I mean... they're an obviously evil name means "deceptive". But I do like Megatron's explanation from TF Prime.

"The name was meant to demonize us. Instead, we wear it as a badge of honor for if speaking the truth is deception then we are gladly guilty."

There's truth to that in real life as well.

 

Decepticon - Transformers Wiki

Origins for different continuities, very few explain the name

 

I really hate that idea that the Decepticons carry the name "ironically." Or that it refers to some other deception, ala IDW. If you're protesting a government that lies to you, calling yourselves "big ol' lying liar-bots" isn't really conveying that message. If anything you think they'd, y'know, call themselves "Truthicons." Or something that doesn't literally describe them as liars.

The TF Prime origin tries harder than IDW, but still falls sort for the same reason of "they claim the name does not fit them, but still hold onto it anyway." Like if they were "Murderbots" and were like "oh no, the name is ironic, we're actually pacifists who rescue people." Riiiiiight. Not, ah, not great PR there.

Honestly, I just imagine "Decepticon" is a made-up-word that happens to sound like Deception to us, but has no inherent meaning in their language, and that's only if you're absolutely dead-set on explaining such a silly name for a silly franchise.

 

John Cena said it best, "They literally call themselves "Decepticons"! That doesn't set off any red flags?"

 

Ascenticons makes more sense philosophically in IDW2, Cybertronian superiority, ascending to their rightful place, etc.

Sentinel Prime and Orion Pax call them decievers and plan to 'label them as such'. So that's the Decepticon name coming up shortly. Why/how does Megatron embrace it? We'll have to see.

 

They will deceive and con you. DeceptiCon. Pretty simple.

 

Yeah, but if you were a disgruntled philosopher wanting to overthrow your tyrannical oppressors, you wouldn't want to call yourselves "deceptive cons", would you? Doesn't make much sense, when you think about it. OP also mentioned how he knew it had to do with the word "deceive", he just wanted an in-lore explanation.

 

This is why I liked the Japanese faction name better. Destron linguistically relates to both destroy and des, which if my old weaboo to English dictionary still works, translates to death, as well as the old -tron suffix. As to alternate faction names, Predacon worked very well in Beast Wars and RID2001. Vehicon would have been awesome as a counterpoint to Autobot. But that's hindsight.

About the only fan explanation that I've seen that works is the one @Rewind Eject had, where the Decepticons were the secret police of the old caste system, and Megatron overthrew the incompetent old guard in order to do things his way. In that setting, the various Con subgroups corresponded to their occupation.

 

Wasn't the origin in Prime made up on the spot by Megatron, to explain it away to amnesiac Orion? As far as I remember the true origin of the term was never explained in Prime, Megatron was just lying through his teeth. Unless we're assuming that the term's origin outlined in Exodus applies in Prime (and since it's not really contradicted in the series, I suppose it counts).

I pretty much agree with the last bit - it can just be a silly made up word from their language that just happens to sound like "deception" when translated for us.

 

The toys needed a cool "evil" name... toys that are made to look like ordinary objects (as opposed to cars / autobots) so probably someone stood up during a meeting at Hasbro and said "hey, it's about these robots spying and deceiving, so what about "Decepticons?"", and they voted on it and that was that.. something like that anyways.

That's about it. Everything else that was stated in cartoons and such means absolutely nothing and are just made up as "backstory" to the fiction, but still have no bearing to the actual origin of the name.

 

Sorta off topic but you guys/gals ever notice all the Decepticons combiner teams have "Cons" @ the end of their team name? Examples: Stunticons,Predacons,Deacons etc? Same rules apply to Autobots and their combiners. Anyways carry on 

 

There is actually precedent for this in the real world - the British Conservative party (commonly known as Tories) developed out of a party officially called the Tory party, named for an old derogatory term meaning "outlaw" and their rivals, the Whigs were named from the insult "whiggamore" (cattle driver).

 

Huh. You learn something new every day. The real question then becomes, what is the root phrase or insult for "Decepticon?"

 

Deceptive Con-bots?

 

Deceptive Contrarians!

 

Deceptive constructs, as in they're a bunch of lying constructs (which depending on how Transformers are made, can be an insult), and their whole movement is a deceitful fabrication?

 

To further expand on this, it's generally called reappropriation, where a group reclaims a term originally used as an insult. I'd link to the Wikipedia page on tube subject, but I don't have enough posts yet.

 

I always assume they were call that because they’re full of deception.

 

I accepted that Decepticons splintered off from Autobots. "Deceptive Constructs"... I am going to be referencing some elements of the franchise I REALLY wish were different, but this is what makes sense to me, and is just for the sake of AN etymological explanation, not "the".

Created as workers/laborers, later specialized as mechanical soldiers. Increasing job/mission complexity requires escalation of Intelligence, eventually yielding sentient machines. They are "Autonomous Robots" = Autobots. Need for adaptation is much stronger in conflict than labor, so innovation occurs much more frequently with the combat class while the labor lineage either adopts or gets fringe improvement somehow (think NASA > Velcro > Nike). One of the most popular aspects of any weapon is stealth delivery, so the robot soldier being disguised as something benign, or adding more functions to one unit ( i.e. Dennis Nedry's "special" Barbasol can) would be this huge moment in their use as weapons/slaves.

"Yeah, I bought one of them Autobots from the Q last year for my wife to have around the house... But with the rising crime rate in this galaxy, I'm also thinking of getting one of them new-fangled Deceptive Construction series models. Like, it makes sense if I drop my gun, then it should just pick ITSELF up and kill the guy, right?"
(There's a brochure)
"Deceptive Construction Autonomous Robot', huh? Gotta say, that sounds like some shanix being paid for extra names..."
"Yeah, they're callin' 'em Decepti-Cons for short"
"I like it!"

 

As a uh, more lighthearted version of this, alot of internet douchebags use the term "autistic" as an insult. But us Autistics have reclaimed the term proudly.  

As for the topic at hand, the writers just thought it sounded cool.