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 H.B.M.C. wrote:
The issue is that so many names would be fine if they just dumped one of the words. Nurgle, by far, got hit the worst here, both in 40k and AoS, and removing a single word often fixes it instantly:

Foetid Bloat-drone
Biologus Putrifier
Foul Blightspawn
Feculent Gnarlmaw
Myphitic Blight-hauler
Pusgoyle Blightlords
Putrid Blightkings (and I still think they should've been called Blight Knights, but that's my own hang-up...)
Sloppity Bilepiper

And it's expanding further. As far as we know, there is a single type of Slaangor in the upcoming AoS Slaanesh release. If there were more, the new Warcry book would have included them (this is a 95% certainty though, so we could be wrong here). But they're not called Slaangors, they're called Slaangor Fiendbloods. This implies that there are other types, yet they're not included. It's just another two words mashed together for no reason.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I do prefer Astra Militarum...

It genuinely makes me cringe when I hear people say that out loud.

Having started in the mid-90s, I have decades of learning to unlearn/relearn in order to keep up with the new names and I just don't have the motivation to do it. So instead of a unit of Exalted Champions of Nurgle, we have Putrid Blightkings. Okay... Most of the time when I look at the new names they're kind of like a wall of text that I just don't care about reading and learning.

so, essentially, get off my lawn.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:The issue is that so many names would be fine if they just dumped one of the words. Nurgle, by far, got hit the worst here, both in 40k and AoS, and removing a single word often fixes it instantly:

Foetid Bloat-drone
Biologus Putrifier
Foul Blightspawn
Feculent Gnarlmaw
Myphitic Blight-hauler
Pusgoyle Blightlords
Putrid Blightkings (and I still think they should've been called Blight Knights, but that's my own hang-up...)
Sloppity Bilepiper

Agreed, but because it's a pretty simple change for me to do myself, I quite like the new names.

I think it's certainly a case of "if you grew up on it, you're used to it".
Biggest example being tanks, Tau battlesuits, or Eldar aspects, and some of the more familiar looking Space Marine chapters (seriously, Emperor's Children are traitor, but Blood Drinkers are loyal? That's a definite subversion).

It would definitely be interesting to see how the demographics line up. It's almost 10 -> 1 ratio on preferring the older names to the new convention.
Hopefully it isn't that ratio of grognard -> new/younger users on this forum!

I agree that a lot of the classic names are ridiculous, and that time has lent them an authenticity denied to the latest releases. I do think though that it's kind of cool how those old Marine chapter names have developed over time. You can tell that some of them were almost certainly scribbled down on the back of a coaster in a pub (The 'Dark Angels' being lead by Lion El'Johnson and harbouring a 'terrible secret' was probably a pretty funny idea after a 3rd pint of Guinness!) - and then just got shoe-horned into 'goodies' and 'baddies' for the Space Marine 1st edition release. Then all of this ridiculously in-depth lore and background, which people take just so seriously (and which has grown into a multi-million pound business) has grown up from those quite humble beginnings.

But, I think there is a valid point about some of the latest names being 'turned up to 11' and being OTT. The list HBMC posted includes many of those. So, to off Aspect Warrior names, Fire Dragons, Striking Scorpions etc would have some other adjective or made-up word added in front of them.

Definitely agree that shortening the names helps them somewhat.

Although I will be cold and dead in the earth before I use the term Astra Militarum rather than Imperial Guard

Astra Militarum is definitely one of the worst new names.

IP,etc asside I think GW may be shooting itself in the foot in terms of communicating with potential fans. GW's old terms were -in many cases quite descriptive. Dark Eldar, Imperial Guard, Space Marines, etc all describe or at least provide good hints as to what they are. Further, they'd had 30 years to ingrain those terms (even ones less obvious) in the minds of gamers.

The new terms are in many cases more vague, insular and 40k specific, and they don't have the weight of decades of use. In the end I don't think it will make much difference either way but I still think it's a silly solution in search of a non-existent problem.

As J. Peterman remarked:
"You may know it as "Astra Millitarum,
But it will always be Imperial Guard to me."

 Eilif wrote:
The new terms are in many cases more vague, insular and 40k specific, and they don't have the weight of decades of use.

They did something similar when the current paint range was released.

