Do you name your models? And why?

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**Small, Far Away**

There are a lot of posts around asking for the names of your models, and there a lot of responses to these posts. I was wondering how many of you actually did this, as a numerical value.

And almost as importantly, why do you name your characters? Personally, I write my way into the story. It makes me feel heroic. Alternatly, why do you not name them?

So there you go, my study into the mentality of gamers.

I thank you for your time.

**DakkaHammer**

I like to name my HQ characters, my second's in command, and any model or tank that does really well in a game (as in epicly well). It adds character to the army which is a huge plus for me, as I can't really play an army without a theme or story. It also makes playing in campaigns that much more awesome, because you have a general with a history.
Also, keeping track of your favorite character's kill tally makes for some great boasting and trashtalk sessions.

**smUrfsrUs**

I find that there is fun to be had in naming your characters and writing fluff for them. It also helps you show where your army is going becuase thats what the characters do.

Another thing is that you end up developing a certain attachment to the guys you have named, maybe for the fluff you give them or for something they do in a game. This can create great laughs and allows you to get up set when the character dies because he is special, or its funny because thats why you named him - he keeps dieing.

When it comes to campains it also helps as you can bring the characters fluff into the campain for extra bonuses and disadvantages. This make the campain more fun to play for everyone.

**Mr Nobody**

I name my dreadnoughts.

**juraigamer**

I named my three chaos dreads kill, maim, and burn.

Beyond that, I've only named my Iron Hands captain, through fluff, and my apothecary, since I played one for a long deathwatch campaign.

**Galdos**

I name my HQ leaders (Commissar, my Captain, my General, and my Colonel) and my Kasrkin Squad leader but thats it.

**pwntallica**

as a SM player, I name my IC and vehicles. Some of my sgts and squads have earned names by performing well in multiple games. I enjoy the fluff, and find naming my characters adds the cherry on top of the sundae/sunday gaming session.

**Big Mek Dattrukk**

I name models here and there, either if they look cool (to me) ore they pull something Epic. My first Kan ever became named Skriplet the Deamon krumpa, after defeating 4 bloodletters and a Bloddthirster in CC.

**Jidmah**

I name anyone who deserves it.

The nob "Manslaughter" got his name after killing hundreds of guardsmen, including slaughtering two full veteran squads all by himself (last survivor of nob unit).

The battlewagon "Panzeetoaster" got its name after the burnaz inside evaporated an entire fortuned eldar seer council in on go.

The kopta pilot "Da Red Baron" got his name after destroying seven eldar warwalkers and a fire prism in one game.

The nob "Stupit" got his name for getting wounded by nine explosion in one game, and saving them all with his 6+ save. We are still making fun of how he got caught in blast waves so often, that he is now scorched black and immune to fire.

Plus, all my HQs are named, and actually have a short story written about them.

**DeffDred**

Chaplain T (because the final model had a "Mr. T-ish" quality)

Captain Apollo (Named after my friends Doberman)

Ancient Brother Ivan (Dread) (Named after a friend in highschool)

Urkasar Creed (This is not a misspelling) (Urkasar is my druid in WoW)

It was not until many years later that someone asked "Why did you name them all after Rockys opponents?"

To which I replied, "Huh? Oh wow... never noticed."

**Gutsnagga**

Yes! I love to name my models. It brings character and background to an army, which adds to both the hobby and gaming experience.
For example, My ork warboss (pics in my painting blog and gallery) is named Gutsnagga Mo-ork.
I named him gutsnagga, after the way I envisaged him killing his foes, and my friend dubbed him mo-ork, because of the rather large Mohican he sports.
My mek is named Dakkarunt 'Urtythug, and my Painboy is named Durbag Zogbag.
I also dub miniatures with titles after they have achieved especially spectacular results in battles, which will remain in my memory always.
So, in answer to your question, yes, I do name my models!

**Bobthehero**

Numbering my troops gives about as much personality to a Krieg army as possible, although I am establishing a small backstory for my squad of Grenadiers.

I do it mostly for the fun of it, but handing out numbers following a simple patern is well, simple.

