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

Names from various Final Fantasy titles. Playable character names for workstations. Names of summons for servers. Names of cities and locations for networking devices. Names of Moogles for some services that I wanted to give a unique name.

I generally like to take a whole "universe" for naming schemes. Star Trek is another favoured one, since you get a variety of names in different categories. Characters, Ships, Places, etc.

I kept the naming scheme I used when I was doing independent tech support: snack bars. People got a chuckle when they heard "Kit Kat was misbehaving". So I kept it for my servers, Kit Kat, Toaster & Strudel, and Snickers

Server01, server02, server03...am I doing this wrong?

All of my machine names are related to Elvis Presley. Elvis has been my desktop PC for years, and I have or have had Priscilla, Lisa-Marie, ColonelParker, Blue-Hawaii, Hound Dog, Memphis, Tupelo, and Graceland. I want to rethink this a bit to have to flow better, maybe have Graceland as my network name, or maybe the router. Also thinking about changing to something space-related or Norse Mythology as the theme.

I use planets from dune:

• Caladan: Plex, podgrab
• Arrakis: Nextcloud
• Corrin: Baby buddy
• Lampadas: Deluge
• GeidiPrime: Gitea
• Kaitain: Reverse proxy

Because I’m a huge dork, all my machines are named after the FFXIV jobs:

Desktop-Red Mage Laptop-Machinist RaspberryPi-Sage etc.

Names of robots or AIs, mostly.

Some names used in my household:

• Ralf (the computer of the main character in Whiz Kids)
• GLaDOS
• Wheatley (the stupid core in Portal 2)
• Lal (Data's daughter)

I always come up with a naming scheme and then immediately forget it either because I'm in a rush setting up a computer and forget to name the machine or because I get tired of trying to keep track of which machine is what.

All my devices get named after cities. I try to make it somewhat relevant to the purpose of the machine.
Usually things related to the device (e.g. network shares) get named after neighbourhoods in the respective cities.

• Main PC: SAN-FRANCISCO,
• File server: SARAJEVO,
  • Shares: VRATNIK, BISTRIK, SEDRENIK, HRASTOVI,
• Work laptop: SEATTLE,
• Phone: BARCELONA,
• Media box: CANNES.

My boyfriend names all of his devices after planetary bodies, much like OP.
Thing related to the devices are named after the moons of the respective planet.

• Main PC: SATURN,
  • Drives: ATLAS, PROMETHEUS, TITAN, HYPERION, JANUS,
• File server: JUPITER,
  • Shares: GANYMEDE,
• Phone: PLUTO,
• Laptop: CHARON.

(He just realised that last one is inconsistent, and is renaming it to MERCURY)

I name them based on what they do. Makes it easy for me to guess the name of a server if I don't have it memorized.

I have found my kin here I see.

Greek god names, Mission code names, uncommon colors, famous mountains, depending on the type of devices. I must have a hundred different ones by now.

I have no naming consistency, whatever I feel like that day is what it's name ends up with.

My old company used Greek and Roman gods and heroes. Hermes01 was the mail server, for example (because Hermes was the messenger of the gods). I don't remember all of them, but we had demeter (esx clusters), zeus (file servers iirc), Ares (backup servers), and other server names like that.

I name mine after different places or ships from anime shows I watch. My laptop is Bebop from Cowboy Bebop, my desktop is goingmerry from One Piece, my Kali VM is senku1 from Dr. Stone, and my NAS server is amaterasu from Fire Force.

@home: In the Seventies and Eighties, I didn't bother naming them. In the nineties it was either dead dog names (because I missed the dogs) or the colour of the box (blue and purple). Then in the 00-ies I used a short but explanatory descriptions like SRVBKP1, PCOS2, LTDebby (for laptop Debian). Today all Raspberry Pi's and personal VPS's are named after (dead) ancestors (and the mount points on them are named after things they liked).

Whatever I'm feeling at that moment My server is "bigdellthing" because it's a Dell r620 My laptop is "lily-legion-5-pro" because I was feeling unoriginal My other laptop is "hunterbidenslaptop" because there were some dumbasses talking about the damn hunter biden laptop conspiracy theory by me

Shrek - OPNSense, because it (firewall) guards my swamp.

Dragon - NAS, because of a dragons hoard.

Donkey - Proxmox, I use this for a few VMs and docker containers. It stores my DNS, donkey was annoying, and there is nothing more annoying than your DNS going down.

Fiona - Backup NAS - less big, only stores important backups.

