Depending on the size of the machine I'll call it big/large/huge/small/Lil then a human name like John. BigJohn is my main server and hopefully one day he can get an upgrade and become large John.

Every machine is named after what it does (although I do 1337-ify the names, because I'm still a late 90s IRC teen at heart). If you've ever been onboarded into a sysadmin role where all the machines are named with whatever whimsical naming scheme each department chose, you'll fast develop a visceral hatred for non-descriptive naming schemes. The fifth time you get a ticket saying something like 'Hedwig is down' and you have to go crawling through three layers of linked files on SharePoint to find what and where 'Hedwig' is, you'll be ready to beat the person who named it to death, and that attitude tends to persist to your home naming scheme :p

Discworld characters. My storage servers name is Luggage, my phone is 'Ig', the vacuum is named after a monk.

Ungulates. Because who doesn't like a hoofed animal?

My client machines are even-toed ungulates (order Artiodactyla) and my servers/IoT machines are odd-toed (order Perissodactyla). I'm typing this on Gazelle. My router is called Quagga, both after the extinct zebra subspecies and the routing protocol software (I don't use it any more but hey, it's a router).

Biological taxonomy is a great source of a huge number of systematic (and colloquial) names.

Porn stars that the machines remind me of.

Stop judging me.

node-0 node-1 node-2 ...

Everything runs kubernetes so the names are mostly irrelevant.

Years ago I worked at a company who named everything after WoW characters. I wished murder was legal in those days.

Derek Derek1 DerekNew Derek2 NewDerek Ted DerekNew2 DerekTheServer Derek-Derek DerekMini

All computers are named after dogs. My dogs, dogs in the family etc. the dog name should be carefully match to the computer’s role and characteristics.

My peerlessly reliably golden retriever will almost always have a server named after him. The most powerful computer in the house is named after the monstrously large golden my parents had when I was young. My sons gaming pc is fast but perpetually broken, named after our greyhound. Laptops are named for smaller dogs, SBC devices get named after toy size dogs.

Wi-Fi ssids should always be named after cats.

This is the natural way of things.

Anime girls. I want to change but I’m too far gone to have a random name

Rei - main pc

Asuna - main server

Milim - plex

Aqua - laptop

Darkness - first plex (the drives failed and lost everything rip)

Rem - raspi (pihole)

Ram - second raspi (home assistant)

A friend of mine names all his hosts afer famous battleships, his dad names every host after Star Trek ships and their wireless networks are all named after LOTR locations.

As for me, each hostname consists of the device type and the location of the host, no matter if it's local or a vps in a datacenter somewhere.

Highest mountains on Earth. Maybe not the best idea, since it took me a while to memorize Kangchenjunga.

I use names of mice from popular movies and TV shows. I use this list.

I know it's not useful, but it's fun to me. I would never use it in a professional environment.

I'm incredibly boring. I name them with the company/model name. And what role they have appended.

Physical machines get stars names: Vega, Arcturus, Polaris, Fomalhaut, Deneb, Antares, Procyon, Algol, Aldebaran... and so on.

Virtual machines naming scheme is more reasonable: [os]-[role][number if needed]. Examples:

• alp-proxy
• talos-controlplane-3, talos-worker-1, talos-worker-6
• deb-storage

Servers (physical or virtual) get named based on usage: host-lab-01, vpn-guest-name, nas-01, proxmox-01, etc.

My wife's laptops get named [her name]-[model].

My machines (physical or virtual) get named after fairies from Pixie Hollow.

Writing this out makes me think I did my wife's machines dirty, though. Should have named them after fairies as well.

I usually go with characters from the Discworld series. So far I’ve had a Rincewind, Ridcully, Twoflower, Weatherwax, Ponder, Librarian, Luggage, and Hex, plus a router called “The Clacks”. Really ought to get Vimes and crew into the mix, now that I think of it… maybe the next one will be Angua or Carrot.

Personally I use corporate-like naming scheme for my devices, the format is:

[AABB-CCCC-DDEE]

AA: Location of the device - HQ (home), CL (cloud).
BB: Role of the device - HV (hypervisor), SV (server), NW (network) and workstation (WS).
CCCC: Device brand (for NW), application running (for SV), and workstation purpose (for WS).
DD: For server and workstation - OS running on the device (WN=Windows, LX=Linux, MA=macOS). For network device - their role on network (RT=router, AP=access point, SW=switch).
EE: # of the device, year of purchase for WS.

