About military rank names
Familiar grades like "Brigadier General" share the roster with invented posts such as "Officer of the Hounds" and bilingual oddities like "Commander de Provisions". The realistic entries anchor a chain of command while the strange ones reveal what your army actually values, hounds, provisions, or explosives. Seed two or three invented titles among standard ranks so the fictional military reads as both organized and foreign.
How military rank names are built
This generator merges two separate rank systems. One set yields plain grade titles ("Warden", "Lieutenant-Commander") or English "of" constructions like "Commandant of the Law" and "Lieutenant of the Covert". The other set is French, with de/des posts like "Sergent des Salves" and "Capitaine des Lices", plus hyphenated offices like "Garde-Bannières". The banks are large (88, 116, 96, 74, 95, 72 entries across the slots), so the ladder can run from junior to supreme command.
Commandant of the Law
title "Commandant", connector "of", charge "the Law"
Lieutenant-Commander
standalone grade title "Lieutenant-Commander"
Sergent des Salves
French title "Sergent", connector "des", charge "Salves"
Naming notes
Pull a handful to sketch a whole hierarchy in minutes, mixing conventional grades (Lieutenant-Commander) with flavourful "of" titles (Lieutenant of the Covert) that imply a specific charge or unit. The title-of-department form is useful for fantasy or bespoke militaries where a rank is tied to a duty rather than a number. The French de/des forms (Patron de Galère, Gardien des Meurtrières) and hyphenated labels (Garde-Bannières) read as posts in an old-world army, so use them to give a force an archaic or foreign flavour alongside the English grades.
Questions about military rank names
- Why do some ranks include "of" and a second word?
- One template builds title-of-department forms such as "Commandant of the Law" or "Lieutenant of the Covert", tying a grade to a duty or unit rather than a plain numbered rank.
- Can this cover a full chain of command?
- Yes. The banks include junior through senior grades (forms like Warden, Master and Lieutenant-Commander), so pulling several results sketches a complete ladder across a military, with French posts mixed in.
- What are the French and hyphenated labels like "Garde-Bannières"?
- Those are post or office designations rather than plain graded ranks. They are useful for naming a standing charge or specialist office alongside the individual titles.