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As a long time 40k player, I find all the new faction names like Astra Militarum just eye-rolley. Do people actually use them, or are they still "guard" "eldar" etc?

I've been out of 40k since at least 6th, so I wouldn't know but I am curious how successful the new (trademarkable) names are.

Nobody actually uses those names unless their entire local group started in 8th.

I miss the good old days of space elf pirates called Taal Spellsinger.

You do get used to them after a while and they stop sounding quite so weird and out of place, but everybody still refers to the factions by their traditional names.

 Bellerophon wrote:
You do get used to them after a while and they stop sounding quite so weird and out of place, but everybody still refers to the factions by their traditional names.

I kind of alternate between guard and Astra Militarum now to be honest. Got pretty used to it.

Even GW's own staff sometimes use the wrong terms - Beastmen still gets thrown around when talking about Beasts of Chaos.

In general many of the old original names have 20 or 30 years or so of use behind them; whilst the name change was purely GW going through a bit of mania with trying to copyright protect their creations and limit how 3rd parties could advertise their alternative products by GW moving to more protected names.*

Personally some names, like Imperial Guard, just feel and sound better. It sounds both grand and befitting to the army of the Emperor tasked as the first and final line of defence of the whole Imperium against the forces of the Galaxy and beyond.
Mean while some like Dark Eldar are just darn simpler and easier to remember than Drukari (see I can't even remember how to spell it)

*Note this doesn't stop anyone making an alternative sculpt of most of what GW produces, they just can't call it the same name.

Only time I've heard the Adeptus Trademarkus names used is on batreps or players who started very recently and don't know the old name. I remember the first time a new player referred to my guard as Astra Militarum I actually did a double take I will use a Scion from time to time just because new players have no idea what a stormtrooper is, but I'll immediately follow it with "they used to be known as stormtroopers, so that's what I'm gonna refer to them by." But people do use them, much to my surprise.

What bugs me is a lot of the batrep channels will only use the new trademark names and it gets really annoying keeping things straight. I get why they do it, to make it easier to find on YouTube, but just call them guard in the batrep. It gets really grating hearing "Astra Militarum" over and over when you could just say "Guard".

Unrelated, but Astra Militarum was a dumb choice because it's abbreviation is the same as Adeptus Mechanicus. So now when you see people on forums it's can be hard to tell if AM means guard or admech. Luckily I play both so it doesn't matter much but I'm sure I'm not the only one bugged by it.

I've noticed that people on Reddit use Drukhari pretty frequently, i.e. probably the majority of the time. I just think it's so stupid and can't stand it (or any of the others), but I guess I'm just becoming a boring old dude, so YMMV. If it weren't such a transparent IP grab, I'd probably have a different opinion.

I refuse to use the new names - though I suspect I’ve subconsciously slipped here and there.

Though I have apparently given up trying to sort the Codexes on my shelf by the old names.

 Gene St. Ealer wrote:
I've noticed that people on Reddit use Drukhari pretty frequently, i.e. probably the majority of the time. I just think it's so stupid and can't stand it (or any of the others), but I guess I'm just becoming a boring old dude, so YMMV. If it weren't such a transparent IP grab, I'd probably have a different opinion.

The problem is that you are using Reddit.

I use the high gothic type names when I’m speaking about a lot of organizations working together or when I’m talking about the Militarum Tempestus. That being so because with how stormtroopers were revamped entirely as an organization and are very different to how they used to be.

By this point the names aren’t exactly new anymore....

"Dark Eldar" always seemed a little weak to me as a name anyway tbh, so maybe it's a little easier to start using their new one.


Imperial Guard is just... Imperial Guard to me, but I think it's kind of in-character for them, that they'd have that big flowery latiny name and ignore it completely in favour of something less official and much more down to earth.

Other than needing to order units in my FLGS, I won't use the new names they are too stupid sounding. My Guard are my guard, Space marines are the same, Dark Eldar are just that, etc, etc.

I have made up my own nicknames for certain armies, like dark eldar can be the bondage elves, or Frank N Steins depending. Mechanicus can be the cybermen, and if you want the feels just call your guard the mobile infantry. Nids are Bugs, and of Course Tau have many cute nicknames.

The GW brand names, no way, they get even worse in fantasy it goes over my ability to tolerate.

Never use them, and don't think anyone in my group has ever used any of the "new" trademarkey names.

Our Dark Eldar player adopted Drukhari immediately, maybe because it sounds more alien or like an actual eldar word instead of just evil Tolkien in Space. I haven't heard Asuryani though, it's usually Craftworld-eldar.
Some names just sound weird in German, like Aeldari which you would pronounce Uh-'Eldari. It's also still very close to Eldar and therefore an unnecessary change. .
For me the strangest name are the "Te Au". I know like the Eldar names it existed in the background before but it still looks pretty dumb and nobody knows how to pronounce that '. "Let's just throw Apostrophes everywhere because it's really alien..." Klingons did that before it was cool and it actually has a meaning in their language. With the Te Au I'm really not sure.

I still call my Guard "Guard", and my Stormtroopers "Kasrkin". It will be a cold day in hell before I call them "Scions" or "Astra Militarum".

I always thought there were more important things in life to be bothered by.

I use the older names out of habit, but I won't be frothing at the keyboard if someone uses the new ones. As far as cynical actions by a company goes, it ranks near the bottom for me.

