How do you name your computers

[UtwigMU]

I'm reinstalling my laptop and I don't know how to name it.

Before the naming scheme was icecream flavours:
Chocolate, Vanilla (workstations), Strawberry, Cherry (Thinkpads), Stracciatella, Tropicana (servers)

For a while I contemplated weaponary: Katana, Kodachi, Tanto - here I'd run out of names quickly and more recent (WW2) weaponary wouldn't fit.

At work we name servers after deities and recently volcanos, animals, users pretty much call their computer whatever they want. Recently we started using fantasy name generator.

I also thought LOTR (some insurancy company also names their servers after LOTR).

I'd like to distinguish between servers, laptops, cell phones, workstations but the scheme would have to fit.

So how do you guys name them?

[cjolley]

east, south, west, common, and rlaptop.
Though, mine is named "east" and sits to the west of the rest of them now.
So maybe that wasn't the best plan.


PS common used to be named north.

[VJ]

Mine are named after characters from Bill Watersons' comic Calvin & Hobbes...
Server is Hobbes, laptop is Calvin, mobile phone is Spiff (after Spaceman Spiff, a character sometimes played by Calvin), and htpc is Rosalyn (after the babysitter ). I figured using real characters for fixed computers, Calvin for my laptop, and fictional characters played by Calvin for smaller mobile devices. There aren't that many names left (real: Suzy, Wormwood and Moe, fictional: Tracer Bullet, Stupendous Man), so I hope it'll suffice.
Virtual machines get names according to their main function.

At work, computers were first named after muppets (fozzie, gonzo, ...), now after car models. A different department has named its computers after Belgian beers, each starting with different letters (Ale, Bush, Chimay, Duvel, ...); heavy beers (Duvel, Trappist, ...) were used for servers .

I have thought of using Greek mythology, but found the names too complex. Before I used random comic characters, but it lacked consistency. I wanted the name to be somewhat related.


Jörg

[J1NG]

Mine go about the reasoning and first things that occur to me when I finally get the system up and going for the first time (since 2003, since prior to that, it was just a machine ). Hence, the names of "Thunder" (The Dual Opteron Workstation), "Nirvana" (The current i7 setup and the Bamboo background), "Avatar" (AMD Dual MP system, and the first image was the 3DStudio Max logo).

J1NG

[Brian Ellis]

Much more mundane: Main, Video, Second!

[Wulfman]

I started with the obvious "Igor" reference for the home server, then stuck with short four letter names - Ivan, ...

mfg
wulfman

[Nowhere]

First thing which occured to me almost a decade ago was...HAL And it stuck. Plus...it might give me enough options if I would need it. SAL would be second comparable machine I guess. Leonov - my own laptop. Cellphone, if I cared to name it, would get "Europa probe', I guess And servers - TMA-0, 1, and so on...


And all this thanks to MS and the requirement to name your machine during OS installation (I didn't name Commodore 64 and Playstation 1 after all ;( ). Hm, scratch that - it's not thanks to MS per se, it's "thanks" to need of reinstallations


PS. Related question: how do you name hard disks? First thing which occured to me, also a decade ago, was "die hard", "die harder", "with a vengeance". Also stuck

[cjolley]

I don't bother to name them usually.
Sometimes by capacity. eg 250GB, 250BAK for a backup drive etc.

[VJ]

PS. Related question: how do you name hard disks? First thing which occured to me, also a decade ago, was "die hard", "die harder", "with a vengeance". Also stuck

System (for the OS drive, C: )
Applications (for the drive where I install most applications, D: )
Data (temporary data, etc., E: )
RAID5 (F: )
Removable drives are named to the type of disk and file system: Lacie FAT32, Lacie NTFS, MicroSDHC8 (8 GB card), JetFlash (usb stick by Transcend), ... Same makes are numbered (ie compactflash cards).
This provides me with an additional confirmation of which drive currently is connected (just in case the driveletters - which all should be fixed via a priority scheme ) change.

[dZeus]

some of mine are named after adventure cards from talisman the second edition (games workshop): raiders, poltergeist, mephistopheles
damn I'm a nerd! lol

my thinkpad is called 'surname-thinkpad'. Lack of imagination? I hope not
my cellphone is called surname-nokia3109. I guess there's the logic, based on differentiation between owner and device

[ND66]

Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Happy, Bashful, Grumpy.

Between the Seven Dwarfs I can always find a name that describes my PC’s behavior the best…




.

[Fat Tone]

Wifey's pc was a bit dodgy and prone to fall over so it is called 'wobbly'. Otherwise for home use it is "person'spc" or named after something significant about it. My main PC is called Quad1 (after its Q6600) but called Quad1Vid when booting from my editing drive.

At work the central servers used to have nice spice-related names but now they have boring short acronyms. Each department uses a two-letter code and dash followed by one letter for the class of user then a serial number.

[Claymonkey]

I go with an art studio/supply schema: Graphite (XP desktop), Charcoal (Vista desktop), Parchment (tablet laptop), Artbin (server), Sketchpad (vmware server), Bookshelf (file server: Freenas), Muse (Domain Controller), Grants (Terminal Services Licensing), Projector (Citrix), Distraction (HTPC) and I'm sure I've missed some.

[KRSESQ]

Usually give my computers a feminine name followed by cpu speed. Thus this machine is Eleanor3500. Wifie's comp is Father Ralph, after the Thorn Birds character. Main test platform is Mother, but she needs a new hdd. The laptop is Gigi.

Hard drives are the initial of the manf., followed by capacity, hence M250, S1000, WD160, etc.

Kevin

[Mehen]

Mine are all Melvins albums and songs.

I'm thinking of redoing it with a planetary theme.

Planets, moons, satellites, comets etc. It would lend itself well to servers/desktops/laptops.

Planets as servers, moons as desktops, satellites or comets as laptops.