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What's in a name? Plenty, especially when you're dealing with an Army unit...
The easiest units to understand the naming of are the "unique" units. Example: the United States Army Band (Pershing's Own). There's only one--it's in the National Capitol Region--so there's no mistaking it. There aren't many of these units.
Most units are numbered. There are two kinds of unit names: Combat Arms Regimental System and non-CARS. CARS came about in the 1970s as a link to the history of the Army. Between the disbanding of the regiments and the initiation of CARS, you saw names like "187th Combat Team." What is a Combat Team? Today it would be the 187th Infantry Regiment.
A CARS unit starts by naming a regiment. Let's pull one out: the 327th Airborne Infantry Regiment. A regiment can have from three to six battalions, so you'll have a 1st Battalion, 327th AIR (or 1-327 AIR), 2-327 and 3-327. In the days when we were attempting to keep Berlin safe for democracy, the 502d Infantry Regiment did have six battalions--three at Fort Campbell, three in Berlin. (Note: the unit would alternate the site for its regiment-level Soldier and NCO of the Year competitions between Fort Campbell and Berlin, and until the battalion-level competitions had been completed, they wouldn't tell the troops which location was chosen for the finals. This really improved the quality of the competition, for who could pass up a free trip to Berlin? And FWIW, most years they did hold the finals in Berlin.)
At battalion level, companies are generally named with letters--Company A, Company B, Battery C, Troop D. Most units have a Headquarters Company. (Note: not all units do. The regulation states that all headquarters companies must have a dining facility. My unit in Berlin didn't have one, and therefore its headquarters company was called "Company C.") Some have a Service Company, although these days the trend is to make a Headquarters and Service Company and save one captain and one first sergeant.
Maneuver brigades are generally called 1st Brigade or 2nd Brigade. Very boring names, but useful; when you say you're in "1st Brigade, 3d Armored Division" they know exactly where you are. Brigades all have nicknames; instead of being "1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division," they might be the "Cobra Brigade." (They seem to like the names of large violent animals when nicknaming brigades.)
Non-CARS units are just numbered: 801st Main Support Battalion, 504th Military Intelligence Brigade, 13th Signal Company. They try not to get two units with the same number on the same post--if you call up the food depot and tell 'em you're "Sergeant Smith of the 503d Dining Facility," it really helps if they don't have to ask "is this 503d Airborne Infantry Regiment, 503d Field Artillery Regiment or 503d Laundry and Bath Company?"
At division, your unit is given a name corresponding to its strength at the formation of the unit. They look at infantry and armor units. If you have more armor units in your division than you do infantry, you are an Armored Division, and if infantry lords over armor, you're an Infantry Division. (The most extreme example: the 1st Cavalry Division. By rights, it should be called an Armored Division, but since it was full of horse soldiers when formed, it's still a Cavalry Division.)
Corps units are titled with Roman numerals-- I Corps, III Corps and so on. They call First Corps "Eye Core" (its phonetic pronounciation) because lots of troops started calling it that. Soldiers used to nickname things, and sometimes the nicknames would become official--the UH-1 "Huey" helicopter started out life as the Iroquois. These days they can't do that because "that piece of s..." isn't a very nice way to describe most of our gear.
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