What is your naming scheme?

So this is probably a topic that won't speak to many people but I'm still quite curious about it.

At home, thanks to working in IT for nearly a decade now, I've kinda hoarded a few computers for myself (refurbished computers especially). So until I found the naming scheme that I use now, I used to kinda struggle with giving them unique names (because I don't want to keep the default Windows names ).

So, I've sort of been wondering about other people: What do you use for inspiration to give unique names to computers?

For example, here where I work, all of our servers and VMs are named after stars: Cygni, Cassiopeia, Polaris, etc.

So for home, I wanted something that was easy to remember and had some familiarity to. Something that I liked. Surprisingly, I'm quite liking the mobile game Girl's Frontline, so I decided to follow that naming scheme and give my computers names of guns. And the bigger the computer, the bigger the gun.

Other than my main computer being just my name (Fenrir), I have an M700 micro named K5, an Optiplex 9020 named UMP, a Precision T1600 named SASS, and a Precision T5810 (listed as my second pc) named MG5. I also ordered a Dell G5 laptop that I plan on naming either G11 or 416.

So yeah, what do you guys think? What do you use for computer names?

Paul Black said:

Hello @fenrir0wulf,

An interesting question!

As you mentioned, I think for home users that are not on a local network it is down to the individual person.

Now for IT departments [ including users with home Networks ], it is a totally different ball game. If the computers are networked, there needs to be a structured system in place in which each individual computer can be easily identified on the network. This usually involves something along the lines of the department, person, location concerned etc.

I hope this helps!

I mean... I know that. My question, and the reason why I put it here in Chillout, is because I wanted to discuss what you guys use for computer names, if any, and why. Our servers are named after stars because my boss (the admin) likes stars and space. My computers at home are named from GFL characters because I like GFL.

On my home network I just put my name followed by the form factor or model number of my device eg. "John-Desktop", "John-Laptop" etc.

At work (I work in IT at a place of education) we follow this naming scheme

SD-000 (Student Desktop - Assigned PC Number)
SL-000 (Student Laptop - Assigned PC Number)
TD-000 (Teaching Desktop - Assigned PC Number)
AD-000 (Admin Desktop - Assigned PC Number)

And we mark all legacy PCs with a 5 at the front so SD-501 just so we know they eventually will need replacing when we get funds for new hardware.

RedDash16 said:

On my home network I just put my name followed by the form factor or model number of my device eg. "John-Desktop", "John-Laptop" etc.

That's exactly what I used to do. But now there's like 8-10 computers in the house (+ mobile devices, I did say I was becoming a hoarder ). Hence why I decided to use something else.