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I guess the answer is “it depends” but I’ve never actually seen any reference to this in the lore. Space marines, except the salamanders, cut ties to their pre astartes life (Infact I thought post heresy they had their memories wiped) but their names are wildly different which suggests to me they come from the naming conventions of large populations.

I mean that ultramarines could call themselves marine 1,2,3 etc but we have Marnius Calagar (sure I spelled it wrong). And then you have Horus Aximand and Ragnar blackmane all of which seem to conform to the European forename/family name. Then you have the likes of Azreal and Ezekiel which sounds more like names given to them when they became marines. Unless their full names are Azreal Smith and Ezekiel Jones.

It Depends is probably the accurate answer.

Chapters with a set home and recruitment world may retain birth names, as it looks good for the plebs to say “my son is now with the Astartes”, and so promote healthy competition.

For Chapters with more ad-hoc recruitment? Especially from primitive worlds, being given a “proper” name may be part of the recruitment .

As MDG said.

I am pretty sure the Ultramarines retain their names because they do maintain links to their pre-Marine life. Families also know when former members have becomes Marines and it is a point of great honour. Uriel Ventris is from the same family as 1st Company sergeant Lucian Ventris who died in the 1st Tyrannic War, for example.

Worth noting that many Marine names are part given, and part earned. For example, I think Space Wolves retain their given name from before recruitment, but also earn additional monikers through their actions. Ragnar earned the name Blackmane, for example.

There's a definite case of an Ultramarine being renamed. The novel Avenging Son shows one of the main characters being abducted as a child, transformed into one of Cawl's first primaris, and then later when hes an officer, one of the other characters suggests he change his name to something that matches his new culture. He says yeah ok. You've seen the cover art for this novel, he's the Black Ultramarine


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You know pretty well that the Dark Angels recruit from all over and they assign new names and identities. It's the oldest and most famous story about them, that a Captain Ezekiel (not the librarian) was named Cloud Runner before he became a marine.

And any answer about 40k that starts with It Depends is always wrong, morally.

It’s…really not.

Nothing in 40K is truly monolithic, especially not Chapters of Space Marines.

Examples of Marines changing their names doesn’t mean therefore every Marine chooses his own name. I mean, in the UK I can legally change my name by Deed Poll for a fairly nominal fee. And many folk do. But that absolutely doesn’t mean that everyone in the UK has therefore changed their name. Heck, even if we look at the traditional cause of name change, marriage? Even that’s not a given today.

And so it absolutely does depend.

A transient, fleet based Chapter with no dedicated recruitment worlds (or very few) can recruit from pretty much Wherever They Happen To Be When It’s Recruitment Time. And so? To strengthen their Chapters identity might actively rename successful recruits. Either once they enter the Scout Company, when they pass out and become a full Brother, or indeed at any point in the process.

Some might have hereditary names. As in, the first Chapter Master was named Billy Big Bollocks, and the tradition is that any Chapter Master adopts the name Billy Big Bollocks, abandoning their previous name or names.

Some may adopt Billy Big Bollocks as a purely ceremonial name, so they remain known as Bob within the Chapter. Some (most?) just won’t bother with that mince.

It absolutely depends.

I believe all three rival gang members recruited into the Imperial Fists kept their names throughout Ian Watson's Space Marine novel.

Vulkan He'stan is a good example of a Marine modifying their name to accommodate a ceremonial name.

pelicaniforce wrote:
And any answer about 40k that starts with It Depends is always wrong, morally.

Nonsense. It depends on the writer, the character, and the Chapter.

Uriel Ventris kept his entire name and he was from the same family as Lucian Ventris who was a Captain of the Ultramarines while Marneus Calgar isn't even really Marneus Calgar, he took the name of his closest friend who was killed by Chaos worshippers during his Astartes trials. Calgar's birth name is Tacitus.
Those from Ultramar nobility will often be selected for service within the Ultramarines and it is a great honour to have one's family name in the Chapter histories.

Then you have the likes of the Carcharadons where the history of the individual is less than nothing and every Astartes takes a new name upon their ascension.

It absolutely does depend.

"morally wrong", my foot.

Dante kept his birthname didn't he? And he's among the greats.

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
Dante kept his birthname didn't he? And he's among the greats.

Calgar changed his name, but not out of some sort of rule.

When will there be a space marine called Keith

Breton wrote:

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
Dante kept his birthname didn't he? And he's among the greats.

Calgar changed his name, but not out of some sort of rule.

Calgar stole some other poor sap's name.

Its not theft when he's dead.

I can think of 2 examples either way which pretty much confirm "It depends".

Space Wolves let them keep their birth names. Ragnar Blackmane has his birth name as we see from the Space Wolf Omnibus. Though of course his original name was Ragnar Thunderfist. Blackmane is a sort of title/nickname he received as leader of the Blackmane company.

In the Blood Angels novel series IIRC the main character Rafen has a flashback to before he became a Blood Angel with his brother Arkio and I believe they had different names before becoming Blood Angels. They take on a more cringy angsty name when they become one


If you wanted to organically determine what a given chapter does, I would think you have a few options.