**JohnnoM**

I name some of my models or convert them to something more awesome when they did something insanely badass.
Example:
A single Khorne Berserker that passed 18 armour saves by himself in 2 rounds of combat and dealing 1-2 unsaved wounds a round against a unit of grey hunters. He is now a Khornate Chaos Lord with Daemon Weapon :

.

**DeathReaper**

Do not name my army men, because I am not playing an RPG, I am playing a board game.

**Lord Rogukiel**

Characters, individual units such as dreads or tanks on which I can scroll a name are always named for me.

Sometimes a model that performs a particularly impressive feat may get named.

**Anpu42**

I name some of mine. Two of my Favorites are a pair of Lone Wolves.
Blitz and Muzzle

**wererat**

I have a melta guy who did extremly well in a tournament and so I gave him 27 purity seals to wear for the achievements and called him "Honorous" My twin land raides are also named Lazerus and Tempus. Finally I use Grimaldus frequently and while he is already named I decided to name the second chaplain in my army Whimaldus, Grim's whimpy brother.

**Shadox**

I try to name as much as possible of my models, but I have to remember the names I gave them as I just started recently to write them down. I made up a really cool name for my Dark Apostle but I just can't remember it and so I have to stick to my second choice (which I had no problems to remember at all 8[ ), so now he is just named Kor Tarais.

The other big ones are:
Heraphim Sokar, Scourge of Trajax, Chaptermaster of the Exorcists
Venerable Brother Tirias, my Venni-Dread
Ignacius Tradek, Captain of the 1st Company
Venerable Brother Florianus, my Ironclad, who is named after a good friend who passed away last year.
The Golden Saint, my Land Raider Redeemer/Crusader. Named after a Deadra from TES.
Shas'O Keras'In, my Tau Commander.
Commissar Retox, my single Steel Legion Commissar.

**SagesStone**

I name characters, vehicles, squads and squad leaders. But, originally I just named characters then later vehicles; I've been gradually increasing the amount of names. Though I have thought of going further and naming them individually I haven't gone that far yet.

For Eldar I have Farseer Seachran (counts as Eldrad) with her twin Autach Seachmall.

For SoB I have Canoness Alphonsine, Thorn's Blade and Palantine Lily, Duelest of the Thorn (who is now a dialogus with the current rules as in my own background she more or less lead through inspiration... ). Vehicles are the Requiem of Lillium, Agito, Velox and Exorcist Tempestas. The Rhinos have the fast names for probably the same reason Orks use red.

Then for squads there's Castigo, Secondus and Aegis of the Thorn.

For Daemons I have Iluni, The Eloquent Huntress, Nuan, Herald of Darkness, Lethe, Herald of Excess (surprisingly both of these heralds are just Daemonettes and not heralds

) and Nyarlathotep (because I based it on one of his forms and couldn't think up something else

). I guess you could call any of the Fiends Hastur, though none of them really have names; though one does have "puppets" so gets called the puppeteer fiend at times.

**Rogues Gambit**

never felt the need to name any of my stuff...and i hate the look of a name painted on the base plate, there is just something that feels so wrong about it to me.

I might name my characters on a list sheet but that depends on the game i'm playing. i'll also name a character for special events that are not stricktly 40k army vs army, but more like duel and whatever but even then i will not write a name on the base plate or anything, just refer to the models name in passing or on my list sheet.

but that is very rare anyway, so no i don't name them and i don't feel the need to in simple skirmish war games

**Vampirate of Sartosa**

Yes, I do. I name my characters for all my armies, and even the individual units for my Space Marines. It gives them a personality, I feel.

**Jidmah**

You don't need to paint the name on them to name them. You aren't wearing a name tag at all times either, are you?

**Coolyo294**

I named my Iron Warriors Warsmith Bob... Other then that, I don't name my models.

**Skriker**

I don't often name models...though if a model does really well I try to do so. I had a SM captain named Captain Awesome, because even though he was armed with a single lightning claw and a stormbolter he never lost in melee combat, no matter what he faced. He got shot a few times and killed, but never in melee. He found himself in some serious melee situations too, some of which I still don't know how I won the fights with him.

Skriker