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 ImAGeek wrote:

 ChazSexington wrote:

 ImAGeek wrote:

 ChazSexington wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Gashrog wrote:
Lion'El Johnson because it was changed to make it so recognizable that nobody could miss it, originally he was named Lyyn Elgonsen.

....But it's still not silly at all. Leon Johnson would not make anyone bat an eye. Nor would Lionel Johnson. The only thing weird bout Lion El'Johnson is the El' part, but all it means is serving the same purpose as Von in German, De in French, Of in English, etc. A more direct version of the name in modern-day English would be Leon of Johnson or Lionel of Johnson, or for a more direct translation of his name's meaning in 40k, Leon Deforest.

All of which mean "Lion of the Forest" more or less in modern English and French. I mean seriously, you could totally run into a person named Leon Deforest and it would not be unique enough to even bat an eye at.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Johnson

Well...

That doesn't make it silly though. In fact as Primarchs go, naming him after a poet who wrote a poem called 'the dark angel' is downright subtle.

He lived a solitary life in London, struggling with alcoholism and his repressed homosexuality.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeell

I'm still not seeing why that makes them silly, unless you're making some immature gay joke.

I think he's saying GW was making a gay joke

 Will_H wrote:
Rowboat Girlyman, by far

I occasionally remember this name out of the blue and giggle to myself, regardless of where I am at the time.
It's been weeks since I first heard somebody say it and I can't not laugh.

[Hangs head in shame]

Lion El'Jonson- Lionel Johnson (Writer of the poem that gave the Dark Angels their name)
Magnus- One letter of "Magus"
Angron- Angry
Mortarion- Death
Corax- Raven
Alpharius- Alpha
Sanguinius- Blood
Konrad Curze- Joseph Conrad+Curze (The writer and villain of "Heart of Darkness"). Also, this was adapted into the war movie "Apocalypse Now", where a rogue commander called Kurtz is assassinated by Martin Sheen. Kind of like when a rogue commander called Curze was assassinated by M'Shen

However, the one that takes the cake for me is Ferrus Manus. A man named Iron Hands, who has Iron Hands and leads a legion called the Iron Hands

Magnus is a bit silly because he's the wizard primarch and his name is one letter away from Magus.

 Sir Samuel Buca wrote:
In the more recent BL HH audio books they pronounce Roboute Guilliman as "Ro-Butt-Ayy Gill-Iman" and I think it sounds just fine, in my head it was always "Rob-Yowt Gwill-ee-man", but the new, official(?) pronunciation is wonderful I think.

Back on topic, I voted Corvus Corax, it's just a bit dull.
Also, don't some Primarchs have longer names now? Horus Lupercal, Lorgar Aurelian, I love their surnames.

I just can't pronounce Roboute out loud in any way except 'rawbutt'. Sometimes a Russian accent sucks
Also, I don't know about Lorgar, but Lupercal was a nickname given to Horus by his troops iirc.

It's pronounced Ra-bout, iirc

Hi Tech Minis has a primarch model that's called PROTURBO. He's supposed to be the Iron Warriors leader obviously but now my brother and I just refer to him as Proturbo cause its hilarious

I think Angry Ron and Lionel Johnson top the list.

 Deadshot wrote:
The only names that arn't silly are Magnus, Horus, Lorgar, Leman Russ.

Leman Russ because its a badass name with connotations of wildness and ferocity while having no obvious connection to his theme (Like Lion, Kurze, or Alpharius)

Magnus is somewhat silly because its the Latin word for Great (size) and huge, but for one unversed in Latin it commands authority.

Lorgar because its a unique name with a dark sound to it.

And Horus, not only badass, was also a very important God in Ancient Egypt, I believe.

Vulkan was a Roman god of fire and smithing and was known as Hephaestus to the Greeks. You were also right about Horus being an important God of Ancient Egypt.

Leman Russ:

Yes, okay, a lemon, whatever.

Russ? As in what the Vikings called themselves?

So this is Primarch Vikings of the Vikings Legion?

Clever.

Gotta cast my vote for Iron Hand, master of the Iron Hands, featuring iron hands.

