We all know that naming things is one of the hard things in Computer Science. It turns out that this is also a problem in network/system administration. So many servers. So hard to come up with names for them all.

Naming schemes help, but they are also difficult to come up with. Thankfully, there’s a wiki for that.

A few characteristics of a good machine name:

1. One word, if possible — avoid the CamelCase v. under_score war
2. Memorable — If you need to look it up, you picked a bad name
3. Easy to spell — Help you help yourself
4. Not embarrasing — I once named a server “Woody” (whoops)

Any naming scheme chosen must provide a multitude of names that fit the chriteria above. Some of my favorite schemes from this list:

• Bible Names
• Big Lebowski Characters
• Shakespeare Characters
• Elements
• Fraggle Rock Characters
• James Bond Villans
• Mexican Foods
• Simpsons
• Wrestlers

So far I’ve usually stuck to TV show characters because they are memorable and plentiful. Series I’ve used as naming schemes include Cheers (hence: Woody), M*A*S*H, and most recently Arrested Development.

Come on, who wouldn’t want a server names after that guy?!