Beastman Naming - an Oldhammer Oddity?

When I get hold of some new (to me) Oldhammer models I like to take a long hard look at them. I enjoy turning them over in my hands, noticing all the little details that are easy to overlook when they are just images on a page. In particular the Chaos miniatures all have wonderful features, mutations and accoutrements that set them apart beautifully.

There's also information that's otherwise hidden on a painted and assembled model, or obscured or destroyed by glue, putty or overly-vigorous filing - namely that which is on the slotta tab.

Generally there is some indication of the manufacturer and a copyright date or date of production. But what I found curious was the name on the other side of the tab. Surely, they'd all just say 'beastman', right?

Wrong.

In fact it turns out that there is quite a variety. Some of them are a little hard to read, but these were the different ones that I spotted from among my new arrivals.

All of these have got a far less polished look to the tab text than some other ranges of the time, they certainly look like they were just roughly carved in by the sculptors.

Baestman - Ye alde English baestman?

Beakman - Self explanatory really.

Bestman - Giving other beastmen inferiority complexes since the 80s.

Beatman - Presumably he likes smacking people with his cleaver?

Can anybody shed some light on how this came about, was there a convention of some kind or even an in-joke by the sculptors? Do you have any examples of your own that you'd like to share?