Tyranid naming policy

[Inquisitor Stingray]

Okay, so we like Tyranids. We like the fluff, the models, the rules. For the most part, anyway. But what about their names? I've always liked looking at what kind of patterns the names follow and this is what I've come up with. Tyranid names often fall into one of these categories:

- Latin titles that sound badass: Haruspex, Carnifex, Dominatrix
- Old, nasty or plain mean women: Termagant, Harridan, Crone
- Silly gibberish that might fool you for a second: Tervigon, Tyrannofex, Trygon

What Tyranid names do you like? As in, which ones do you feel inspire fear in your opponents when you mention that you will be bringing three of them? And if you were to make new monster, what would it called? I was thinking Echidnorn as a mix of Echidna and Norn Queens. Malefactor sounds brutal as well (not new).

Also, anyone know the stories behind names of classic units like Zoanthropes and Biovore? Zo-human and Life-eater? Is that all there is to it?

I just realized that Hierodule means 'sacred prostitute'. The more you know...

[ziyousansz]

Trygon: Stingray that murders Odysseus' son. www.mythologydictionary.com/trygon-mythology.html

Zoanthropy: A disorder wherein a person believes he/she is an animal. This would be my best guess for the name's basis, given the old model that looked humanoid. dictionary.reference.com/browse/zoanthropy

You've probably got the Biovore bit down right.

If I was going to make a 'nid, I'd probably make a larger ripper variant that focused on devouring the plants and nutrients from the ground. I'd call it a Terravore and give it the ability to make rough/dangerous terrain that could be used for cover.

[Raven]

Hive Tyrant, Warrior, Genstealer, etc.: Obvious names are obvious
Harridan, Harpy, Termagant, Crone, Dominatrix: Things you probably shouldn't call your girlfriend
Tervigon: Altered spelling of termagant/tervagant
Hormagant: Hormon meaning "to assault", gaunt meaning thin and lean
Ravener: Someone who preys and plunders
Lictor: Roman rank
Carnifex: Roman executioner and Latin for butcher
Tyrranofex: Suffix borrowed from Carnifex, tyranno meaning tyrant
Biovore & Pyrovore: Life devourer and flame devourer
Haruspex: Practitioner of haruspicy, divination from animal (usually bird) entrails
Exocrine: External secretion
Zoanthrope, Venomthrope & Malanthrope: animal human (from Zoanthropy, the delusion you are an animal), venomous human, bad human
Trygon: From trigon, a triangular harp of Roman/Greek origin
Mawloc: Maw meaning mouth, loc coming from locus meaning place or possibly locust
Hierophant: from the Greek words ta hiera, the holy, and phainein, to show. Title of a high priest in ancient Attica.
Hierodule: Sacred prostitute in Greek temple
Old One Eye: Name taken from a one-eyed Tyrannosaurus in Judge Dredd

[Davor]

Didn't notice till someone mentioned it. A lot of Nid names are not so nice female names.

[Raven]

Which is why I use female pronouns for most of my Nids.

[Rahab]

Termagant is also an obscure demonic entity that shows up in various medieval writings, and for some reason that's the connotation that comes to mind when I think of our lovable cannon fodder buggies.

In The Song of Roland, Termagant is part of an "Infernal Trinity" that the Muslims pray to, which also features "Mahound" (Mohammed), and Apollyon (Apollo). I guess they figured there had to be an evil counterpart to the three-in-one Christian God, and randomly threw in whatever supernatural personas were nearest to hand. BTW, Song of Roland is worth a read, if you haven't already.

[Inquisitor Stingray]

Interesting, I never knew about the Trygon. It sounded too silly to be an actual reference. Also I feel really dumb for never once considering the zoo-anthrope. Then again I wasen't around in the early days where it looked kind of triceratops-like.

[kimbie]

My fleet has no name yet, however the wonderful people at my local club have named it "Hive Fleet Tango" on the account the base colour is a very bright orange

[Hunger]

Let's not forget that GW was once a little cottage business run by sci-fi nerds, not historians or lexicographers. Many of the older 'original' tyranid organisms were simply given names that sounded cool - Haruspex, Exocrine, Hierodule etc. I can remember the original Carnifex being released, and thinking that even the word itself was scary.

I vaguely remember reading an interview with Rick Priestley and Andy Chambers about 20 years ago on the subject of the naming of the zoanthrope - they put no thought into what it meant, just thought it was a cool word. (Sorry but I can't provide a reference for this, you'll have to take my word for it).

The 'old lady' names for the winged creatures (Harpy and Hive Crone) are obviously linked to the Harridan, which has existed for about 20 years in fluff - I don't think they ever made an Epic harridan. Expect Brood Hags, Hive Witches and other creatures in years to come - that name pool is going to dry up quickly.

[WestRider]

Mar 19, 2014 3:05:59 GMT Hunger said:

The 'old lady' names for the winged creatures (Harpy and Hive Crone) are obviously linked to the Harridan, which has existed for about 20 years in fluff - I don't think they ever made an Epic harridan. Expect Brood Hags, Hive Witches and other creatures in years to come - that name pool is going to dry up quickly.

They actually did make an Epic Harridan sometime in the mid 90s.

[Hunger]

So they did! I was never into Epic, and now Epic and 40K have practically merged. Once upon a time, jokes abounded regarding the absurdity of having titans and huge Epic-scale war machines in 40K. Imagine how powerful a Trygon would be! Just think what stats an Imperial Knight would have! I bet an warhound could take on a whole army. Etc. The idea of actually being able to BUY a titan, sculpted and cast by a GW subsidiary company was lunacy.

The harridan looks smaller than I expected.

(That's not a joke about 6mm scale).