It's certainly not as bad now, but back when it first came out paints like XV-88, Necron Compound and The Fang were utterly meaningless. What colours do these describe at all?

Yes, some knowledge is required to know the difference between two different blues (Altdorf vs Macragge, for instance), but these colours didn't even have colours in the name. All for the mighty ™.

The main reason, for me comes down to Lazy thought process.

It's like these "Designers" just pulled names out of the air while waiting in line for lunch, and weren't thinking about what they were naming.

Kindergarteners could come up with better ones, such as "Green Angry Guy Mean Face", or "Blue Armour Marine Guy with Big Gun".

Of course, this is coming from an old player who's had no issues with the names for over 30 years, and then out of the blue they decide to change all of the names to ridiculous pseudo-synonyms.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Eilif wrote:
The new terms are in many cases more vague, insular and 40k specific, and they don't have the weight of decades of use.

They did something similar when the current paint range was released.

It's certainly not as bad now, but back when it first came out paints like XV-88, Necron Compound and The Fang were utterly meaningless. What colours do these describe at all?

Yes, some knowledge is required to know the difference between two different blues (Altdorf vs Macragge, for instance), but these colours didn't even have colours in the name. All for the mighty ™.

The fact the GW staffers still use the name conversion chart for their paints after all these years kinds tells how nobody gets it lol....

Come to think of it, the endless desire to make their units more and more copywritable/trademarkable has already shown the logical end to this naming madness:

Captain with Master Crafted Heavy Bolt Rifle

That is literally the name of the unit, and not a description. It's Codex entry says that (it may say Gravis Captain or Primaris Captain - don't have the 'Dex in front of me at the moment).

I know that I'm in the minority here, but, at least for AoS, I prefer the new faction names. Not the "race" names (like aelves instead of elves), but rather the faction names. For example, the Idoneth Deepkin are one of the newer factions for the game. You could call them Sea Elves, or Ocean Elves, etc. However, naming them the Idoneth Deepkin gives them more story. According to their Battletome, the term "Idoneth" is, in their language, "extreme seclusion". There is a lot more story and narrative with more interesting names.

E3DD wrote:
I know that I'm in the minority here, but, at least for AoS, I prefer the new faction names. Not the "race" names (like aelves instead of elves), but rather the faction names. For example, the Idoneth Deepkin are one of the newer factions for the game. You could call them Sea Elves, or Ocean Elves, etc. However, naming them the Idoneth Deepkin gives them more story. According to their Battletome, the term "Idoneth" is, in their language, "extreme seclusion". There is a lot more story and narrative with more interesting names.

But are there other Deepkin?

Blastaar wrote:

E3DD wrote:
I know that I'm in the minority here, but, at least for AoS, I prefer the new faction names. Not the "race" names (like aelves instead of elves), but rather the faction names. For example, the Idoneth Deepkin are one of the newer factions for the game. You could call them Sea Elves, or Ocean Elves, etc. However, naming them the Idoneth Deepkin gives them more story. According to their Battletome, the term "Idoneth" is, in their language, "extreme seclusion". There is a lot more story and narrative with more interesting names.

But are there other Deepkin?

You mean like non-indoneth deepkin ?
Good question..

 TheGenuineMetz wrote:
I feel like there's a lot of emphasis placed on having two words in a name. Idoneth Deepkin feels unnecessary when Deepkin would do, with "Idoneth" being the in-setting name they have for themselves, like Asuryani for high elves.

The Death Guard book is particularly guilty of this. Many distinct names with two parts which all blend into each other.

Yeah, that's the product of some copywrite lawyer's need to get a paycheck and it spread throughout the industry. D&D did the same thing for a while, especially 4e where you see stuff like Cyclops battleweaver, cyclops crusher, cyclops feyblade, cyclops guard, cyclopshwer, cyclops rambler, cyclops reaver, etc, etc.

But yeah, it doesn't help. As Crispy78 points out, you can just point to the generic concept and add a scale.

