7 replies to this topic

[hetra]

Hello all,

After spending some time on online name generators, I wanted to get some input from actual people-and where better than the people of CodeCall!?

So, what are your ideas for cool actual names, software names, ship names, base names, codenames, nicknames, etc.

Try to avoid name generators (I want to hear YOUR ideas).

Thanks guys.

[WingedPanther]

I suck at coming up with names.

[hetra]

I sort of do. My names are interesting but not really relevant to the thing I'm naming. A lot of mine are random though.

[gregwarner]

I really suck at coming up with names, hence my screen name here. (I'll give you one guess what my real name is.) But, having said that, the coolest names I've seen generally follow the pattern of adjective-noun, with some strange or uncommon relationship between the two. But most of the time, the nicknames people use originate out of something that belongs to that person's own experience. It's so hard to just come up with a "cool" name out of thin air, because what makes it "cool" is that special significance it has to its owner.

[rocketboy9000]

I'm really bad at coming up with names (this one is because I like space stuff.) I tend to just call things what they are, like "practice.rb" (a vocabulary practice program), "rocketboytris" (a game based on tetris, made by me), "modeler.pl" (makes 3d models based on the name of a chemical compound).

[gregwarner]

For software names, I always assign code names until somebody else gives the project an official name. I usually pick the code names from characters of TV shows or movies I like. At my last job, all my projects were code named after the Peanuts characters. The first project was a battery monitor, so I code named it "Snoopy" since I felt like I was "snooping" on our customer's battery usages. The 2nd project was code named "Woodstock," and so on and so forth.

My servers and workstations are typically named after cities I've lived in. My development server was sandiego, since I'm originally from San Diego. Since I originated from that city, and all my code originates from my development machine, it was a good fit.

[zeroradius]

For software I like to take one of two routes 1) Name it after something from mythology that has something to do with the product. 2) use a Japanese word that has nothing to do with the product and an English word that gives a hint at what the product does.

That being said I strongly believe that it's the product that makes the name not the name that makes the product. For instance blender is amazing but if i had never used the product i would have thought it to be the dumbest name ever.

[Alexander]

I +1 Zero's suggestion of foreign languages or names of ancient context, they can add a bit of culture to an otherwise dull name. (Hydra for example, I know a few softwares that have that in them)