Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Back in the early 2000's we used to have boxes of GW models which occasionally had very different unit names on them when compared to their English counterparts. Is this still the case?

Around 2005, for instance, the one that I remember vividly was the box of Dire Avengers. The German name on the box translated to "Hunters of Asuryan" or "Hunters of Asurmen", etc. I glanced at the GW web page and it seems to use mostly English names now, but are there any re-named units that exist in foreign books/boxes/codices, etc? Does anyone have any old boxes with similar names/swaps?

Unit names were Localized but are not anymore in Germany. The boxes I remember tend to use the same names as the english This is kept throughout any text, so english collides with the other language ...
The people doing translations weren't bad, some names really good..or funny.. or both.

Yes I may still refer to a unit in .. not english..

I'm just curious if people remember any of the names or have any old boxes sitting around. Would like to know some of the more esoteric names of units.

Speaking for the German market, GW pushed for untranslated names in the aftermath of the Chapterhouse case, presumably leaving the unit names in their original form because of the belief that would somehow make them more trademarkable or whatever. That would have started around 2013 or so. Prior to that, as it appeared to me unit names were either translated if their original name was deemed to complicated or cumbersome to pronounce or understand, or if there was a suitable German translation because the original name was generic like that, or kept the same if school level English provided enough meaning and it sounded cool. For instance, a Land Raider has always been a Land Raider. Whereas an Assault Squad was translated to Sturmtrupp, literally the same but German. Necron Monolith remained Monolith because it's neither a German nor English word and understood regardless. Necron Wraiths became Phantome, another suitable, direct translation. Eldar apparently were meant to sound exotic and got some made up names, like Dark Reapers becoming Khaindar. Howling Banshees got changed to just Banshees, Wave Serpents to just Serpents. In spite of what I said above as a general guideline to what may or may not be changed, I don't think there were hard and fast rules.

As a fun side effect of not being translated by the German studio translators GW employed at the time, and apparently also lack of communication or guidelines, Ian Watson's novels in the 90s were translated a lot more liberally and/or literally. Imperial Fists, for instance, which in GW publications always were Imperial Fists, became Kaisergrenadiere. Genestealers, conventionally translated as Symbionten, were translated to Genräuber. And here's the fun bit, recently I walked past some copies of Warhammer Adventures novels at my local store and behold, they resurrected the Genräuber translation for one of those. Hadn't seen that in 20 years.

To my knowledge the only things that are still translated are those sad units that simply didn't get an update in the last couple of years. In the transitional period that led to all sorts of silliness in the background texts, for instance when 8th ed Fantasy elves got their books remade over the course of a year and the High Elves in their own book had German text, inserting the new untranslated English name, continuing with German text and then the old, translated German names for Dark Elves or Wood Elves units would pop up because those hadn't gotten their books yet. Very jarring to read. I haven't given German army books the time of day since then but these days it would be a little less bad, though I think instances like Genestealer Cult dirtbikes, a generic name, and Wolfquads, a trademark name with cherry on top, can still give you that warm fuzzy feeling of yore.

The change happened at the end of 6th/ with 7th edition. There was a short time were in german books both names were used (because the codizes still had the german name, but when units got formations they used the english one like in the Kauyon book).

Dreadnoughts in german are Cybots
Obliterators are Kyborgs (Cyborgs, but not really, because Kyborgs is not an actual word or abbreviation in german outside of that unit...)
Dark Reapers are Schwarze (Black) Khaindar
Wyches are Hagashin
Reaver Jetbikes are Hyemshin (IIRC)
I never played Space Marines but they had some interesting names for Sternguard and Vanguard as well which I don't remember.

Necron names in german were pretty cool because many of them sounded like something from terminator.
Immortals - Extinctor
Eliminator
Destroyer - Destruktor
Annihilationbarge - Annihilatorgleiter
Flayed Ones - Alpträume (Nightmares)

Flash Gitz in German are Posaz (guys who like to pose)

Yeah GW has stopped not only translating names of units but of many things too like warp or demons or space marines.

