How I name my computers

I’ve always named my computers with a theme, including external hard drives. At first this was so I could put cute icons on the drive icons, and then to make them easier to distinguish on the network.

My first theme was Looney Tunes, and the first computer I remember naming with that was a Quadra 700 I called Marvin. That theme applied at the office I worked at (an ISP in Bethesda, MD, 1995) where we named the Windows NT server Foghorn.

At some point at home, I switched to Flintstone names, and my backups still show names like Barney, Wilma, and Fred.

I found some cool Addams Family icons, so that became my next theme. My current Macs are Fester (Mac Studio M4 Max) and Itt (MacBook Pro M1 Max). My Synology is Lurch with a Pugsly volume (and backups from Gomez, Morticia, and Wednesday which have all been sold or given away as I upgraded).

I’m running out of icons and names, so I decided to alter the theme to be TV Horror, and started adding names/icons based on Dark Shadows – a soap opera from 1966-1971. Trish and I have been watching it on Tubi for the last couple of years, and as of this writing, we’re currently on episode 610.

My new gaming PC (running Bazzite Linux) will be Trask, and I’m still thinking of what name to pick for my new Mac mini M6 that I’ve pre-ordered. It will be for building software for Apple Devices, like Alcove. (That frequently has to launch applications and control apps, which gets in the way while working on other projects.) I’m leaning towards Stokes or Burke.

Having short, memorable names is important to me, since I ssh/scp between computers frequently. Maybe I’ll name the router Barnabas, since I never really have to type that.