In the grim darkness of the far future, a name tells you who someone serves. An Ultramarine sounds like a Roman legionary, a Space Wolf like a saga hero, a T'au carries their caste, rank and sept in their name, and a Necron lord collects titles over sixty million years. This Warhammer 40k name generator covers every major faction and the Chapters, Legions, regiments, orders, clans and septs inside them: choose a faction, then a sub-faction, or leave it on Any.
Space Marines: every Chapter names its own way
Each Chapter recruits from its own worlds and keeps that world's culture, so the names change from one to the next:
- Ultramarines: Roman first names and surnames, like Marneus Calgar and Cato Sicarius.
- Space Wolves: Norse names with a nickname instead of a surname, like Logan Grimnar and Ragnar Blackmane. Their ranks are their own too: Blood Claw, Grey Hunter, Long Fang, Wolf Lord.
- Blood Angels and Dark Angels: angelic and Renaissance names, often used alone: Dante and Mephiston; Azrael, Belial and Sammael. Dark Angels companies are led by a Master rather than a Captain.
- White Scars: steppe names from Chogoris, and captains who take the title Khan, like Kor'sarro Khan.
- Salamanders: names from Nocturne, often with an apostrophe, like Tu'Shan and He'stan.
- Iron Hands belong to clans as well as companies, so the generator adds one of the ten clans, such as Raukaan or Garrsak.
- Black Templars are crusaders, with knightly names and ranks: Initiate, Sword Brother, Castellan, Marshal, Emperor's Champion.
The Imperial Fists and Raven Guard round out the list. The Adeptus Custodes get Greek and Roman-style names with their Shield Host, such as the Dread Host or the Solar Watch.
Chaos: Legions and daemons
The Traitor Legions kept the cultures of their homeworlds through ten thousand years of war, and their names show it. The Thousand Sons of Prospero have Egyptian-style names and belong to sorcerous cults (Pyrae, Corvidae, Pavoni, Athanaeans, Raptora). Night Lords like Talos come from the dark hive world of Nostramo, Word Bearers like Erebus and Kor Phaeron from Colchis, and the Death Guard took grim names from Barbarus: Typhus was once Calas Typhon. Iron Warriors serve in Grand Battalions under a Warsmith, and everyone in the Alpha Legion may claim to be Alpharius.
Chaos daemons are named for their god. Khorne's are harsh and broken by apostrophes (Skarbrand, Ka'Bandha), Nurgle's are cheerfully foul (Rotigus, Ku'gath), Tzeentch's are strange strings of sounds (Kairos Fateweaver) and Slaanesh's are elegant (N'Kari, Shalaxi Helbane).
The Imperium's humans: regiments, orders, forge worlds and ordos
- Astra Militarum regiments are named after their homeworld and a number, like the Cadian 8th. Each world has its own names: Russian-style for Valhalla's ice warriors, Arabic-style for Tallarn's desert raiders, formal Germanic names for the Mordian Iron Guard, and Catachans with jungle nicknames, like Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken. The Death Korps of Krieg are famously grim and faceless, so they get a rank and a surname.
- Adepta Sororitas take saints' names and serve in an Order Militant: Our Martyred Lady, the Valorous Heart, the Bloody Rose, the Sacred Rose, the Argent Shroud and the Ebon Chalice. Canoness Morvenn Vahl and Junith Eruita are two of the best known.
- Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests replace more of themselves with machinery as they rise, and their names often carry numbers and designations, so you'll get names like Galvanor Theta-7 as well as Latin-sounding names in the spirit of Archmagos Belisarius Cawl, each with a forge world such as Mars, Lucius or Ryza.
- Inquisitors serve one of three ordos: Malleus hunts daemons, Hereticus hunts heretics and witches, and Xenos hunts aliens. Gregor Eisenhorn and Gideon Ravenor from Dan Abnett's novels are the most famous.
Xenos: how the alien races name themselves
- Aeldari names are long and flowing, often with a second name earned on the Path: Eldrad Ulthran of Ulthwé, Illic Nightspear of Alaitoc. Each craftworld has its own favourite roles, like Saim-Hann's Wild Riders and Alaitoc's Rangers.
- Drukhari names are sharp and cruel. They belong to a Kabal (Asdrubael Vect's Black Heart), a Wych Cult (Lelith Hesperax's Cult of Strife) or a Haemonculus Coven (Urien Rakarth's Prophets of Flesh).
- Orks are named by the clan they fight for: black-clad Goffs, speed-mad Evil Sunz, rich Bad Moons, lucky blue Deathskulls, old-fashioned Snakebites, sneaky Blood Axes and pirate Freebooterz. For more, try the Warhammer Orc Name Generator.
- Necrons have Egyptian-sounding names and titles earned over millions of years, like Imotekh the Stormlord, Phaeron of the Sautekh Dynasty, and Trazyn the Infinite of the Nihilakh.
- T'au names follow a fixed order: caste and rank, then sept, then a personal name. Shas'ui Vior'la Kel'shan is a Fire caste veteran from Vior'la. The castes are Fire (Shas), Earth (Fio), Water (Por), Air (Kor) and the Ethereals (Aun).
- Leagues of Votann names are short and heavy, with marks over the vowels (Ûthar the Destined), and come with a League such as the Greater Thurian League.
- Genestealer Cults hide among ordinary hive workers, so their names are plain and human, with cult titles like Magus, Primus and Acolyte Iconward.
- Tyranids don't name themselves. The names belong to the Imperial soldiers who survive them, which is how you get Old One Eye, the Red Terror and the Deathleaper.
Picking a name for your army
- Name your characters, not every model. A named Captain and Sergeant give an army personality; the rest can be Brother this and Trooper that.
- Make a successor Chapter or your own regiment. Pick the style of the Chapter or world it comes from, then add your own twist.
- Use the name format. "Name only" gives you a name to write on a card; "Full title" adds the rank and who they serve, for a roster or a story.
- Every name here is new. The famous names in this article are from Games Workshop's books and codexes; the generator's names are written in their style so your character is your own.
For a nickname to go with it, try the Epithet Generator; for the big lads, the Ogryn Name Generator.