, the embodiment of all evils of womanhood. The figure has been recently vindicated by wiccans and feminist occultists as the original woman who, refusing to bow to the male and choosing to remain free, was chastised by God. Hesperus is the Greek name for the evening star, aka the planet Venus.

- Urien Rakhart: First name could come from Uriel the archangel. In Christian apocripha he's said to be the Angel of Pennance. For the Copts, he's either the "Archangel of thunder and fear" or the warden of the Underworld. Rakhart sounds made up to me.

- Duke Sliscus: The title "Duke" could be a nod to David Bowie, who went by the moniker "The White Duke" in the late 70s. Sliscus evokes a snake.

- Asdrubael Vect: Hasdrubal Barca was a Cartaginese general during the Second Punic Wars. Wrestled the Iberian Peninsula from roman control and attempted to cross the Alps and lay siege to Rome, unsuccesfully.

- Lady Aurelia Malys: A common name of Roman origin, meaning "golden" in latin. Malys seems a distortion from latin "malis" (meaning disgrace or misfortune).

In general, Dark Eldar names mix classical, hebrew/kabbalistic, occult and pop culture references.

Chaos
Nurgle- Comes from Nergal a Babylonian god of the underworld, death, and diseases. Not generally seen as a pleasant chap but one of the higher up gods when it came to death. His title Lord of the Flies comes from Beelzebub, another name for Satan which translates to Lord of the Flies.

Epidimius- Comes from epidemic, an apt name as one who's job is to spread plagues

Korne- Comes from another Babylonian god, also named Khorne though several spellings exist, who was a god of vengeance.

Horus- Taken from the Egyptian god Horus, though I cannot find where the similarities may continue from there. Some sources say that Horus was a god of war but beyond that, the two seem radically different.

Abaddon the Despoiler- Comes from the book of Revelations, Abaddon the Destroyer is the name of the angel of the pit who unleashes onto the world a swarm of terrible insects to torment mankind.

Necrons
Imotekh- Imhotep was an ancient Egyptian architect, considered to be one of if not the first, as well as an engineer and physician.

Orikan the Diviner- Orikan most likely comes from oracle, a profession which he embodies by telling the future and always making sure that it is correct.

Iguard
Marbo- Rambo...duh

Space Marines
White scars - Obviously inspiration for this chapter came from the Mongolians. Names, style of warfare, tradition etc.

IG

Valhallan IG - Inspiration taken from the Russan army, most likely during WW2.

Vostroyan IG - Inspiration taken from the Cossack people, atleast to some degree.

DKoK - Inspiration taken from the German army, most likely WW1.

Attilan rough riders - Obviously based on the Hunnic empire during the time of Attila, the mid 400's.

Thatguy91 wrote:Space Marines
DKoK - Inspiration taken from the German army, most likely WW1.

This is regularly touched upon: the DK don't have that much actually in common w/ Germany other than a clearly German name.

Oh, also, the notes on DE and Chaos notes were fairly surprising, thanks for that info

spiralingcadaver wrote:

Thatguy91 wrote:Space Marines
DKoK - Inspiration taken from the German army, most likely WW1.

This is regularly touched upon: the DK don't have that much actually in common w/ Germany other than a clearly German name.

Oh, also, the notes on DE and Chaos notes were fairly surprising, thanks for that info

The DKoK are a mix of WW1 French/German/Belgium as I understood it, with names of people, places and things being primary German.

For Sisters of Battle, I tend to stick to French or Spanish names. Some Greek ones may be fitting as well, especially the mythological ones. Old English can be fine as well.
It's what the majority of authors, both from GW as well as licensed material, tend to use, and I think it fits nicely.

Examples: Arabella, Bethany, Cassandra, Diona, Emeline, Galatea, Helena, Isabella, ...

Some novels include Sororitas from a different phenotype, such as Asians or Blacks, whose different appearance is then stressed by an appropriate name, such as Sister Superior Reiko, or Sister Ananke. That works, too, I think.

What culture inspired orks?

Blood Angels are not associated with Hell, the names come from Archangels, eg Raphael and from Renaissance Italy

tantan628 wrote:What culture inspired orks?

English football hooligans. No really.

True dat.

Azure wrote:ChaosHorus- Taken from the Egyptian god Horus, though I cannot find where the similarities may continue from there. Some sources say that Horus was a god of war but beyond that, the two seem radically different.