I name them after the cpu inside.

But i only have 3 pcs. No pi's or other things, so its a bit simpler... for now.

I asked chatgpt a while ago and it told me this scheme.

A random word starting with V for a virtual machine (and gave me a list of ten words)

Start with L for laptops, add letters for other distinction

Funny, the latest three VMs i setup after that chat had a name starting with V 😂

I name all my computers after NZ Birds in our native language Māori. So far I have used, Pukeko, Takahe, Kakapo, Weka, Ruru, Piwakawaka and my latest laptop Kahu

I had painted an old Lenovo desktop blue to use as a home server. Named it blueberry. Recently upgraded servers using a black case. Named it blackberry.

Words from the jabberwocky:

• Tumtum tree (plex)
• Vorpal (Linux laptop)
• Bandersnatch (MBP)
• Jubjub (gaming PC)

I go with main character names from good anime. So Kusanagi, Vash, Lelouch, Kakashi, etc.

I use names of random yokai. There are so many that I'll never run out. I used to use names of fictional AIs that I would hand pick, but after a bunch of VMs, that became too annoying to deal with.

Transformers lol

I use different types, cultivars, or alternative names for potatoes. Device names over the years have included: russet, yukon gold, ranger, marispiper, vivaldi, ratte, snowden, spud, and tater.

I usually name mine after songs that I happen to be listening to at the moment.

Since its just me, I use Metroid locations and characters based on what the server does.

For work, two letters for the type of machine, two numbers for the location, three letters for the department, and two numbers for the device.

LT01MKT27 = laptop at HQ, in marketing, 27 is the unique ID
SV05EXC03 = server at remote office #5, running exchange, 03 is the unique ID

At home, goofy on-the-fly names!

I use a naming convention for my homelab stuff that is descriptive enough for future reference in case I don't touch the machine in a while.

so for example if you have a local domain you use for internal work and the name is Leet Hax my naming would look something like this

leethax_prd01, leethax_prd02, leethax_proxmox01, leethax_nextcloud01, leethax_plex01

you get the idea, in my network I don't add the underscore but I figured for explanation sakes I would here. I'm sure without explaining what each server is, whether it's a VM from proxmox or an actual machine, you know what they are when they show up on your router. I added the sequence numbering for future proofing my self hosted setup in case I get another machine in the future.

I name my personal devices after Nasa projects and launches and my wife, well her phone is just called iPhone 1, 2, 3 etc. so everything is easy to spot on my home network.

Science fiction spacecraft - Enterprise, Nostromo, Tardis, Falcon, etc.

I pick a random adjective + noun. Eg. Reluctant otter

Games from my childhood. Moon Patrol, Galaga, Zaxxon, Twin Bee, Xevious, Gradius, etc.

Yup. I'm that old.

My brother and I started off a tradition when we named our first family desktop computer 'Kraid' from Super Metroid. Since then every device has been named after an equivalent mob. My personal gaming computer was named 'Phantoon', our 3 phones were named 'Eticoon 1/2/3', our first tablet was Tatori, etc.

Was fun and our dad got behind it very quick as a Super Metroid fan himself.

My unraid server is called Mothership. Everything else is called what it is because I'll get confused if they had cute names

Laptops/desktopes: no real naming scheme, they use non-static DHCP leases anyway.

Physical servers: NATO phonetic alphabet. If I run out of letters something has gone terribly ~~wrong~~ right.

VMs: I don;t have many of these left, but they are named according to their function and then a digit in case I need more. e.g. docker1, k3s1. This does mean that I have some potential oddities like a k3s cluster with foxtrot, alpha, and k3s1 as members, but IMO that's fine and lets me easily tell if something is physical or virtual. I am considering including the physical machine name in the VM name for new things as I no longer have things set up such that machines can migrate... though I haven't made a new VM in some time.

Network equipment: Named according to location and function. e,g, rack-router, rack-10g, rack-back-1g, rack-ap, upstairs-10g, upstairs-ap. If something moves or is repurposed it is likely getting reconfigured so renaming at that point makes sense.

I tend to name mine after their physical appearance, though I'm leaning towards space-related names now.

I'll copy a Discord message I sent someone while explaining my naming scheme:

in chronological order: my very old laptop was black and grey so it was Batman my first build had orange/gold fans so it was Aurum my next build was black and white so it was Mono my current build had lots of RGB so it was Nova (like supernova) my home server has the BitFenix wings logo so it was Flight my laptop is sleek and pretty speedy so it was Comet