LeperColony wrote:
As a long time 40k player, I find all the new faction names like Astra Militarum just eye-rolley. Do people actually use them, or are they still "guard" "eldar" etc?

I've been out of 40k since at least 6th, so I wouldn't know but I am curious how successful the new (trademarkable) names are.

Even GW still screws this up. They just recently tried to differentiate between Space Marines and a Space Marine Detachment. Because they called in a Space Marine Detachment in the rules, instead of being specific enough with the new names to prevent the issue in the first place.

 Wunzlez wrote:
I always thought there were more important things in life to be bothered by.

I use the older names out of habit, but I won't be frothing at the keyboard if someone uses the new ones. As far as cynical actions by a company goes, it ranks near the bottom for me.

I don't think anyone is losing sleep over the pig latin names GW churn out, but neither should they be celebrated. Some of us just rather things that sound better as opposed to buzzwords on parade which many of these factions have become. I doubt it'll ever feel natural to call them the new extra amazing trademark names, they just sound too funny. A few aren't too bad, some are just bad though.

AngryAngel80 wrote:
Other than needing to order units in my FLGS, I won't use the new names they are too stupid sounding. My Guard are my guard, Space marines are the same, Dark Eldar are just that, etc, etc.

I have made up my own nicknames for certain armies, like dark eldar can be the bondage elves, or Frank N Steins depending. Mechanicus can be the cybermen, and if you want the feels just call your guard the mobile infantry. Nids are Bugs, and of Course Tau have many cute nicknames.

The GW brand names, no way, they get even worse in fantasy it goes over my ability to tolerate.

in fairness adeptus Astartes isn't exactly new

Sure, it's not new, but then people didn't go out of the way to say it either and just called them space marines. In part because it sounds better, and because it reaches to a number of other sci fi memories and subjects and not just the ones in 40k.

AngryAngel80 wrote:

 Wunzlez wrote:
I always thought there were more important things in life to be bothered by.

I use the older names out of habit, but I won't be frothing at the keyboard if someone uses the new ones. As far as cynical actions by a company goes, it ranks near the bottom for me.

I don't think anyone is losing sleep over the pig latin names GW churn out, but neither should they be celebrated. Some of us just rather things that sound better as opposed to buzzwords on parade which many of these factions have become. I doubt it'll ever feel natural to call them the new extra amazing trademark names, they just sound too funny. A few aren't too bad, some are just bad though.

I agree with that.

I still use the old names. Necrons are still Chaos Androids to me and nids will always be Space Cows

I've been playing for 30 years and am obviously used to the old names but actually quite like some of the new versions so do try to use them.

Aeldari is obviously crap but Drukarii sounds a whole lot better than Dark Eldar!

I don't use the newest name, as some sound a bit silly as far as the horrid Astra Militarum and i'm simply not used to others. Most of them such as Astartes aren't new at all but somehow using it to call the 30 or so marines roaming my kitchen table feels weird, I'd reserve it for novels or imperial-administration-point of view fluff.

Only exception though: Drukhari, as dark eldar sounded somewhat plain. Just don't new if you ought to pronounce it drukari or like druchari like german or russian.

The newer names are a lot hit or miss for me. "Drukari" I like, it is simply what the DE call themselves (much like the Dark Elves called themselves "Druchii") and both can exist side by side.

Astra Militarum is just rubbish, this is one of the misses for me; much like many of the AoS ones as it just smacks of wanting to copyright something that is universal and you see GW doing a whole Vikki Pollard routine as to why exactly they're their own thing, honest guv. FW handled it a lot better with things like the Carcharadons and Vlka Fenryka. "Space Sharks" and "Space Wolves" are still their names, but that is their Low Gothic name. The formers are their High Gothic ones.


AoS is where it truly falls down for me- "Ogors", "Orruks" "Aleguzzler Gargants". No, just no. Stop trying to put your own spin with hamfisted spelling changes on something that is universally recognised in fantasy. They are Ogres, Orcs and Giants. Everyone knows what they are. The last one for me is especially egregious as it just sounds so childish. "Gargant" I could live with, but the bit at the start just makes me cringe.

These names to me are a marker to tell when someone started playing. You see someone say "Helbrute" a lot, you've got a fairly recent CSM player (no GW, they're called Dreadnoughts. Just like their Imperial counterparts). I myself was guilty of this too many years ago in 2nd ed, with me using my LOTD army as a fresh new player and one of my opponents says he's going to shoot at my Captain. What does young Grimtuff do? He recites the final paragraph from the character blurb in WD "It is not known if he is the master of the Legion. Or the equal to a SM Captain". guy just goes "whatever" and rolls the dice to shoot him.

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:

Only exception though: Drukhari, as dark eldar sounded somewhat plain.

I always felt like Dark Eldar was the name they came up with at midnight around the kitchen table knowing they still had their history homework to do and couldn't be bothered.

'Sororitas' has gotten a fair amount of use over the years, though rarely the full name.

 Grimtuff wrote:
"Gargant" I could live with, but the bit at the start just makes me cringe.

I'll see your aleguzzler and raise you one sloppity bilepiper...

A.T. wrote:

 Grimtuff wrote:
"Gargant" I could live with, but the bit at the start just makes me cringe.

I'll see your aleguzzler and raise you one sloppity bilepiper...

Ah yes, I scrubbed that one from my memory. I only call them "Bilepipers" in an act of defiance.