How do you name your characters?

[Rogue]

My marines have biblical Hebrew names (well, characters and sergeants do) - it's not really a chapter culture thing as my own interests and faith.

 

Within that general theme, the names are also sub-themed. For example, my ten third company sergeants are all named after the sons of Israel, which is also the name of the company captain. Other captains have angelic names, librarians are prophets, chaplains are priests and so so on. And my terminators are collectively the Seraphim (because what's not cool about six-winged angels that are constantly on fire?).

 

As a bonus, when I painted up a few primaris marines, they got new testament Greek names - distinct, but linked, which works for me.

 

In a similar vein, my Cult killteam (the Red Brotherhood) all have Russian names, with the metamorphs and aberrant named after monsters from Russian legend.

 

So short answer - names on a theme, but with sub-themes inside that.

[NovemberIX]

I'm sure I've said it before, all my names are referential, and when possible snarky. One of my original sergeants names was Farsa Kas, which roughly translates into Butter Cup. Sgt. Buttercup got the name because of his rather colorful pastel pteruges and doing well in a game against Honda. (I believe his exact quote was, "we're gonna need to talk to you about names at some point" ;))

 

Other times, I'll take a "normal" M2 name, and twist it into a future name. One of my Dreadnoughts is named Ancient Daevenport, a reference and twisting of Alvin H. Davenport from Ace Combat 5. From the same game, I also took Captain Jack Bartlett, and changed it into Jac Bartlot, who then became an Adjutant-Captain.

 

I've got a Forgelord Abielle named for a car from Ridge Racer 6, techmarine Espion took his name from a car by the same manufacturer in Ridge Racer Type-4, and a techmarine named Tyrell, which directly references Battlestar Galactica and an F1 team that once ran a 6 wheel car.

 

Then there are times when I start throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, like Fleet Admiral Anderson Wen-Li named from Nicolas Anderson, captain of the aircraft carrier Kestrel in Ace Combat 5, and "Miracle" Yang Wen-Li a rather important character in the long running saga of the Legend of Galactic Heroes.

 

I've actively tried not to tie myself into one region or ethno-type to avoid the whole "planet of hats" sorta themeing that GW naturally guides us into with space marines.

[Claws and Effect]

I took the canon Raven Guard names and noted various spelling and syllabic tendencies, then I just ran with it.

 

My wife noted that one of my Tactical Sgts looked a little like the Punisher, so I took the Kiavahr naming conventions and came up with Kassylex (took Castle and morphed it with K and X sounds.

 

I also took a cue from Latin, since that is what High Gothic is based on. I have a Captain with lightning claws that I wanted to give both a first and last name. Digging through the English to Latin translators yielded "cheles", meaning "claws". Then I Kiavahrified it and came up with Kelys Rook (the rook is a species of corvid related to ravens and crows).

 

And another guy who is known as Lieutenant Kro.

[TheTrans]

Find a few languages similar to what culture you're your army is basing some of its fluff off, figure out a simple literal name, then bang it in google translate and you get some passable names:

Calaret de Balaur for my Vampire Count lord, which is similar to Rider of Dragons in Romanian

 

Zatvorski Kralj for a name of a Justarian Cheiftan who was falsely imprisoned for a mate, Prison King in Bosnian.

 

Stuff like that, they may need a change of character here, or a reorder there, but I find its much more fun that just going 'oh I'll use a latin word for death' or something which are almost a kitschy at this point :P. 

[Soldier of Dorn]

Personally, I tend not to rely on Latinized names though I won't shy away from them -- part of it, as some have said, the Latin education can drive you to find such things, ah, exhausting, shall we say, but it's also that the world (and by extension the galaxy) is a wonderfully huge and diverse place and naming schemes can and certainly should reflect that. That runs through my Fists intimately -- I've got names from anywhere and anything. Kazuhira, Mathuin mac Cnamhin, Radolf du Saar, Behn Ashkai, Hadrian Hoare, Rasmus Gage... I couldn't tell you for certain where every name comes from (although I do have a small Rogue Trader themed force within the army that's all named for 80s sci-fi characters and concepts -- diGriz, Ashpool, Voight-Kampff, et cetera.) They're named for people I know, people I don't, things I've read, things I've overheard, cultures I've looked into for completely different reasons.

 

I'll also often be influenced by an army's character -- oftentimes, this'll be drawn from history. F'rex, I've had a Alpha Legion force written up for years inspired by Orde Wingate's Chindit Long Range Penetration Groups during the Burmese campaign of WW2. Accordingly, its warlord is named Orde Longinius -- for Wingate himself, and for the legendary Roman centurion who pierced Christ's side, a small concession to the mythology that influences 40k and the cyphers of the Alpha Legion -- the Chinthean Harrow is the tip of the lance, so to speak. Other times, it'll be far more mythological -- my Blood Angels Airborne Company are led by a Terran warlord named Vikare Armisael. Vikare is the Etruscan name for the mythological Icarus, which I find is something of an apropos name for a man removed from the glory of angels, and also a man who commanded Astartes paradrops, as the Terran elements of the IX are, and Armisael -- well, that's simply the name of one of the Angels in Neon Genesis Evangelion. I liked the sound of it, and its alleged meaning (as I'm not sure if it's a completely accurate translation, Hebrew is not a language I know terribly well) -- the Mountain of the Judgement of God -- is a rather beautiful one to me.