Is horrible to read a book in spanish and have things like "Y entonces, los valerosos space marines combatieron los demons del warp para parar la amenaza del Chaos".
Thats why now I only buy things in english. I assume thats GW plan, to end up stopping translating things.

I always enjoyed the High Elf chariot in German- Streitwagen de Hochelfen.

One that always got a childish titter out of us was the bag of "Large monster bases" in Spanish (Peanas Monstrous Grande).

I don't recall the precise wording, but the old Eldar support weapons had an excellent German name, in the typical combine-all-words fashion. It was very German. About forty two syllables, though I believe it was almost a direct translation.

You want examples?

Grey Knight Nemesis Dreadknight:
- Cuirassier Nemesis Chevalier Gris
- Servoterror Nemesis de los Caballeros Grises ( i relly like "servoterror".. )
- Nemesis Ritter der Grey Knights ( isn't "Nemesis Ritter der Grauen Ritter"...)
- Dreadknight Nemesis dei Cavalieri Grigi

-> Nemesis is used for all, but the army the box is for seems to have been localized in some countries.

Space Marine Devastator Squad
- Escouade Devastator Space Marine
- Escuadra de Devastadores Marines Espaciales
- Space Marine Devastator Trupp
- Squadra Devastatrice degli Space Marine

-> Only Squad translated for all, army for 1 ... its just Space Marines

Space Wolves Wolf Guard Terminators
- Escouade de Terminator Gardes Loups
- Exterminadores Guardianes del Lobo de los Lobos Espaciales
- Wolfsgarde - Terminatoren der Space Wolves
- Guardia del Lupo Terminator

-> Space Marines are Space marines but Space Wolves are "Gardes loups"/Lobo de los Lobos Espaciales"/ Space Wolves but specifically Wolfsgarde/ "Guardia del Lupo".


Deathstrike Missile Launcher
- Todesschlag Raketensystem.

-> pretty close but we got rockets you got miss-iles...

1hadhq
Your list has some small mistakes I'm afraid.

Devastator squads are Devastortrupps in german.

The Dreadknight is a Nemesis-Psi-Ritter, no?

I like that GW still translates weapons names in 40K at least, unlike in AoS. Otherwize we wouldn't have the "Faulhagelsalvenkanone" (rothail volley gun, a literal translation).

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
1hadhq
Your list has some small mistakes I'm afraid.

Devastator squads are Devastortrupps in german.

The Dreadknight is a Nemesis-Psi-Ritter, no?

I like that GW still translates weapons names in 40K at least, unlike in AoS. Otherwize we wouldn't have the "Faulhagelsalvenkanone" (rothail volley gun, a literal translation).

DId just copy from the box in front of me, maybe GW changed some names?
( except the deathstrike - that was from memory )

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
"Faulhagelsalvenkanone" (rothail volley gun, a literal translation).

German is such a wonderful language for such things. To paraphrase Metro 2033 ''To die for the fatherland' In russian it sounds silly, but it thunders in German'

 1hadhq wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
1hadhq
Your list has some small mistakes I'm afraid.

Devastator squads are Devastortrupps in german.

The Dreadknight is a Nemesis-Psi-Ritter, no?

I like that GW still translates weapons names in 40K at least, unlike in AoS. Otherwize we wouldn't have the "Faulhagelsalvenkanone" (rothail volley gun, a literal translation).

DId just copy from the box in front of me, maybe GW changed some names?
( except the deathstrike - that was from memory )

Some boxes used to have different translations than the corresponding entry in a codex...

