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With a rich background stretching back decades in time, the various Warhammer games contain a vast array of names (of people, places, items, and so on). Many of these names are original, but some happen to have a meaning in the real world, as obscure terms, foreign words, or cultural references. This page lists some of these underlying etymologies for your edification. Note that some of these are best guesses (speculative fan theory) rather than confirmed derivations.
Where a name is followed by the symbol ¹, if you hover over or click on that symbol you will see when that name was first mentioned in a publication.
| Name | Meaning |
|---|---|
| F'yar ¹ | "Fire". [WHFB Orc] |
| Gork | See: Gork and Mork. [WHFB BloodBowl Orc WH40k Ork God] |
| Gork and Mork ¹ | Blend of Gog and Magog (two individuals/peoples/lands from the Bible) and Ork. Later, Gogmagog, a giant in Welsh mythology. [WHFB BloodBowl Orc WH40k Ork God] |
| Hagar Sheol ¹ | Hägar the Horrible, a Viking comic character first published in 1973 + Sheol, a dark afterlife in Hebrew mythology. [WHFB Orc] |
| Ironfist ¹ | See: Magyar Ironfist. [WHFB Orc] |
| Kwae Karr ¹ | "Quaker", one who trembles. Possibly Kwae Karr Orcs is a corruption of Quaker Oats. [WHFB Orc] |
| Magyar Ironfist ¹ | "Magyar", Hungarian + "iron", a metallic element + "fist", clenched hand. [WHFB Orc] |
| Mork | See: Gork and Mork. [WHFB BloodBowl Orc WH40k Ork God] |
| Orc | Orc, a monster in European mythology. [WHFB Orc] |
| Orc's Drift ¹ | Battle of Rorke's Drift (1879) between the British and Zulu. [WHFB Orc] |
| Sheol ¹ | See: Hagar Sheol. [WHFB Orc] |
| Inspiration | |
| Warhammer Setting | The Dark Tongue; Daemonic Names; Lexicon; Short Stories; Cut-ups; Cool Stuff |
| Art | Golden Demon; Nurglesque Music |
| Speculation | Chaos God Correspondence; Dark Heresy Backgrounds; Sevenfold Path; Sevenrot; Seven Deadly Sins |
| Real World References | Nergal in Mesopotamian History; Symbolism of Three Circles; Symbolism of Seven |
dedicated to the Master of the Plague