Through The Clone Wars, we meet clone commanders and troopers who don’t sound like numbers anymore—Rex, Cody, Wolffe, Fives, Echo, Jesse. They’re names you can actually remember, the kind that feel personal even under a helmet.
So how did that happen? Did the Jedi just start calling them whatever came to mind? Did Kamino assign those names as part of training? Or did the clones choose them for themselves somewhere along the way?
The ARC Training Track That Changed How Clones Identified Themselves
We actually get a pretty clear explanation for how clones start using personal names through a specific command training pipeline. In Star Wars Insider, there’s an in-universe HoloNet report called “Clone Commander Graduates Ready for Action” that talks about the first class of clone commanders finishing an advanced officer program at Tipoca City.
The article describes these commanders as a select group chosen incredibly early, then pushed through heavier preparation than standard troopers. They still get the flash-learning and combat “memories” pumped into them, but the report makes it sound like that’s only the starting point.
The real difference is the ARC troopers who run them through grueling drills and supervised simulations—Alpha-17 is even named as the lead instructor—because Kamino doesn’t want commanders who think they know war. They want commanders who can lead when someone is yelling in their ear and everything is going wrong.
And then the naming detail drops in a really natural way. The report says one notable distinction of these ARC-trained commanders is that they use given names alongside their serial numbers, and those names are officially recognized upon graduation. Lama Su even explains why Kamino changed its attitude: clones used to invent nicknames out in the field as a small grab at individuality, and for a long time that was considered a flaw. But Kamino found that allowing names actually creates the exact traits they want in leadership units—more initiative, more drive, more goal-setting—so in the command track, a name becomes a formal mark of distinction.
Funny thing is, this wasn’t just some Insider “extra lore” nugget. Back in the pre-Disney days, this idea was treated as part of the official story, and StarWars.com itself spelled out the exact same logic: Alpha’s commander training didn’t just make clones better at leading, it also rewarded them with proper names as a mark of recognized individuality.
“Though some Kaminoans bristled at the idea, Alpha’s training program began to reward commanders by officially acknowledging their individualism with the gift of proper names. Clone troopers typically refer to each other by their identification numbers. In small groups and under close quarters conditions, they commonly refer to each other using only the last two digits of their ID number. The use of individualized nicknames was known to occur on the battlefield, but the Kaminoans disparaged the asymmetry it introduced among their creations. At the behest of the Republic and the Jedi, the cloners put aside their dislike for Alpha’s program that resulted in such notable named clone soldiers as Odd Ball, Cody, Bacara, Bly, Neyo, Appo, Fox and Gree.”
Rex Earned His Name Through That Program
However, in the Insider HoloNet report, Rex isn’t mentioned by name. It explains the program, but it doesn’t give us a direct “here’s when Rex chose his name” moment.
That confirmation actually comes through Commander Cody’s profile in The Official Star Wars Fact File Part 2 (2014). According to the entry, after the Battle of Geonosis—just a few months into the Clone Wars—CC-2224 (Cody’s designation before he took the name) was selected along with 99 other clone troopers and sent into Alpha-17’s training program. After graduating, CC-2224 chose “Cody” as his personal name.
And the best part is that during the same ARC training, he met CT-7567. The two became friends during the program, and CT-7567 is the clone we later come to know as Captain Rex.