 

Occasionally, I'll lift things wholesale from history, not even bothering to disguise it. A personal hero of mine is the Polish general Stanislaw Maczek, commander of the so-called "Black Brigade" and the 1st Polish Armoured Division at Normandy, the man who closed the Falaise Pocket. So the Black Brigade is my Imperial Army regiment, under the command of Colonel Maczek, defenders of Terra. And sometimes... well, sometimes names need to become characters. A Sons of Horus company started with Ancalagon the Black of Tolkein's Legendarium, and soon Medrawt  Ancalagon, the Dragon of the Sixteenth, Destroyer-Captain of the CXIV Centurio was born, with a fleshed out company and cultural thread running through the naming patterns of the army.

 

Most of my decisions on names are unconscious, though certainly some are very conscious decisions -- f'rex the RT force of Fists I mentioned. But a lot of them are names coming together that sound right and checking information, making justification, figuring out why my head went in that direction -- Orde Wingate and Vikare Armisael are examples, as is Hadrian Hoare -- the commander of my Imperial Fists.

 

One of the things I will always remember in the wake of Alan Bligh's passing is a quote in John French's remembrance blog. In it, he said, Alan had once told him "the problem, John, is that writers need a wider erudition." When you write, when you worldbuild -- everything you've ever learned, all your wisdom and your knowledge-base goes into it. And I won't claim to have the widest erudition myself -- I know a few things here and there but I'm nothing special. But the trick is to save those special things you read: take notes. I don't go anywhere without a notebook to write down thoughts for names and army ideas in. Build up your erudition, not just in militaria and sci-fi but everywhere. Just pay attention, and things will start to come.

 

That's the secret to coming up with names, I think. Just learning names, learning stories. I find that if you have those things, inspiration will always follow, one way or another.

[Haywire]

Speaking for myself, a lot of my names come from Baby Names sites. They often have sections for different countries/cultures (Including ancient ones), so if your army (In this case, at least, Marines) is based on a particular culture, you can get the names from there.

 

With non-Marine Imperials, there are also a wealth of other name generators for Sci-Fi or Star Wars... assuming that your army's culture isn't similar to a real-world one.

 

As an example, my Imperial Knight House is distinctly German with the House name. That one's a weird case, because I'm doing a special project where each Knight in my playable army is completely designed by one of my close friends, right down to the personality of the Knight piloting it.... so the actual pilot names are wildly inconsistent as a result.

 

My Marines use a mixture of English/French/German and Latin names.

 

My Eldar... well. They just use the names from the Elven characters I've roleplayed with in my MMOs.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I painted an Apothecary whilst watching the Cricket yesterday. I've named him Eoin.

[Helias_Tancred]

For most Space Marine armies its not too difficult because many marine factions have certain chapter culture characteristics which mimic old human history civilizations.

 

For example ....

 

Blood Angels: Rennaissance and Spanish Inquisition types of names. Along with a little Roman Empire, and what i call generic Sci-Fi here and there.

 

Ultramarines: Roman.

 

Imperial Fists: Roman, and a little generic Sci-Fi.

 

Dark Angels: Christian and Judaic Angelic names, generic Sci-Fi too..

 

Crimson Fists: A mix of Spanish and Roman names along with some generic Sci-Fi tossed in.

 

Iron Snakes: Ancient Greek.

 

Minotaurs: Ancient Greek.

 

etc etc ....

 

That is how I approach naming my characters. I'm lucky since I've played all marine armies in my experience (Blood Angels, Crimson Fists, and Dark Angels).

 

 

 

 

[Joeker]

I'm building an army of BA successors - I have several categories for names:

 

Riffing on the Traditional BA Renaissance artist trope, I have a long list of northern european/germanic/scandinavian rennaissance artists (my colour scheme is vaguely like the german flag - when that was pointed out to me, I decided to run with the idea of my chapter's homeworld being populated by northern europeans).

 

To fit with my ideas about what a future humanity should speak, the tongue of my homeworld is essentially Esperanto, so a lot of names are words related to the Blood Angels and to my chapter's back story translated into Esperanto. E.g. Sango, Draco, Angelo (you get a lot of -o endings in esperanto...), Ruga, Marsoldatoj,Virtoj.

 

 

Then I tend to scan up and down these lists randomly pulling a first names from here and a last name from there.

 

When I use a 'named' model (such as the Space marine heroes or the Space Hulk Terminators), I just tweak the name a little to make it feel more like it fits my homeworld.

 

so i end up with a tactical squad something like:

 

Unua Batala Kompanio. Patrolo Tassariosen.
*Tria taktika taĉmento (3rd tactical squad): Taktiko van Paesschen

Serĝento Hans Hendrick van Paesschen; Specialisto Paladino Remiel; Specialisto Christen Calistius. Bataloj Fratoj Matthias Bosch; Nikolaj Damgard; Kodeskso Vischer; Sukceso Grunewald, Johannes Larsen, Augustin Gaiul,

 

Finally for my Primaris marines - these are by and large guys who were recruited straight after the heresy, probably from Baal and Terra, so they have names I pulled from lists of Heresy era Blood angels characters (again, mixing and matching first and last names) - such as

 

Primaris Leŭtenanto Ishidur Belarius

[CMDR_Welles]

My Space Marines are led by a Captain Tenniell.

 

Then there is Okbok B'Gok, Daemon Prince of Tzeentch

 

my Death Guard warband is led by Lord Pavarottus, the Plaguecaster Plagio Domingo, and the other Lord of Contagion is Lord Karreras.