German Tau Names were quiet litteral translations

Firewarrior - Feuerkrieger
Crisis Battelsuit - Krisis Kampfanzug
Devilfish - Teufelsrochen
Hammerhead - Hammerhai
Broadside Battlesuit - Breitseite Kampfanzug (Earlier 'Koloss' if I remember correctly)
Riptide Battlesuit - Sturmflut Kampfanzug

and so on

In the Italian version, before the merging, we've been blessed by "fake" traductions, for the Marine line (and possibly Sisters?)... meaning that the translator team instead of converting english name to Italian decided to use Latin words for the units... it was honestly a solutions I've always loved (because Latin is High Gothic) and I was sorry that they haven't used Latin instead of English worldwide (which in my opinion was much more copyrightable).
As far as I recall,however, this was extremely evident in Marine tanks, whilst the other lines got names much more similar to the original.

Also, the the further away in the past, the sillier where the translation. Some armies, like Tau, wheren't translated at all and (even if I don't have the Codex) I recall them as the first Codex that has proper english name for almost any units (all the vehicles and battlesuit, whilst regular troops were still translated).

Edit: Ok, I've taken a look at the book of 3rd edition for other armies. And to be honest, I find more oddities than I recall.
In many occasion, translation are quite literal... almost all the Imperial Guard has name that are exact (more or less) translation, with a few exception for iconic named unit like Leman Russ that kept the name as it is.
Others, like the Ogryn, has been translated as "Bestioni" (which means something between "big guy" and "big beast", but is used also for human being).

In general, they kept the original name if it was Latin, otherwise it was creatively translated it a Latin word that make sense. I beliefe this happens because the literal translation for things like "Rhino" (Rinoceronte in italian) aren't very common words and sound often like exotic animals or the merge of a name+adjactive of uncommon use (like "Razorback" that literally translate as "schiena di rasoio", a word simple never used).

I also noticed that all the vehicle names have an identification code before, somethings I forgot, that is the acronym for the battlefield role (so a VTT means "Veicolo Trasporto Truppe" aka "Troop Transport Vehicle").
So, for the Marine tanks:

Land Raider was "VCP - Testudo" (Heavy Armored Vehicle - "Turtle")
Land Speeder was "VRL - Venator" (Light Recoignissance Vehicle - "Hunter")
Dreadnought was "BCA Sarcofagus Vehemens" (Assault Combat Bipod "Violent Coffin".... and boy, this was definitely better than the original!).
Rhino was "VTT - Defensor" (Troop Transport Vehicle - "Defender")
Razorback was "VCC - Catafractus" (Combat Armoured Vehicle - "Armoured".... yes, it has "Armoured" in the code and "Catafractus" stand for "armoured in Latin.... and yes, this is before the Cataphractus Terminators were a thing).
Whirlwing was "LRS - Turbinis" (Mobile Rocket Launcher - "Whirlwind".. here again, the latin name is exactly the translation for the original name).
Predator stays as "VCP - Predator" (Heavy Armored Vehicle - Pradator... again, an exact latin translation).
Vindicator stays as "CAS - Vindicator (meaning "Mobile Assault Cannon").

Then we have similar names for the variant, for example the Land Spedeer Tempest was the "Venator Tempestas", the Predator have the Annihilator and Destructor variants.
All the other entry were translated in current Italian, with the exception of "Space Marine" (that was always not-translated) and "Terminator" (that, following the convention above, was already Latin).

About other armies instead, I noticed that they tend to either have a perfect translation for the words that exist in Italian, or instead being not-translated anywhere the original word is already understandable in Italian or sound like some Latin word with the same meaning.
For example, the entire Dark Eldar roster (traslated as Eldar Oscuri) has either exact translation (as "Mandragore" for Mandrake or "Homunculus" that stay as latin) or instead they kept the originale english version if the sound was similar enough ("Archon" and "Draco", which can be understood as the italian words "Arconte" and "Drago" - yet aren't translated).

This is more or less the standard for any army. There are a few "creative" manipulation or translation of the original name around the codexes.

There are a few oddities and interesting choices however.