1) If the chapter recruits from more civilized worlds, there is probably a higher chance they retain their original names. Possibly with an additional name added on to signify their presence in the chapter.

2) If a chapter recruits from more primitive or savage worlds, it probably depends on how much connection the chapter has culturally with the civilization there. If they are aloof and hands off, the chapter probably renames everybody as part of their initiation. If the chapter is more involved(like the Space Wolves) or has taken on significant portions of the primitive culture into their own they might keep or modify the warriors original names. Probably in a complex ritual of some sort to initiate the new recruits.

Names can even be earned as semi-titles or marks of progress within the ranks.

It seems specificall with the Space wolves, they keep their birth name, but their "clan" name is usually replaced with one they "earn" through deeds or notable characteristics. IE: Ragnar Blackmane, Bjorn the Fell-Handed, Njal Stormcaller, etc.

But- as for "it depends", remember every chapter/ Legion has it's own traditions/ stealing from real-life cultures. And so it's not a stretch to think while one will allow you to keep your name, another will be like "you are trash and until you get through the Scout program in one piece, you will be know as #5578-2!"- much like how modern USA Marines grind down recruits and make them a unified fighting force (to best of my knowledge).

While on the subject, I'm guessing Belasarius set up a random name generator for the Primaris clones to avoid the numbering system.

It's going to depend on the chapter. The Space Wolves, and their habit of keeping their given name, has already been mentioned.

On the other hand, there's the short story found in the Death Wing expansion for 1st Edition Space Hulk. The Dark Angels in that story are all from a low tech world with cultures loosely based on the Native American tribes (and I note that is a *very* broad spectrum of cultures, but the story doesn't do more than give us the most basic details of the culture). The current members of the Dark Angels 1st Company return to the world that they were recruited from, only to discover that a genestealer cult has taken over. When they make the decision to move against the cult, they stop using their "marine names", and instead revert to the names that they had before they were recruited.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Dark Angels recruits are given different names when they are formally through the process.

Most chapters you keep your name or are given a name alongside your real name.
Only grey knights have their whole personality and name wiped as their given name is literally another weapon against the demonic

The only "chapter" that I have heard of close to removing the birth name, is the GK, who go through the cleansing rites or whatever, which are designed to basically be a literal and figurative baptism. Where the person is "reborn" as a new person, and the old person is scoured from memory. Which is what makes the book where they team up with the Wolves so wierd. A Fenrisian Inquisitor gives one of the GK back his entire birth history, and that of some of his brothers. How she came by it, who knows. But point is, it's supposed to be "Erased" in the ritual of making a GK.

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
The only "chapter" that I have heard of close to removing the birth name, is the GK, who go through the cleansing rites or whatever, which are designed to basically be a literal and figurative baptism. Where the person is "reborn" as a new person, and the old person is scoured from memory. Which is what makes the book where they team up with the Wolves so wierd. A Fenrisian Inquisitor gives one of the GK back his entire birth history, and that of some of his brothers. How she came by it, who knows. But point is, it's supposed to be "Erased" in the ritual of making a GK.

It depends on what you mean by "removing". If you mean "removing all traces of the subject's memory", then yes, they might be the only chapter to do that. But "removing the birth name" can also merely mean that the chapter assigns a new name to the marine, and going forward the marine gives up his old name and only goes by the new one. As I noted earlier, the fiction in the Deathwing supplement for 1st Edition Space Hulk makes it clear that's what the Dark Angels do.

By removing: I mean the Ordos goes out and deletes all records pertaining to the individual, and mind wiping all known contacts/relatives, etc. This person, as far as the imperium is concerned, no longer exists after the GK take them, but I may be over stating it a bit. I'm willing to admit to dramatizing, but I'm fairly positive the Ordos can't go overboard on this. The GK are literally one of the closest kept secrets in the Imperium.

Going that far for the GK recruits is unnecessary.

The GKs recruit exclusively from the psyker tithe aboard the Black Ships. They simply get their cargo inspected and the GKs yoink anybody they want. All info about that prisoner is then deleted. No need to bother tracking down any family or friends that psyker may have had. They've already been taken away for good. And the Sisters of Silence who man the ships aren't telling anybody anything about what the GKs do.

This is why the GKs recruit from the tithe. The individuals there are already faceless chaff who will be fed to the Astronomicon or made into a sanctioned psyker. Either way, their old life is dead and gone. Nobody will notice a few going missing to become a GK.

And even if someone somewhere remembers their brother/son who got taken away on the Black Ships it makes no difference. The Grey Knight has had his entire life prior to recruitment stripped away utterly. He may as well have sprung fully formed from the frozen soil of Titan in terms of who he is. They remember nothing, and nobody would ever recognize them.

I think we're arguing for the same side.

My point was just that GK are the ones who obliterate all knowledge of who came before. All records, data, etc. It's clearly stated several times in the Emperor's Gift. He's astounded that the Inquisitor found records of his prior life, let alone his brothers. And she responds that their records were kept from the purge. But doesn't go into detail. But it's clearly implied that GK and Inquisition destroy any records that could be used to tie a person to the GK. They do not want that secret getting out.