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Computer names. Do you have a theme, and if so what is it?
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Pengling Aug 19, 2022
Long ago in the mists of time I just used the boring default name when setting up a computer, but when public internet access became more common in the UK in the very late 1990s I ended up coming into contact with people who were not so boring, and actually had themes in place for how they named their hardware.

I picked up the habit from them and retain it to this day, and since this is a gaming site and therefore a likely gathering spot for those invested enough to give their computers recognisable designations rather than simply having a network full of "My Laptop" and suchlike, I was wondering what names and themes were in use out there.

I name my own machines after locations from media that I enjoy (mainly video games and movies), and currently have the following in service;

Milano (Raspberry Pi 4 Model B; Named after Star-Lord's ship in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.)
Harlequin Forest (GPD Win Max 2021; Taken from the first area of the excellent indie puzzle-platformer, Tanglewood
Gangplank Galleon (GPD MicroPC; From the pirate-ship owned by baddie King K. Rool in the Donkey Kong Country games.)
Pirate Cove (Entroware Orion i5; Named for the area where Foxy the Pirate resides in Five Nights at Freddy's

What's everyone else using?
GustyGhost Aug 20, 2022
I have been doing the same for over a decade. It was not always intentional but everything has slotted together very nicely.

I started out boring with the first PC I had to myself growing up. Just the standard <firstname>-PC. From then on:

Mute City (2008, Dell Dimension 3600 w/ upgrades. Named after Mute City of the F-ZERO series.)

Brilliance (2011, Sandybridge i7 custom build. Inspired by some location capture dialogue in Dynasty Warriors Empires.) In retrospect, I'm not really a fan of this name. It's a bit fart sniffy.

Solaris (2013, rebuild of Brilliance. Named from the book from 1961 about a 'sentient' planet.)

- Windows usage stops here, enter Linux -

Minmus (2015, APU build. Name borrowed from Kerbal Space Program because size.)

Romulus (2016, Minmus rebuild. New title inspired by Romulus, home planet of the Romulans, Star Trek.)

Star Command (2017, Zen gaming build. Named from Star Command of Toy Story.)

Defiant (2018, ultra tiny APU desktop. Also named after Star Trek property, Deep Space 9's Defiant starship.)

Illusion (2019, POWER9 workstation. Named after the city(planet?) Illusion found in F-ZERO GP Legend.)

Starting with my next builds, I will stop naming them after scifi locations and move to something else.
CatKiller Aug 20, 2022
My computers when I switched to Linux were called weatherwax, nanny, and garlick. Then I got a laptop called agnes. Then a NUC called kelda. My first Zen build is called wuyu, which Wikipedia informed me meant, "female shaman; sorceress; witch."

When I was at University, each computer room would have a naming theme: different trees, different flowers, and so on; I usually read my email in the Cheese Room.
damarrin Aug 20, 2022
I am boring, so I just call my servers with girls’ names. Sometimes they’re valkyrie names.
Xpander Aug 20, 2022
I dont have any names for my computers. Just call them desktop, laptop, server and rpi
StoneColdSpider Aug 20, 2022
Ladys names is what I have used to name my computers all my life...... They arnt linked to any particular lady..... It just makes them much easier to identify on the network and so on....

Natascha - Main Desktop PC

Sarah - My previous desktop PC that I still use from time to time

Julia - Raspberry Pi 3B+

Snezhana - Media center PC

Jessica - My parents desktop PC I have borrowed to instal Linux on to

Olga - The corporate laptop that I use for work

Bonus Name

Misty - My mobile phone..... This is the only device that is named after a person..... There is a story behind that but I dont know if anyone would be interested in hearing it.....
kaiman Aug 20, 2022
For me it's Ultima themed, though I keep recycling names over time. My main desktop machine is called Moonglow right now, then you have Britannia, Tenebrae, Skarabrae, etc for laptops and phones ...
mr-victory Aug 20, 2022
I set hostname to `mr-victory` so nothing special here. Also the hostname of the Arch Linux install (converted from winesapOS) on my HDD is creatively set to `mr-victory-hdd`
Username is also `mr-victory`

Last edited by mr-victory on 20 August 2022 at 9:28 am UTC
BlackBloodRum Aug 20, 2022
Not so much a theme but I do name all my systems, usually after legends or dark things and may be related to what they do. Because without names it would be very difficult to manage them. It helps for my ssh config file, so I can just type ssh (name).