For example, here's my router, KASM server and my gaming PC hostnames:

HQNW-UBNT-RT01
HQSV-KASM-LX01
HQWS-GAME-WN16

Still trying to optimize this naming scheme, like removing all the dash, but currently too lazy to do it lol.

Kittybox: old laptop that my cats like sitting on

Thinbox: new laptop that is thiner then kittybox.

Tallbox: desktop

Tinybox: BeagleBone black single board computer acting as server

Hell-related, mixed from Greek mythology and Christian mythology.

• Hades: THE main server. I mean it knows and controls everything
• Charon: the router. Self-explanatory
• Hell: my laptop. Its brand is Dell. It's where all this started.
• Limbo: my other laptop

At work I name them after Greeks gods, at home after Alps peaks.

Desktops and PCs are just OS name and version. Proxmox cluster is Ankh-Morpork (from Disc world) and nodes are Ankh Morpork street names: Treacle Mine, Pseudopolis Yard, Attic Bee, etc.

Gravity falls characters: Mabel, Dipper, Soos, Wendy, etc...

Shakespeare.

Hamlet, Puck, Beatrice, Portia, Horatio, Antony, etc. My wife's devices have always been females.

Fruit trees. There's a ton of them.

I use significant hardware component or model:

• Z390
• AERO15

...or sometimes intended purpose:

USERV - Ubuntu SERVer PlexBox - Plex Server NAS - NAS Runner - GitLab Runner MDEV - Mobile DEVelopment MDEV2 - Mobile DEVelopment, Version 2

I also have a Kubernetes cluster that ranges from K8S_0 to K8S_5.

@aquova

Call me boring but

First 3 = OS/appliance type
Next 3 = Purpose/role
Last Character = Environment / lane
(numbers added if more than one)

Having a server called "Enterprise" is cool ... but when I get an email saying WINNASP or RHLFTPQ are down, it's much more useful and descriptive.

DHARMA stations (from the show LOST)

Arrow, Swan, Flame, and Pearl so far :)

Edit: also funny to see there's 108 comments as of now

I use trees and other types of shrubbery. Towers and laptops are named after trees while Pis and the like are named after bushes and ferns.

I used to name my cloud VMs after Monogatari characters but now I just settle with xxn.domain.tld so it's easy to remember when I need to SSH into one.

• xx = shortcode for which service the VM is from (for example Azure = az, DigitalOcean = do)

• n = VM number from 1-9

do2.domain.tld

One of my nicknames is Hugo. I have a Windows, a macOS, a Debian and a Raspbian machine.

So I call them Hugowin, Hugotosh and Hugopi. The Debian machine mostly runs Plex so it is named Plexy. And my Phone is called iBobes because someone once told me that Bobes mean ass in german and i though that is incredibly funny.

I just name them based on the case labels, model name, and/or server function. My main host server is "DellPVE", gaming computer is "Phanteks", Plex server named "Plex", octoprint is named "Octoprint" etc..

I do Japanese city names and the drives in the machines are named after railway/subway stations in said city.

Try monopoly board street names like oxford road or parklane. Or maybe flower names like daisy or pertunia.

Mine are all based on Norse Myths. My various servers are named for the nine realms, and the personal devices are named after Gods/Heroes/Creatures.

For example my main Desktop rig is named "Midgard" and my phone is "Odin".

Battlestar Galactica years ago. Dradis for the domain name and ships for the computers.

Galactica.dradis Pegasus.dradis Basestar.dradis And so on. Made it fun.

I only use robot names

Bender B. Rodriguez

Roberto

R. Daneel Olivaw

C3PO

Robotina

I go with characters from Super Mario, eg Luigi, Bowser, Yoshi. I like them because they’re short, easy to type and memorable.

In case people don’t know, https://namingschemes.com/Main_Page can be a good source of inspiration.

I use Quake 3 characters names: doom, crash, sorlag, razor, bitterman, xaero, ...

I don't remember where I started, but for a long time it was Firefly characters. I had to dig deep enough to name a system YoSaffBridge.

Then I switched to gemstones from Steven Universe. Which I still use for mostly for "end user devices", i.e. desktops, mobile, cars (mine is peridot).

The functional stuff and the VMs I name by function. Router is router, switches are sw-0#, pihole-0#, minecraft, plex, ipam (yes I have an ipam for my network), etc...

It's simpler and I like to be able just ssh/browse to "function" than trying to remember that ipam is on bismuth.

Years of working for a company that did lots of acquisitions, where I had to deal with integrating whimsically named infrastructure, gave me a strong appreciation for a functional and consistent naming scheme.