Maybe I didn't explain myself clearly. Deep in the bowels of their Nottingham HQ, GW have someone who is responsible for branding/licensing. This means ensuring other people using the 40k IP use it correctly and don't, for example, do anything which would damage the brand, such as introducing female space marines or saying that the Ultramarines were one of the legions that followed Horus in rebellion. When it comes to Behaviour proposing a class name for EC, their job is to make sure the name is appropriate and consistent with existing lore. If it is, they'll give it approval. The likelihood of them rejecting the name GW themselves use, and have always used for Chaos' equivalent of the Space Marine Tactical is so unlikely as to be laughable. As a result, I don't see the GW approval step as any kind of issue. All that really matters here is persuading Behaviour.
Wot if everyone else starts calling them something different. Doesn't dat mean there's no copywrite being broken and that it's a seperate entity?
What players decide to call them informally is entirely up to players. Typically, the only restrictions GW apply to individuals are to fan-mods to other games using their IP. They've publicly indicated that where mods are total conversions and are in line with established lore, they have no issue. They don't explicitly give permission, but they raise no objections to their IP being used as long as it's on a non-commercial basis. If you try to charge for the mods, or if they're not a total conversion and GW IP appears inside someone else's setting and lore, then GW issue a takedown notice. What game developers decide to call classes is subject to contractual restrictions by GW around the use of the Warhammer 40k IP, in exchange for being allowed to use it commercially. As a result, GW holds the final approval for any suggestions. While we don't have concrete evidence to prove it, we strongly suspect that the names proposed which had widespread approval from the EC community were rejected as not being consistent with existing names used for the Chaos Space Marine class.
Personally I'd rather troll them with bolt rounds than by accepting the name they've given me. And to be more accurate, Southerners are the ones who generally call Northerners Yankees(besides the baseball team), Northerners don't really call themselves it. They're different cultures.
The term Yankee originated during the French-Indian Wars and was a pejorative epithet for the disheveled, unsophisticated, and rag-tag colonial forces by the British who viewed them as inferior. The colonials embraced the name during the American Revolutionary War, much to the chagrin of British forces who were being given fits by these lesser Yankees. I can both troll them with bolt rounds and proudly wear the name "Traitor" as one who rejects the Imperium's dickery.
Ok, I'm not sure about its adoption in the Revolutionary War, but I'm quite sure that the English and their loyalists also called them traitors as well, which is certainly not a title the Founding Fathers adopted. This would be exactly like the Colonists calling themselves traitors for the rest of our history. Now what I'm referring to is its use among Americans since at least the Civil War. It bears keeping in mind for foreigners that the United States is not homogeneous culturally, and Yankee as a blanket term for Americans is more of a foreign thing, here Southerners generally use it to refer to North Easterners, and they too use it in a borderline insulting way, a sort of way of saying airheaded city folk. If they ever actually used it themselves it went out of fashion a long time ago, it really is something certain Americans call other Americans. And it doesn't seem very much like rejection when you accept the mantle they chose.
I understand the contemporary and Civil War usage of the name Yankee, but I specifically used it's origin as the temporal context I used it in to illustrate the irony of a negative epithet being appropriated as a positive sobriquet to insult one's enemies. Using/going by a pejorative your enemy has labeled you with to describe your identity as anathema to what they stand for renders the slur powerless and becomes a point of pride in the case of the Chaos Space Marines. The British intended "Yankee Doodle" as an insult describing the colonials as incompetent, unrefined yokels, the opposite of what the British Soldiery viewed themselves as(and rightfully so, they were a force majeure). When these "incompetent, unrefined yokels" starting kicking their asses and embracing the name, what does that make the British? By their definition, inferior to an incompetent yokel. Irony. Trai·tor ˈtrādər/ noun a person who betrays a friend, country, principle, etc. To the Chaos Space Marines, the ideals of the Imperium are abhorrent and idiotic, it's followers pathetic and weak. Being labeled a "traitor" to the cause of the Imperium and those in it would be a badge of honor, I know I enjoy it. You're now insulting your insulter using their insult. Irony. I am not trying to change minds, just explain the logic and the history of the appropriation of pejoratives as an insult to the insulter, cause fuck the emprah.
Even though I don't personally agree with naming our classes Traitor, I do entirely understand where you're coming from. I think you hit on a good similar for the situation with Yankee, as that will also depend on individual's perspectives. The term "Yanks" is still in widespread use in the UK and several other countries to refer to our transatlantic cousins. Over here, that's never with positive connotations, although I understand that varies from country to country. I can't really comment to what extent it is still viewed as a badge of pride in the US, particularly outside the northeast, but I imagine there would be some distinctly raised eyebrows (and much chortling in the aisles over here) if a video game named one if its playable factions the Yanks rather than the Americans or the USA. Similarly, Britain and France's long standing love-hate relationship has led to both sides typically taking being called Rosbifs or Frogs, respectively, in good humour. But similar to the example above, I don't think many people on either side would be happy if Britain or France were featured in a video game under those names.