The mostly interesting are, from my point of view:

Dark Eldar

They have a strong resonance with devilish terms. There are the Dark Eldar "Golgota" weapons (Golgoth as in the Calvary in the Bible, as translation for "splinter").
The have the Succubus, etc. My impression is that, given the citation to "classic" demonic name, the translator decided for the evil side of the christian mythology to translate anything that didn't have an immediate translation.
Another example: the Sergeant of Dark Eldar is called "Sibarita" which is literally "Sybarite".
The other units have usually an exact or very similar translation, like "Vampiro" for "Vampyre" or "Flagello" for "Scourge".
There are still a few non-literal translation like "Sciacallo" ("jackals") for the "Raider" (here it is important notice that in Italian "sciacallo" has a much wider use than simply the animal).

Tiranids

They usually have their original name whatever they are vaguely similar to Latin (Dominator, Carnifex, Mantis etc.). A couple have been literally translated ("Spore Mine" in "Mine Spora").
Their entire arsenal has been translated except for the "warp" word in "warp cannon" (Cannone Warp).
A good translation are the Gargoyle that are instead called "Pteragaunt" (as in Pterodactiles), but the rest of the Gaunt kept their name.
"Genestealer" became "Genoraptor" (here, to better echo the latin word for "taker"). "Zoantropo" e "Biovora" are italianization or the original name that makes sense in Italian too as latin-derived words.
Extremely fun fact about the Ripper Swarms: they are explicitly called "Sciami di Xenomorfi" where "Xenomorph" is EXACTLY the same translation we had from the Alien movie. A little too much tongue-in-cheeks maybe?

Eldar

In Italian (except the word "Eldar") they are entirely localized, which a literal-as-possible translation of the original name. "Spiriti Urlanti" for "Banshee", "Draghi di Fuoco" for "Fire Dragon" etc.
The only original term we have is "Avatar", and only because it makes sense as a latin word commonly used in italian too (specifically in many specialist languages).
Their translation in general is the same you will find on Wordreference or Google Translate, with a single exception: the War Walker is translated as "Locusta" (locust).

Caos

This codex too was almost perfectly translated directly in Italian. Only exception are the Marine Vehicles, that kept the same translation as the Loyalist but lose the first code letter and gain a different adjective to suggest those are evil.
So, the Caos Land Raider became the "Testudo Maledicta" (Damned Turle... ^^)
The Chaos Predator became the "Predator Empius" (Unholy Predator")
The Chaos Rhino became the "Defensor Corruptus".
The Chaos Dread became the "Sarcofagus Insanis" (again, perfectly on the spot since it means "Deranged Coffin").
All the other entry have sensible translation except for the Khorne Berserker. Berserker in itself is used in Italian (even if, admittedly, very rarely until 10-15 years ago). They are translated as "Massacratori" which means "those who massacre".

Imperial Guard

Those are much more precise translation. The only oddity is, again, the add of a lettercode before any vehicle to distinguish it. Again, the three letter code is an acronym for the practical description of the vehicle.
So the Sentinels became the "BCR - Sentinella" (Armoured Recognissance Bipod), the Basilisk is "OS - Basilisco" (Obice Semovemente - Basilisco, which stand for "mobile hotwizer - Basilisk") etc.
There is however a "Griffith" (Grifone) tank that I didn't recall: it's a mortar on a Chimera chassis.

Orks

They have been definitely those, vehicle aside, that have gotten more love in translation. Unfortunately, many or their name are jokes or completely new words... but almost all of them both tends to recall the original pronunciation and tone of the Orks, and have a fascinating "simpleton" aspect in their construction.
So, if "Assault Squad" translate as "Assaltatori" and "Rocket" translate as "Razzo", we have "Razzaltatori".
Warboss is "Kapoguerra" (as Capo=boss + Guerra=War, but keep in mind that in Italian adjective goes after the noum, as opposite as in English).
Boys became "Kuelli" as a bad spelling of "Quelli" (those).
So there are "Those with Gun" ("Kuelli kon Piztole"), "Those with Bombs" ("Kuelli kon Bombe"), "Those with lead-splitter" ("Kuelli con Zputapiombo") etc. etc.
All of them written with a (wrong and) much harder pronunciation (we've got a lot of soft sound in Italian. There isn't almost any in the Orks roster since any "C" is converted into a "K", any "Q" into a "KU" and any "S" into a "Z").
Last mention for the "Weirdboys" that are translated as "Ztramborki" ("Weird orks", where "strambo" means exactly "weird").

