How did the Normandy beaches get their code names?

Answer 1

Major General David Belchem, head of Montgomery's Operations Staff, says in his book Victory in Normandy that he chose 'Gold', 'Sword', and 'Juno', "from an Army pamphlet which gave a list of code names that could be understood without any risk of confusion against a background of heavy radio interference,between operators with accents ranging from Texas to Glasgow,"and that Major General J. Lawton Collins, the VII Corps commander, chose Utah and Major General Leonard T. Gerow, Omaha for V Corps."

The US had used a color coded system but followed the British lead and developed a code book designed to not conflict with the British code. Names from these lists were randomly assigned for use in the various theaters. There is no real "meaning" or relevance to the names. In fact, Churchill said that names selected should not be names that would give anything away but should still dignify any loss of life- no mother would want to hear that her son died in operation Ballyhoo. Churchill in fact named Overlord, it was originally called Roundhammer.

A bit of undoubtedly untrue apocrypha; the British beaches were to be named after different kinds of fish. The original name of the Canadian beach was going to be "Jelly" - as in jellyfish. Canadian officials convinced their British counter-parts that such a designation was kind weird in Canada where "jelly" means JAM and so it was changed to a more acceptable "JUNO". I say that's a bunch of ballyhoo! But the name Juno is a bit odd considering Churchill's security concerns as it is so similar to June, the month of the invasion.

Chances are the names were chosen before the exact where and when were determined. The name Juno would be the name of the Canadian's beach, regardless of which actual beach was finally chosen. The beaches themselves, and there were dozens considered,were given other code names during the initial planning right up until the final 5 were chosen, that would have further confused any espionage efforts by the Germans.

Jelly fish? Jelly do-nut? Try to deal with the Germans and ya wind up in a jam.

Answer 2

they got their codes by what ever the allies were known for, they got their little portion of the beaches.

Answer 3

The British and Commonwealth beaches were in fact named after fish.

Hence the name of the unused 6th beach known as "Band" which can be seen on President Roosevelts' personal D-Day map