---
For me, the new names require an extra level of buy in, another barrier to getting people into the hobby. 'Space ork' or simply 'ork' does the job. No goes looking for orruks, and Wacky Fantasy Names have a short shelf-life.
Basically this (from xkcd):

Blastaar wrote:

E3DD wrote:
I know that I'm in the minority here, but, at least for AoS, I prefer the new faction names. Not the "race" names (like aelves instead of elves), but rather the faction names. For example, the Idoneth Deepkin are one of the newer factions for the game. You could call them Sea Elves, or Ocean Elves, etc. However, naming them the Idoneth Deepkin gives them more story. According to their Battletome, the term "Idoneth" is, in their language, "extreme seclusion". There is a lot more story and narrative with more interesting names.

But are there other Deepkin?

I think 'Deepkin' on its own isn't bad.

In fact is that what Idoneth Deepkin players call them? Asking around, do you say "I'm playing Idoneth Deepkin tonight" or "I'm playing Deepkin" ? Do you say "I'm playing fish-elves"?

Voss wrote:

 TheGenuineMetz wrote:
The Death Guard book is particularly guilty of this. Many distinct names with two parts which all blend into each other.

Yeah, that's the product of some copywrite lawyer's need to get a paycheck and it spread throughout the industry. D&D did the same thing for a while, especially 4e where you see stuff like Cyclops battleweaver, cyclops crusher, cyclops feyblade, cyclops guard, cyclopshwer, cyclops rambler, cyclops reaver, etc, etc.

But yeah, it doesn't help. As Crispy78 points out, you can just point to the generic concept and add a scale.

I'd still pick Cyclops X over whatever's going on with Nurgle; at least I know what a Cyclops is, so the second name differentiates WHAT that particular Cyclops is and/or does.

Ork Kommando (stealths around), Ork Tankbusta (busts up tanks), Ork Burna Boyz (burns stuff), Ork Warboss (is the boss) - all of these make sense; they're Orks, and here's their function.

But the Nurgle stuff?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Foetid Bloat-drone
Biologus Putrifier
Foul Blightspawn
Feculent Gnarlmaw
Myphitic Blight-hauler
Pusgoyle Blightlords
Putrid Blightkings
Sloppity Bilepiper

These are just word-salad - what the fudge is a Gnarlmaw?

 Pacific wrote:
In fact is that what Idoneth Deepkin players call them? Asking around, do you say "I'm playing Idoneth Deepkin tonight" or "I'm playing Deepkin" ? Do you say "I'm playing fish-elves"?

sometimes "the Deepkin", more often just "Idoneth". It's about a billion times better sounding than "fish elves". Same with "Lumineth" vs "high elves" especially as most of the gak GW ripped off from Tolkien is now fading from garbage usage. "Eldar" can rightly stay in Middle-earth.

I have yet to meet anyone IRL that refers to 40k Eldar as anything other than Eldar. On occasion Craftworlds... But I have yet to meet anyone IRL that refers to them as Aeldari or Asuryani..

Eldar be Eldar..
#eldarforlife

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Come to think of it, the endless desire to make their units more and more copywritable/trademarkable has already shown the logical end to this naming madness:

Captain with Master Crafted Heavy Bolt Rifle

That is literally the name of the unit, and not a description. It's Codex entry says that (it may say Gravis Captain or Primaris Captain - don't have the 'Dex in front of me at the moment).

^See? Not a step above Blue Guy with Big Gun.

Old names 100%. "Sloppity Bilepiper" sounds like the name of an Onlyfans I'd be ashamed to subscribe to.

The old ones (though not the really old ones i.e. "Space Orks" and "Space Elves"

The issue I have with the new names is they're too much of a mouthful. Long, hard to pronounce strings of latin / pseudo latin. Just seemed like a bit of a pretentious solution to the IP issues.

Except for the Adeptus Astartes, Ad Mech, Sisters, Inquisitors and all the classic ones of course as they go way back, so theyr'e cool.

Depends on the name.

I always thought Space Marines was just far too normie a name, and also disliked any faction that was just "Bad Guy Thing" - dark eldar, chaos space marines, etc.

So I prefer Adeptus Astartes, Heretic Astartes, and Drukhari. Aeldari is just worse to say than Eldar, Astra Militarum and Minestroni Tesdosterone is just garbledygook.