Horus was the son of the king god as well wasn't he? The name could simply be to emphasis the betrayal- the greatest champion sided with Set instead of killing him. Also there's a demon called Haures in the Bible. Pronounced Horus.

Abaddon the Despoiler- Comes from the book of Revelations, Abaddon the Destroyer is the name of the angel of the pit who unleashes onto the world a swarm of terrible insects to torment mankind.

Also the name of the one destined to end the Apocalypse by destroying the devil. Doesn't really suit until you take into account the Cabal's plan in Legion...

Also, the Emperor's Children in general seem to have Roman era or biblical names, Julius, Lucius, Marius. Saul and Solomon were champions of God and kings in the Bible.

Kharn could just be a reference to Carnage, though he did build a cairn of his enemies during the siege of the Imperial Palace...

The primarchs are mostly simple enough:
Angron: Means 'calm, cool and collected'. Kidding. Anger.
Ferrus Manus: Means Iron Hand. Technically should be Manus Ferra.
Sanguinius: Sanguine means bloody I believe. Primarch of the Blood Angels.
Alpharius Omegon: "I am the Alpha and the Omega"
Corax: Corvus corax is the common raven.
Mortarion: Mort, death. Primarch of the Death Guard.
Khan: Historically, Ghengis Khan led a tribe of nomads that favoured mounted fast assaults. Jaghatai was one of Ghengis' sons.
Vulkan: Vulcan was the Roman forge god. Might have some connection to volcanoes as well, not sure.
Lion'el Johnson: A poet, Lionel Johnson. Wrote 'The Dark Angel'
Guilliman: May be related to guile. May be like Robert of Molesme, who wrote the rules for an order of monks.
Kurze: Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, has a main character called Kurtze.
Magnus: Means great. Similar to Magus, meaning mage or wise person.
Rogal Dorn: Dorn is Irish for fist. Rogal could be regal. Royal Fist? No idea really.
Fulgrim: Full and grim- he gets what he wants, but is damned for it.
Perturabo: I think Pert means hard or iron in some language. Also the Perturbation theory can be used in mathematics to get an estimate if you can't get an exact answer. That has no real relevance though.
Russ: May come from russet?
Not sure about the others.

Durza wrote:Ferrus Manus: Means Iron Hand. Technically should be Manus Ferra.

Perturabo: I think Pert means hard or iron in some language. Also the Perturbation theory can be used in mathematics to get an estimate if you can't get an exact answer. That has no real relevance though.

In context, I think Ferrus Manus means "This has to go to the editor by five and I've run out of more imaginative names.".

Perdurabo in Latin means "I will endure", it was one of English occultist Aleister Crowley's pseudonyms. I suspect some studio hack misspelled it once, leaving them forever stuck with it.

Durza wrote:Angron: Means 'calm, cool and collected'. Kidding. Anger.
Ferrus Manus: Means Iron Hand. Technically should be Manus Ferra.
Sanguinius: Sanguine means bloody I believe. Primarch of the Blood Angels.
Alpharius Omegon: "I am the Alpha and the Omega"
Corax: Corvus corax is the common raven.
Mortarion: Mort, death. Primarch of the Death Guard.
Khan: Historically, Ghengis Khan led a tribe of nomads that favoured mounted fast assaults. Jaghatai was one of Ghengis' sons.
Vulkan: Vulcan was the Roman forge god. Might have some connection to volcanoes as well, not sure.

Vulkan, or the Greek Hephaestus, was indeed assosciated with volcanoes. Also forges, creation, artifice, etc. Also, sanguine can be used to mean opptimistic, hopeful, or confident.

the ultramarines are heavily associated with ancient greek culture, the omega charchter is greek, and thier fortress monastery: the 'fortress of hera', relates to the greek god hera

lukyboi wrote:the ultramarines are heavily associated with ancient greek culture, the omega charchter is greek, and thier fortress monastery: the 'fortress of hera', relates to the greek god hera

Also, they are painted ultramarine.

Awesome. Thanks for the contributions !

I thought while writing about editing the OP to list all the information we'd gather but you've already surpassed my expectations
I'll just add the bits I forgot about the factions I mentioned for now.

