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[Berossus]

You only need a dwarf that has many kills with this weapon, or the weapon itself needs many skills.
In my former fortress, i had 3 melee squads, and each named their weapon after enough time and blood.

Not so sure about this, my new militia commander has kills in the hundreds (and 78 of those on his shiny new candy battle axe) but has never named a single weapon he had.

EDIT: Though now that I think about it, he's only had it for a few seasons. Maybe it's due to time in usage?

I say its both, likely.
The naming of my weapons started at some point, and over the span of maybe 5 years the entire squad had named killtools.
They are dwarves, they will not name something after a few years... stuff gotta be old to be good.

[martinuzz]

It might have to do with the number of succesful hits that a weapon has made. That would explain why my weapon without kills, but a lot of sparring time, got named.

[AutomataKittay]

It might have to do with the number of succesful hits that a weapon has made. That would explain why my weapon without kills, but a lot of sparring time, got named.

And why my dwarves tend to get named weapons if I forget to change their equipment once they get attached to it. It seem to happen to my crossbowiers a lot, and they tend to be pretty unbusy since sieges usually die to traps or get locked out.

Possibly some combination of fame of the one being smacked and how much it's smacked and how familiar the dwarf is with it. Wouldn't be surprised if it's based on attachment mechanism!

[martinuzz]

I've just had a dwarf name her spear, and then her shield. Did not know shields could get named. Spear and shield have been used for almost 10 years of sparring sessions. This dwarf arrived with the Queen, as a legendary speardwarf, so she has about 20 years less sparring time than the other dwarf.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The dwarf is both legendary shield user as well as speardwarf. She, nor the weapon and shield have any kills. The only trait she has in common with the previous dwarf, is that she too does not care about anything anymore.

I suspect that weapons and shields gain experience, just like dwarves. At a certain experience treshold, a dwarf grows attached to it, and at an even higher treshold it gets named.
It makes sense that experience gain from sparring is lower than experience gain from real fighting, just like it is for dwarves. Which could explain why I rarely see named weapons, and people who fight a lot see them much more frequent.

[AutomataKittay]

Shield's used for bashing. Really, anything that's used to attack will be named, I've seen a few posts of dwarves with stolen socks and trousers get them named from using it to beat things to death.

[katana]

Named weapons are not indestructible. I had a certain sword melt on me when pit against demons.

[Deus Asmoth]

I think that a weapon gets named after the dwarf has it for a few years. If they kill a historical figure with it, like a forgotten beast, they seem to name them a lot faster. I'm not sure if the numbers involved influence this, but in my experience, dwarves the best forgotten beasts or titans one on one seem to name their weapons instantly, while someone who just lands a killing blow on one after a group melee isn't as likely. If they like the weapon or the material it's made from, it seems to speed the process up as well, but I'm not sure by how much or if it's just coincidence.

[XXSockXX]

It also seems the kills a weapon has don't have to be from a single dwarf. I had a hunter name a crossbow after about fifty kills, but the crossbow had another hundred kills from its previous owner.

Maybe also skill level leads to faster naming (possibly because sparring becomes more effective?). I had 30 melee soldiers spar/train/fight/execute prisoners for about 20 years, all legendary fighters/weapon users. All their weapons and most of their shields were named. Then I temporarily disbanded the squads to give them a hapiness boost. When I put them to duty again, not all dwarves picked up the weapons they previously had used, but started naming their new equipment pretty soon.

[kingubu]

From the popcorn popper seed training pit, I saw everyone name their armor bits.  Named greaves, named helms, named shields.  They obviously didn't get any kills, since they were just being showered with seeds.  I'm guessing the naming happens after they gain an amount of exp with an item.  I'm also guessing with weapons the naming after a number of kills is just ancillary to the exp gain from fighting with the weapon.

[Patchy]

I've seen them name weapons and shields all the time, but I've never actually seen them name pieces of their armour. Maybe I'll have to actually make and test one of those seed flinging pits, though I've already lumped it in with the danger rooms and have been refusing to build one.

[usgreth]

I've not seen them name armour (besides shields I think) not sure if thats a newer thing, though weapon naming has been around since at least 2010. Killing FBs does seem to help in getting weapons named. I had a few weapons named in my major fort but not many until my danger room training setup was underway (several years down the line) and then weapons started getting named like no tomorrow. The training definately seemed to affect it more than the numerous goblin/troll sieges.