something that frustrated me as I worked through my "every single Clone in canon and legends and etc" list is the Designation.
So, as far as I can tell, the Designation for most clone troopers follow this format:
CT for Clone Trooper (though that varies if it they're a part of the Command batch, among other reasons), and then there's a four digit number that follows.
Simple, right? CT-7567 is Captain Rex, CT-5555 is Fives, etc.
The first problem you might notice is that its a system that only supports just under 10,000 troops. And the Grand Army of the Republic is made up of - *checks notes* - a fuckton more than that. (note: the official tally is screwy at best because writers aren't great at math, but there's plenty of forum discussions out there about that).
So, what happens when the Kaminoans pop out their 10,000th clone? Well, officially, we don't really know? And that's because, as Star Wars was and is a universe written by a lot of different people with different ideas and without discussing it with each other half the time, the universe itself disagrees on how the Designation format should be.
(Kajir, you ask, who cares? Me, who decided to Google sheet all of this over the course of over a year of on again off again cross referencing)
Like I mentioned earlier, while CT (Clone Trooper) is the most frequent start of standard designations due to most of the GAR being filed under that. Typically, this includes all personnel that isn't a Commander, ARC Trooper, Republic Commando, or a part of the original batches, Null-Class and Alpha-Class. However, depending on the source, pilots occasionally have a different start (CP), Lieutenants (CL), Sergeants even (CS); though it's never consistent.
We then have our Centax-5 and beyond era of clones, that have what I like to call "Imperial Stormtrooper" Designations. Examples include DV-523, KE-829, and NT-311.
A common variation of the standard format seems to be what I call the "Slash Designations". These were probably made due to someone's brain cells clicking together and realizing the numbers don't add up. Examples include CT-55/11-9009 (Captain Jag), CT-6200/8901 (Moz), and CT-44/444 (Forry). The issue with this, as you can see, is the lack of standardization. The Kaminoans were efficient, organized; they wouldn't just make up random numbers and slap them on. so what would be proper format? CT-0000/0000? CT-00/000? CT-00/00-0000? or any other possible combination? It's just inconsistent.
Another common variation stems from the SW: Battlefront video game series; I call it the "Weird Greek Designation"; in my list I just shoved them all together, in the meantime. It'll just be like "Epsilon 234" or "Gamma 022". Let me be clear: this is purely a Battlefront thing.
And from there, we have literally anything. From just numbers in the Excelsior Company to Lego just doing it's own thing with "Clone00000004" or "CloneKL-555". From dashes instead of slashes (and sometimes including letters), to the literal word Dash for a couple of 104th Battalion troopers from the comics. Literally, anything is game.
Star Wars Lore, I adore you, but for the love of the force you are messy. This is, of course, part of why I like making these lists. Usually.
This ^ however, continues to threaten to perpetuate migrains.