Ones off the top of my head (I can't name all, there's too many):

Drakul - My main computer
Deck - Steam Deck
Kraven - KVM Host
Kratos - KVM Host
Libertalia - KVM Host
Viktor - Debian system
Plasma - Raspberry Pi
Coffin - Raspberry Pi
Yuki-onna - Raspberry Pi
Port Royale - KVM Guest
Queen Annes Revenge - KVM Guest
Euryale - KVM Guest
Nybbas - KVM Guest
Oiwa - KVM Guest
Ophelia - KVM Guest
Selene - KVM Guest
Gadreel - KVM Guest
Lucifer - KVM Guest
Marcus - KVM Guest

And probably others I can't think of right now, but these are the ones I usually interact with daily that are still active and in use.
denyasis Aug 20, 2022
Mine have become more generic with multiple reinstalls, managing ssh keys, etc etc (Hello Desktop), But many of my devices still have silly names.

Lapdog - my laptop
Rhubarb - Pi 3B
Vault - file server and it's companion...
Blastdoor - firewall/router

Hal - thermostat with connected sensors The Situation Room and Unicorn Palace
Trogdor the Cleaninator - robot vacuum

I'd like to build a weather station ("outside") and have considered a video/security system ("Xerxes" or "ART"). But both of those are a bit above my skill level and income at the moment.
StoneColdSpider Aug 21, 2022
Well my post got a few likes so I guess someone might be interested in hearing about why my mobile phone is named "Misty"..... This is a long story......

And I shit ye not squire...... Everything written below is true......

So to start we need to go back to 2011..... A younger and thinner Stone Cold Spider works at a large coperations Helldesk..... I mean Helpdesk...... My Team Lader is going on holidays for two weeks and I have been promoted to Acting Team Leader while he is gone...... Its 7:00am Monday..... My first day as Acting Team Leader..... I just get seated in my chair when one of the guys from my team.... We will call him Mr K comes to see and tells me thats he "lost" his corperate phone over the weekend...... Oh boy im thinking..... Why today???..... Why not last week????.....

So I talk to him about his weekend and try to retrace his steps to see if he can remember where he left it..... Thinking he might has left it at the servo or the bottleo or something..... But he cant remember and says he had been on the turps all weekend as it was his mates birthday and he cant remember anything.......

Well then I do the next logical thing...... Call the phone and see if anyone answers (probably should have done that first but my curiosity about what he did on the weekend got the better of me)...... So I dailed the number and a lovely lady by the name of "Misty" answered the phone...... So I explaine who I am and why im calling and all that..... She then explaines that shes a stripper and that Mr K was in the Strip Club Saturday night..... And was very drunk...... When he ran out of "Dancing Dollars"* she explained that he put the phone in her g-string** as payment......

*In Australia 1 Dollarydoo is a coin not a note...... So when you go to a strip club you need to buy "Dacing Dollars" that you then leave in the ladies g-string/garter and after their shift the ladies then exchange back into real Dollarydoos....

**This was when I was living in Sydney, New South Wales and there was a law that women in NSW wernt alowed to perform nude at Strip Clubs and that they had to keep the g-strings on.....Which is why the phone/dancing dollars went into the g-string and not the garter.... This also made it funny whenever a NSW lady won the Miss Nude Australia Contest as The Miss Nude Australia was then a lady who wasnt allowed to actually be nude...... Dont know if that law has changed now as I no longer live in NSW......

I explaine how its not his phone but the coperations phone and also explaine her how we will have to get the phone back off her..... She was actually really nice about it and we arranged to get the phone off her and everything was cool..... I expecting an argument but no she was really cool about it....

After that I sat down with Mr K in my office..... After I did Picard's Epic Double Facepalm I explained the phone call and how he "lost" his phone...... Told him I would have to tell the Team Leader when he gets back from holiday and he would have to cop whatever punishment was delt to him.....

And all of this happened before 7:45am Monday on my first say as Acting Team Leader....... If I drank I would have poured myself a double after that.......

And so now whenever I see a phone I always think of Misty and what happened that day...... And now every phone I will ever have from that point on will be named Misty.......
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