Castiel wrote:Blood Angels are not associated with Hell, the names come from Archangels, eg Raphael and from Renaissance Italy

True, they do have a strong Renaissance feeling, what with them being quite the artists themselves. I stand by my observation that Dante, Astorath (Astaroth) and Mephiston (Mephistopheles) evoke a hellish imagery to me, which I think underlines their curse.

Hope someone will find this helpful in their quest for inspiration, or find the anecdotes interesting. I for one revel in that sort of things.

We're not done yet though ! For instance, I was wondering where the bits of Tau language we know draw inspiration from. As a civilization IIRC they borrow from Asian cultures (Greater Good = Confucianism in space ?) but I'm clueless about the sounds.

Durza wrote:Also, they are painted ultramarine.

No, actually, ultramarine looks like this:


(…depending on your screen of course. It's a pretty light and purply blue).

MOAR!

Imperial Guard:

- Tallarn: Vaguely arabic. Al'rahem, in particular, seems inspired both in name and fluff (at least in its current incarnation - older fluff has more of a T. E. Lawrence/Arab Rebellion feel to it) by the Berber chieftain, guerrilla fighter and master tactician Muhammad Abd El-Krim.

- Catachan: Vaguely american with a bada$$-80s action movie spin. Hawkes, Steeles and Strykers probably go here.

Tau: The Tau have their own naming conventions, listed in their codex. The only quirk seems to be the nicknames earned by famous commanders such as Shadowsun or Farsight.

Necrons:

- Anrakyr: Name could come from the egyptian symbol Ankh. Alternatively, from the character Rakhir the Red created by Michael Moorcock or simply a misspelling of the word "anarchy".

- Orikan the Diviner: See, later last year I found out casually who the inspiration for this guy was. My mind, otherwise a perfect repository for all things useless, seems to have erased it, though.

- Zahndrekh: Zahn is german for "tooth"

Eldar (let's tackle some of the Phoenix Lords)

- Asurmen, Phoenix Lord of the Dire Avengers: Sounds like the Assyrian king Assurbanipal, known for his conquests and the vicious punishments he inflicted on his foes.

- Jain Zar, Phoenix Lady of the Howling Banshees: Either a corruption of the word "Janissary", elite ottoman slave-soldiers, or a mention to the Indian religion of Jainism, ironically, "the path of non-violence".

- Fuegan: "Fuego", spanish for "fire".

- Baharroth: "Bahar" is a common persian name. The name evokes something iranian or maybe indian, that eludes me.

While irish gaelic is the most basic inspiration for most eldar words and names, there are also strong middle eastern and hindi influences.

spiralingcadaver wrote:

Durza wrote:Also, they are painted ultramarine.

No, actually, ultramarine looks like this:


(…depending on your screen of course. It's a pretty light and purply blue).

Synthetic ultramarine, on the other hand:

Horus- Taken from the Egyptian god Horus, though I cannot find where the similarities may continue from there. Some sources say that Horus was a god of war but beyond that, the two seem radically different.

Something tells me that was the point.

Most of IG tanks are mithic creature (Basilisk).

Tau is a Greek letter I believe. The apostrophe just makes it more alien.

Horus- Taken from the Egyptian god Horus, though I cannot find where the similarities may continue from there. Some sources say that Horus was a god of war but beyond that, the two seem radically different.

Something tells me that was the point.

What I don't understand then is why Horus? Why not Quetzalcoatl, indisputably a god of war, maybe Ares? Horus just seems... lackluster. Durza makes some other interesting points that I did not know though, which probably adds to why the chosen name

Azure wrote:

Horus- Taken from the Egyptian god Horus, though I cannot find where the similarities may continue from there. Some sources say that Horus was a god of war but beyond that, the two seem radically different.

Something tells me that was the point.

What I don't understand then is why Horus? Why not Quetzalcoatl, indisputably a god of war, maybe Ares? Horus just seems... lackluster. Durza makes some other interesting points that I did not know though, which probably adds to why the chosen name

Alliteration. The Aerisian Heresy doesn't have the right ring to it, and the Aerisian Uprising doesn't have the same sense of gravity. That's my theory anyway. More likely they were just looking for old sounding names, and someone said "Horus?" because it was two minutes into their lunchtime.

~sigh~ That may be more right then I want it to be

Hyd wrote:Hello there Dakkanauts !

Space Wolves : Nordic mythology, e.g. Loki, the Trickster God.