Most of them are pretty silly though. Dark Angels have always cracked me up.

 Deadshot wrote:
And Horus, not only badass, was also a very important God in Ancient Egypt, I believe.

Who overthrew his Grandfather (Ra) for the title of pharaoh... although he had help from his mother Isis (she pretty much masterminded the whole plot).

 King Pariah wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:
And Horus, not only badass, was also a very important God in Ancient Egypt, I believe.

Who overthrew his Grandfather (Ra) for the title of pharaoh... although he had help from his mother Isis (she pretty much masterminded the whole plot).

This is in a way similar to Warmaster Horus, who tried overthrowing his father, though the Horus Heresy is more based after God/Lucifer rather than Ancient Egypt mythology.

2BlackJack1 wrote:

 King Pariah wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:
And Horus, not only badass, was also a very important God in Ancient Egypt, I believe.

Who overthrew his Grandfather (Ra) for the title of pharaoh... although he had help from his mother Isis (she pretty much masterminded the whole plot).

This is in a way similar to Warmaster Horus, who tried overthrowing his father, though the Horus Heresy is more based after God/Lucifer rather than Ancient Egypt mythology.

I think it's more a way of showing that 40K isn't stolen from one thing, but inspired by many. Horus the primarch is a blend of both stories (and others to a lesser extent).

Jes Goodwin had an interview in White Dwarf in the long long ago where he explained that the Ultramarines weren't Roman, they were just lots of Classical era cultures put together, and the Spwolves weren't "vikings", but a blent of many Nordic and Celtic, etc.

40K has always been heavily derivative, blending just enough of everything so that there is always a faction that will appeal to someone. Hence its widespread and lasting appeal. No matter what you like from history or pop culture, there's probably a 40K faction for that.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
Leman Russ:

Yes, okay, a lemon, whatever.

Russ? As in what the Vikings called themselves?

So this is Primarch Vikings of the Vikings Legion?

Clever.

But that's a Space Wolf recurring theme, They are the Viking Wolves led by a Viking Wolf riding Wolves and wielding Wolf blades and wolfy wolfy vikingy wolf.
Bro culture Chapter represent!

 Khonsu wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
Leman Russ:

Yes, okay, a lemon, whatever.

Russ? As in what the Vikings called themselves?

So this is Primarch Vikings of the Vikings Legion?

Clever.

But that's a Space Wolf recurring theme, They are the Viking Wolves led by a Viking Wolf riding Wolves and wielding Wolf blades and wolfy wolfy vikingy wolf.
Bro culture Chapter represent!

That's 40k though, there's a lot less of that in the Heresy stuff. They don't even call themselves Space Wolves, they're the Vylka Fenryka.

 ImAGeek wrote:

 Khonsu wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
Leman Russ:

Yes, okay, a lemon, whatever.

Russ? As in what the Vikings called themselves?

So this is Primarch Vikings of the Vikings Legion?

Clever.

But that's a Space Wolf recurring theme, They are the Viking Wolves led by a Viking Wolf riding Wolves and wielding Wolf blades and wolfy wolfy vikingy wolf.
Bro culture Chapter represent!

That's 40k though, there's a lot less of that in the Heresy stuff. They don't even call themselves Space Wolves, they're the Vylka Fenryka.

"The Valkyries of Fenris".

Primarch Viking of the Vikings legion.

I just meant the overuse of Wolf, but ok. Valkyries of Fenris is cool. It also isn't Viking. So it's not Primarch Viking of the Viking legion, so it's already not as bad as Iron Hand who leads the Iron Hands with Metal hands and most of them also have metal hands...

Valkyries of Feris kind of makes sense, that's how they present themselves when they go recruiting.

Whiskey144 wrote:

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
I rather enjoy the subtlety of Lionel Johnson, because let's be realistic, without the Internet constantly telling people the joke, most people wouldn't have any idea who Lionel Johnson was or that he wrote a poem called Dark Angel. Likewise the likelihood of Roboute Guilliman being a reference to Robert Gillman Jackson, a master of, you guessed it, logistics and nation development, with the UN in the 50s, 60s, and 70s is quite clever.

