Naming Hosts

The first time I thought about naming hosts (i.e. more than one) was in 1993 when I worked in a new project just when it started, and the project manager asked if I had an idea for a theme to name our computers. I had read RFC 1178 before, "Choosing a Name for Your Computer" by Don Libes, in which he proposes a number of rules for good host naming. In my own words, these are:

• Avoid confusion with other terms, like everyday words.
• Avoid confusing spellings.
• Don't use well-known domain or domain-like names.
• Don't use a generic, unspecific name of their function.
• Don't use the users' names.
• Don't use embarrasing names.
• Don't start the name with digits.
• Don't use non-alphanumeric characters.
• Use naming themes.
• Use real words.
• Keep it brief.
• Don't be a stickler with the rules.

Also, read elsewhere: Don't choose a theme with too few names. For example, the mythical Greek muses are a good theme, but they are just nine, and when you need to add more hosts later, you have to leave the theme.

My idea was to use place names, the names of North Frisian villages. My father's family comes from that region, and I grew up near. The first five were morsum, toftum, midlum, bargum, and risum, all with the "-um" suffix common for place names in the region (not from Latin). These names fit Don Libes's rules well, they were short and easy to pronounce, and not prone to cause confusion. Special bonus: they were immediately recognisable as belonging together. After a while, we also got lindholm (other type of hardware), keitum, oldsum, and later more – the theme has lots of space for expansion.

That naming theme proved to be quite successful, and I have stuck to it since where I could. Turned out that was only for my own machines (at home or externally hosted), but still. I have expanded the theme a bit since, and besides North Frisian villages ending with "-um", I also use other names from the wider area of mostly (very) northern Germany and Denmark. For instance, the laptop I am typing this on is lith; its connection to the Internet goes over a Wi-Fi access point meyn, switches kolding, vejle, nibe, tilsted, a router abro, a switch jardelund, and border VDSL router ellund.

Other names I have used include hilligenlei, stollberg, fyn, langeness, wrixum, witsum, trischen, habel, norderoog, mellum, knickebein, lundtop, osterby, medelby, weesby, hjelm, nyord, niendam, nydam, rungholt, hirtshals, horsens, odense, naibel, lolland, falster, egholm, holnis, olhoern, wittduen, mors, fur, leek, thisted, rubjerg, nyholm, karlum, tarup, corleis, lyng, alkersum, oland, jenie, westerhever, japsand, norddeich, helgoland, kiel, dunsum, baltrum, tam, nees, nebel, leros, sydfald, amrum, memmert, trafalgar, unaften, jyrgensby, duburg, jan, anna, lux, goleto, timmersiek, arnis, ekenis, kiesby, lunham, uthlande, wyk, goting, husum, westre, leck, witzwort, struckum, oluf, holt, hygum, soldanel, seeth, padborg, rym (in no particular order).

Not all of these are villages or towns; some are islands, peninsulas, sandbanks, hills, or other geographical features or a part of their name, even one part of a street name. Some are ships. With some the naming is a bit obscure, but with most there is a maritime context or some relationship to the region (but not with all). Some of the places don't exist any more. Some place names are German, some Danish, some Frisian.

With some, the name is related to their function: the Internet radios are helgoland, kiel, and norddeich, because these were the locations of coastal radio stations when those were still a thing; leck was the name of a printer, because the town Leck is home to a large book printing company, and its successor leek is the same name in Frisian; some Wi-Fi access points had the names of beacons (not the current ones though); some border routers were named after border towns or shipping ports; the tv set top box jyrgensby is named after the former location of a tv broadcast tower. With some, the relationship to the region or to my biography is more obscure, though.

Some of the groups I worked with have interesting naming themes. One used names from Terry Pratchett's Diskworld canon – we had, to name a few, tiffany, atuin, fiddlersriddle, annagramma, diome, and death. The latter was interesting, as it spoke (by way of a tty setting) ONLY IN CAPITAL LETTERS.

Another one used (German) country names. Added bonus: ISO-standardised two-letter abbreviations as shorthands, used as DNS aliases. To my knowledge they broke out of the theme only once – when they replaced the trusty old 6509 behemoth USA with a redundant pair of switches with top-of-rack port extenders, these were named USA and USB.