Spacewolves isn't just mythology. Ragnar for instance, was a Swedish Viking King who torched france twice over, captured Paris and forced the king to bribe him out of destroying the entire city. Because he was awesome like that.

Durza wrote:
The primarchs are mostly simple enough:
Angron: Means 'calm, cool and collected'. Kidding. Anger.
Ferrus Manus: Means Iron Hand. Technically should be Manus Ferra.
Sanguinius: Sanguine means bloody I believe. Primarch of the Blood Angels.
Alpharius Omegon: "I am the Alpha and the Omega"
Corax: Corvus corax is the common raven.
Mortarion: Mort, death. Primarch of the Death Guard.
Khan: Historically, Ghengis Khan led a tribe of nomads that favoured mounted fast assaults. Jaghatai was one of Ghengis' sons.
Vulkan: Vulcan was the Roman forge god. Might have some connection to volcanoes as well, not sure.
Lion'el Johnson: A poet, Lionel Johnson. Wrote 'The Dark Angel'
Guilliman: May be related to guile. May be like Robert of Molesme, who wrote the rules for an order of monks.
Kurze: Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, has a main character called Kurtze.
Magnus: Means great. Similar to Magus, meaning mage or wise person.
Rogal Dorn: Dorn is Irish for fist. Rogal could be regal. Royal Fist? No idea really.
Fulgrim: Full and grim- he gets what he wants, but is damned for it.
Perturabo: I think Pert means hard or iron in some language. Also the Perturbation theory can be used in mathematics to get an estimate if you can't get an exact answer. That has no real relevance though.
Russ: May come from russet?
Not sure about the others.

*takes a deep breath*
Mmmmm. Delicious wikipedia. I remember the days before the internet...

"Eldar" is Sindarian for "star-people" or "people of the stars"

"Kruellagh the Vile" *AHEM* let's not go there

Kharn means betrayer in arabic -for Arab fw customers it means betrayer the betrayer lol.

CuddlySquig wrote:

Durza wrote:
The primarchs are mostly simple enough:
Angron: Means 'calm, cool and collected'. Kidding. Anger.
Ferrus Manus: Means Iron Hand. Technically should be Manus Ferra.
Sanguinius: Sanguine means bloody I believe. Primarch of the Blood Angels.
Alpharius Omegon: "I am the Alpha and the Omega"
Corax: Corvus corax is the common raven.
Mortarion: Mort, death. Primarch of the Death Guard.
Khan: Historically, Ghengis Khan led a tribe of nomads that favoured mounted fast assaults. Jaghatai was one of Ghengis' sons.
Vulkan: Vulcan was the Roman forge god. Might have some connection to volcanoes as well, not sure.
Lion'el Johnson: A poet, Lionel Johnson. Wrote 'The Dark Angel'
Guilliman: May be related to guile. May be like Robert of Molesme, who wrote the rules for an order of monks.
Kurze: Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, has a main character called Kurtze.
Magnus: Means great. Similar to Magus, meaning mage or wise person.
Rogal Dorn: Dorn is Irish for fist. Rogal could be regal. Royal Fist? No idea really.
Fulgrim: Full and grim- he gets what he wants, but is damned for it.
Perturabo: I think Pert means hard or iron in some language. Also the Perturbation theory can be used in mathematics to get an estimate if you can't get an exact answer. That has no real relevance though.
Russ: May come from russet?
Not sure about the others.

*takes a deep breath*
Mmmmm. Delicious wikipedia. I remember the days before the internet...

Just me actually. Kind of bad form in my opinion to use wikipedia to find the meaning of something and not say it.

Azure wrote:
Horus- Taken from the Egyptian god Horus, though I cannot find where the similarities may continue from there. Some sources say that Horus was a god of war but beyond that, the two seem radically different.




Something tells me that was the point.


What I don't understand then is why Horus? Why not Quetzalcoatl, indisputably a god of war, maybe Ares? Horus just seems... lackluster. Durza makes some other interesting points that I did not know though, which probably adds to why the chosen name

Alliteration. The Aerisian Heresy doesn't have the right ring to it, and the Aerisian Uprising doesn't have the same sense of gravity. That's my theory anyway. More likely they were just looking for old sounding names, and someone said "Horus?" because it was two minutes into their lunchtime.

I menat that they choose that because they are opposites.