[Emphasis mine]

I actually had no idea that that Guilliman's name was a reference to somebody the same way that some of the other primarchs are. My mind is blown. Seriously, some ears are bleeding here.

I actually wonder if there's another aspect to this. The two chemists who invented a synthetic version of the ultramarine pigment were Jean Baptiste Guimet and Christian Gmelin. If you smash their surnames together...

Crispy78 wrote:

Whiskey144 wrote:

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
I rather enjoy the subtlety of Lionel Johnson, because let's be realistic, without the Internet constantly telling people the joke, most people wouldn't have any idea who Lionel Johnson was or that he wrote a poem called Dark Angel. Likewise the likelihood of Roboute Guilliman being a reference to Robert Gillman Jackson, a master of, you guessed it, logistics and nation development, with the UN in the 50s, 60s, and 70s is quite clever.

[Emphasis mine]

I actually had no idea that that Guilliman's name was a reference to somebody the same way that some of the other primarchs are. My mind is blown. Seriously, some ears are bleeding here.

I actually wonder if there's another aspect to this. The two chemists who invented a synthetic version of the ultramarine pigment were Jean Baptiste Guimet and Christian Gmelin. If you smash their surnames together...

The more I learn about 40k, the more ill-thought every other universe seems in comparison.

40k just keeps getting bigger...

2BlackJack1 wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:
The only names that arn't silly are Magnus, Horus, Lorgar, Leman Russ.

Leman Russ because its a badass name with connotations of wildness and ferocity while having no obvious connection to his theme (Like Lion, Kurze, or Alpharius)

Magnus is somewhat silly because its the Latin word for Great (size) and huge, but for one unversed in Latin it commands authority.

Lorgar because its a unique name with a dark sound to it.

And Horus, not only badass, was also a very important God in Ancient Egypt, I believe.

Vulkan was a Roman god of fire and smithing and was known as Hephaestus to the Greeks. You were also right about Horus being an important God of Ancient Egypt.

I do appreciate it and its not quite as silly as Ferrus Manus of the Ferrum Mani (Iron Hand of the Iron Hands), but the overuse of the fire theme is almost as bad as the overuse of wolf or blood. Vulkan, where the word Volcano comes from, has more connotations of fire than Hephaestus, which would be my preference.

Roboute is definitely the silliest name.

Most of the Chapters have some social or historical significance in that they represent a particular culture. Khan is the best example - having a very clearly Mongolian name and being father to the chapter that almost exactly mirrors the Mongols of 4th Century.

Not all the name are that obvious, but they all either come from (or could be derived from) real world cultures and civilizations.

Roboute is just too easy to make fun of... come on "Raw Butt Girly Man"... it's so true!! Plus his legion has basically ruined the 40k setting

Runners up are Angron (sounds like the just wanted his name to be 'Angry' but didn't want to sound stupid - guess it didn't work out).

and Alpharius Omegon (Not only is the Alpha - Omega thing SUPER tried at this point, but it's also a massive hole in the lore since there being "two" Primarchs for one legion just made things muddy).

Leman Russ is okay, since it at least sounds Nordic - but I think a name like Fenris would probably have suited the Primarch better. At the very least it's more original... I still don't like the wolves though.

Sanguinius was a fine name, but I don't like it because it's ties to "blood" and the subsequent ties of "blood" to "vampire". I think I speak collectively for the whole of western civilization when I say that if I never hear the word "Vampire" again it will be too soon. Can that fad please be over now?

Robo ute gulli man.
Guy with pronounciation i'd have to research... nope, silly, will make fun it. Also shoving a book of theories into somebodies face as the only solution is a dickmove.

Leman Russ is okay, since it at least sounds Nordic

???????? not even remotely.

Leman Russ doesn't sound Nordic at all fyi.
And you don't need to be Scandinavian to know that.

 Khonsu wrote:
Leman Russ doesn't sound Nordic at all fyi.
And you don't need to be Scandinavian to know that.