The Sisterhood

Yes, it is right! Since in Italy there isn't at all all the college-background organization that there is in UK and US, the terms "Sisterhood" (Sorellanza) in Italian doesn't have any already existing meaning, if not a vagualy definition gatherhood of women (the same applies to men: brotherhood translate exactly as "fratellanza", but even if this word exist in italian it has a very generic meaning and no precise or exact reference, differently from english.
So, "La Sorellanza" (if I remember this was their first introduction as a Codex) use the same translation as the Marine for the Rhino and weapons, use "VCA - Immolator" (Armoured Assault Vehicle) for the Immolator and a few monastic-based title for the HQ.
They have also used the (proper) title "Badessa" (Abbess) for the Abbess/Prioress/Canoness.
Last, but not least, the Sisters in this edition were much more literally related to angelic (and such) terminology, much much more than the Space Marine. Unfortunately, instead of using translation as precise as possible, even when those are possible (for exampe "Seraphin" translate to "Serafini"), they opted for very loose translation using the word "angels". Probably this is due to the fact that "Angelo" in Italian is a male noun, but it's considered neutral. Almost all exact name for angels ranks instead are theorically neutral but declined as male. So, I can understand the difficulty of translating female warrior name with male terminology.
Whatever the reson, we have the "Angeli del Castigo" (Angel of Penance) for the Retributor, "Angeli del Fuoco" (Angel of Fire) for the Seraphim, "Angeli Custodi" (Guardian Angels) for the Dominion.

Well, I think more or less that's all from the oldest reference I can find. Thank to the OP for the walk down memory lane!

 Elbows wrote:
I don't recall the precise wording, but the old Eldar support weapons had an excellent German name, in the typical combine-all-words fashion. It was very German. About forty two syllables, though I believe it was almost a direct translation.

The entry in the 3rd ed codex reads Unterstützungswaffenbatterie.

Come on, it's not that long.

And yeah, that's plain old support weapon battery.

 Cybtroll wrote:
Dreadnought was "BCA Sarcofagus Vehemens" (Assault Combat Bipod "Violent Coffin".... and boy, this was definitely better than the original!).

I will never use my Violent Coffins in any language other than "Italian" ever again.

 Jidmah wrote:

 1hadhq wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
1hadhq
Your list has some small mistakes I'm afraid.

Devastator squads are Devastortrupps in german.

The Dreadknight is a Nemesis-Psi-Ritter, no?

I like that GW still translates weapons names in 40K at least, unlike in AoS. Otherwize we wouldn't have the "Faulhagelsalvenkanone" (rothail volley gun, a literal translation).

DId just copy from the box in front of me, maybe GW changed some names?
( except the deathstrike - that was from memory )

Some boxes used to have different translations than the corresponding entry in a codex...

So I wasn't halluzinating about devastator squads being called "Devastortrupp" in german! I was 100% convinced that that was the german name up until the SM codex in 6th or 7th!

This might not be "official" names, but I always cringed/hated the habit to translate names that german translators had when translating novels. I have the Gaunt's Ghosts books in german and they are full of translated names, such as the Iron Snakes becoming the "Eisenschlangen" or the Imperial Fists becoming the "Imperiumsfaust Orden" (both are just literally translated). These are not the only examples but the ones I remember the most. Also, in a couple books Space Marine bikes are translated as "Kräder" or something and I still have no idea how that translation came to fruition