So basically i see a FEW as improvements, some as just "whatever" (like, complaining about T'au instead of Tau...who cares. Whatever.) and a good many as awful.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Come to think of it, the endless desire to make their units more and more copywritable/trademarkable has already shown the logical end to this naming madness:

Captain with Master Crafted Heavy Bolt Rifle

That is literally the name of the unit, and not a description. It's Codex entry says that (it may say Gravis Captain or Primaris Captain - don't have the 'Dex in front of me at the moment).

right, it's why they don't push kitbashing any more. they need to make a specific weapon combo to match the data slate so big bad nobody can come along and undercut GW. which leads to lazy ass naming conventions.

 judgedoug wrote:

 Pacific wrote:
In fact is that what Idoneth Deepkin players call them? Asking around, do you say "I'm playing Idoneth Deepkin tonight" or "I'm playing Deepkin" ? Do you say "I'm playing fish-elves"?

sometimes "the Deepkin", more often just "Idoneth". It's about a billion times better sounding than "fish elves". Same with "Lumineth" vs "high elves" especially as most of the gak GW ripped off from Tolkien is now fading from garbage usage. "Eldar" can rightly stay in Middle-earth.

I'm going to have to disagree with you there buddy, I know it has origins in Tolkein but for me Eldar is always going to be Jes Goodwin sculpts and WD127.

Definitely won't be doing weird things with my jaw (and frightening whoever I speaking to) and trying to add an extended 'Ae' in front of it!

Since I grew up with Old World Warhammer I naturally like that best. But if I grew up with the Age of Sigmar I am certain that I would be more receptive to that style.

I don't hate the new style, but I do agree with everyone else saying the two-part nounadjective nounverber names are annoying.

GW still does some reasonably clever/historical names. Chaos Varanguard, for example, as a mash-up of Varangian Guard and vanguard, which perfectly describes their role. They're the big boss's bodyguard and they herald his arrival.

But then you've got a bunch where the names are redundant or just unnecessarily long. Idoneth Deepkin could just be Idoneth. Vanari Auralan Sentinels could just be Sentinels. Grundstok Thunderers can just be Thunderers. I get that those prefixes are some kind of descriptor/classifier, but they don't need to be part of the name.

And then there's stuff like Bloodbound Bloodreaver and Sloppity Bilepiper. Someone's kid must have come up with those.

I fell really bad for the young Billie Piper fans searching for videos.

For me, the new stuff really goes off the rails with things like the newer Ork vehicles. "Ruk-a-Truk-whositwhatsit, Shockjumpdragsta, etc etc.

Even a lot of the die-hard Ork players I know struggle to tell the difference. It often becomes "the one that shoots the rivet gun, the one that teleports, etc".

Hah, yeah. I think the new models look pretty cool but the names were super offputting to me.

I dunno, I see people on Reddit mostly using the new names, and I would say Dakka skews more grognard than Reddit, so I guess the new generation will be happy with the new names.

 Da Boss wrote:
Astra Militarum is definitely one of the worst new names.

Agreed. I do like all the tanks being named after monsters though, except the forge world ones, but I like that all those are capitalised.

 Mangod wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Foetid Bloat-drone
Biologus Putrifier
Foul Blightspawn
Feculent Gnarlmaw
Myphitic Blight-hauler
Pusgoyle Blightlords
Putrid Blightkings
Sloppity Bilepiper

These are just word-salad - what the fudge is a Gnarlmaw?

I totally agree with the irritating tacking-on of an extra descriptor. It irks me both because of how completely unnecessary they are and because no one uses the extra word anyways. However, I do have to be fair and caveat that SOMETIMES it is justified. For example, back when the Silver Tower game launched Tzeentch got a new hero option called the "Ogroid Thaumaturge" and at the time the 'ogroid' was just an extra slap-on. Buuut a few years later they did indeed release another ogroid, so credit where it's due. On Nurgle specifically the leader of a blightking unit is called a blightlord, that's where "Pusgoyle Blightlords" comes from (though I still find 'pusgoyle' a... questionable choice).

As to what a gnarlmaw is, once you see the miniature the name fits so perfectly you could never mistake it for anything else (the 'feculent' is still needless though). https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Feculent-Gnarlmaw-2018

Ogroid Thaumaturge is my go to when I want to explain in exactly what way the new GW names are dumb, since it is plainly an Ogre Mage in classic Dungeons and Dragons fashion, but they just had to give it an off brand name.