Leman does not sound nordic to me, no.
I have no idea where it came from (though I did find this: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/leman)

Russ on the other hand is very nordic (it is derived from the Old Norse word roðr, meaning oar). It was the name of a Scandinavian tribe that had quite a lot of contact with the Byzantines and peoples in the Baltic area. The Space Wolves also have their own Varangian Guard, so it is clear GW's writers took inspiration from them.

 En Excelsis wrote:
Roboute is definitely the silliest name.

Most of the Chapters have some social or historical significance in that they represent a particular culture. Khan is the best example - having a very clearly Mongolian name and being father to the chapter that almost exactly mirrors the Mongols of 4th Century.

Not all the name are that obvious, but they all either come from (or could be derived from) real world cultures and civilizations.

Roboute is just too easy to make fun of... come on "Raw Butt Girly Man"... it's so true!! Plus his legion has basically ruined the 40k setting

Runners up are Angron (sounds like the just wanted his name to be 'Angry' but didn't want to sound stupid - guess it didn't work out).

and Alpharius Omegon (Not only is the Alpha - Omega thing SUPER tried at this point, but it's also a massive hole in the lore since there being "two" Primarchs for one legion just made things muddy).

Leman Russ is okay, since it at least sounds Nordic - but I think a name like Fenris would probably have suited the Primarch better. At the very least it's more original... I still don't like the wolves though.

Sanguinius was a fine name, but I don't like it because it's ties to "blood" and the subsequent ties of "blood" to "vampire". I think I speak collectively for the whole of western civilization when I say that if I never hear the word "Vampire" again it will be too soon. Can that fad please be over now?

The fact people make fun of Guillimans name is a fault of the people more than the name. It's French, and vaguely difficult to pronounce so people default to mockery.

And how did the Ultramarines ruin 40k..?

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 Khonsu wrote:
Leman Russ doesn't sound Nordic at all fyi.
And you don't need to be Scandinavian to know that.

Leman does not sound nordic to me, no.
I have no idea where it came from (though I did find this: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/leman)

Russ on the other hand is very nordic (it is derived from the Old Norse word roðr, meaning oar). It was the name of a Scandinavian tribe that had quite a lot of contact with the Byzantines and peoples in the Baltic area. The Space Wolves also have their own Varangian Guard, so it is clear GW's writers took inspiration from them.

It's a Nordic word not a Nordic name, I am aware of the Russ of Roslagen and the Kievan Russ.

2BlackJack1 wrote:

 King Pariah wrote:

 Deadshot wrote:
And Horus, not only badass, was also a very important God in Ancient Egypt, I believe.

Who overthrew his Grandfather (Ra) for the title of pharaoh... although he had help from his mother Isis (she pretty much masterminded the whole plot).

This is in a way similar to Warmaster Horus, who tried overthrowing his father, though the Horus Heresy is more based after God/Lucifer rather than Ancient Egypt mythology.

And God/Lucifer and pretty much everything in the bible had been taken from Egyption and many other mythologies, hense the similarities of themes and events.

To be fair I think GW made a decent job, making it that obvious where the names originated intentionally. I mean John Smith of the Emperors Children decapitating his old friend Petyr Dimitrov of the Iron Hands During the Ahmad heresy sounds a little bit gak.
Plus it's happened throughout the history of tales (be they fiction or non fiction in your own opinion - not starting an argument), the most famous historical figure/character is named messiah messiah (ancient hebrew/ancient greek) for pitys sake, and over 2 billion of the worlds population seem pretty accepting of that. At least Ferrus Manus is two different words, even if when translated from an ancient language give an obvious meaning. Not trying to get at a religious tale here, just pointing out that much more obvious references have been accepted as names in stories (true or false) without people finding the name ridiculous.
What would you all name the 20 primarchs whilst still trying to reference the character of some of their legions? I can make a confident bet that what you (not at anyone in particular) find a good name, there would be at least some others who find it daft.

Don't get me wrong - it's a nice thread and interesting to see peoples opinions, but calling GW's original writers lazy for it without any return suggestions is imo, a touch... lazy.