Software Developer in Illinois

Naming Patterns: Delight and Duct Tape

· January 16, 2025 · indie development ·

If you work on, with, or near computers there's just so many things to name. Processes, classes, wi-fi networks, computers, scripts, servers, fleets of servers, databases, tables. It's endless.

There's a bit of advice on such things across the web which I am, if I may say, a pro at completely ignoring, forgetting, and disregarding. A trail of dull ("db1"), creative-yet-unclear (what the heck is "rex-accelerator"?? I knew in 2017 but... I don't know now), and amateurish ("new-recommender-v2") names bear witness.

What finally stuck for me was pondering what worlds of proper names feel personal to me and bring me delight. What universe of concepts, ideas, characters, classifications, whatever is out there that impacted you in a positive way. It certainly doesn't have to be serious and doesn't even have to make sense for computer-y uses, you just need a bunch of names that convey some sort of meaning to you and would bring you joy. (This is not a very interesting or remarkable recommendation, but I've been having so much fun breaking a bad habit I felt compelled to share in hopes it passes along a little happiness.)

Now for you, there may be a respectable answer that really shows off what an interesting, unique, lovely person you are. But for me, a human raccoon, the only possible answer is The Red Green Show.

Thanks to PBS I watched a lot of this goofy, warm-hearted Canadian show filled with eye-rollingly good/bad jokes growing up. The Christmas special is still yearly viewing for me. The unserious, scrappy/shabby, held-together-by-duct-tape, self-mocking vibes just resonate and I feel apply to my work and personal projects quite well.

And critically there's a deep well of proper names to use! Here are some I've used so far:

  • Hap Shaughnessy - the constantly lying, tall-tale teller. His name graces Serial Reader's recommendation engine, an ML process that pretends to understand humanity's classic works to link them together.

  • Harold Green - Nerdy, long-suffering, often irritatingly correct. My lightweight analytics tracking mechanism bears his name.

  • Dalton Humphrey - The cheap, unhinged antiques merchant passing off junk as treasures. And the internal name for my curated collections of books in Serial Reader. (Ok this one works less well, but I view my collections as the trash junking up the treasures of books.)

  • Winston Rothschild - Enterprising, go-getting owner of a septic service company. Naturally, my databases share his name.

  • Possum Lodge - the setting of it all! A go-to org name used wherever needed. Heck it'd be my developer account name if I could easily rename such things this many years on.
  • Following Red Green as a theme brings a delight to naming new things that previously was stressful and random. And returning to these areas yields the same chuckle. For me, the self-deprecation never fails to lighten my mood and reminds me to give up some stress, to take things less seriously.

    So find your Red Green! What world of names would bring good feelings when casting about for the right fit in the face of an empty input box? What names would mean something to you, even if they'd be baffling to others? It'll be way more fun than "db1" and "api-server" I promise. Just avoid Rex Accelerator, that's mine, whatever it was.

    Keep your stick on the ice.

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