What host names do you use?

I just memorise the IPs lmao. then again I only have 1 or 2 hosts up on my network ever

I take a word that's related to the purpose of the new host and put it in an online translator and cycle through languages until I get something cool.

I use the names of greek deities for my host names, mostly geared towards the function of the server/computer.

• Nyx (dark-blue laptop)
• Hypnos (gaming machine)
• Argus (pi-hole and reverse proxy)
• Prometheus (minecraft server)

I originally named all my hardware after members of the Wu-Tang Clan plus some close affiliates, but I actually ran out of names, so now I use MFDOOM aliases for my workstations, and keep Wu-Tang for infrastructure, because it's for the children.

The printer's name is Marvin, from HHGTTG.

It never wants to work and always complains.

Every computer I own is an autobot. My primary machine is always Optimus Prime, has been since 2008. Other machines get other names generally slightly inspired by their role / nature. Bumblebee and CliffJumper are miniPCs of various persuasions, Preceptor is my "mess around with AI" box, my big server that handles most of my data and network services is Wheeljack, my Macbook is Mirage, my backup server is Powerglide, my TV (which is an old Dell all in One running Linux Mint) is UltraMagnus.

Used to be names from Neuromancer like "ono-sendai" and variations of that.

Now laptop is "flat", server is named after it's purpose like log, mail, mon, hosting, storage, etc.

My little pony. My pihole is pinkypie, mediaserver trottingham, homeassistant is ponyville, and my backup server is canterlot. And so on... :)

References to The Dark Tower or Murakami characters.

Asterix & Obelix themed.

• Asterix is a rpi4, strong and small with ssd running dockers with homeassistant, revproxy and webserver, and camera storage.
• Idefix is a rpi3, mainly test only nowadays.
• Obelix is my desktop running voidlinux.

I used to have Pneumatix which is the mailman as the mail server and Panoramix, the druid, as domoticz server, Heroix, chief, as firewall and Bellefleur, beauty, as webserver 😉 All were LXD virtual servers on a pentium 3. I try to find a character matching the functionality. Except for domoticz all are now dockers on Asterix, so less use of funny names.

Non linux machines would be roman names from Asterix & Obelix, but I have none ..

At work we used famous dogs. Laika, Pluto, Cerberus etc

Rock types and Greek gods. Everything from emerald to Aphrodite.

I go for the unoriginal but oh so simple: location-type-No

So HL-SRV-01 is "homelab server no 1"

HS-DSK-02 is "House desktop no2"

NA-LPT-01 is "Not Applicable" because this is my admin laptop that I expect to move around a lot so I always treat it as high-risk.

I have pebble, pabble, pibble, rebble, rabble, ribble and nibble.

Though the primary server is old enough that it was from a time when I named everything after Transformers, so it's Shockwave.

I named mine after Rocket League cars.

• Octane (main desktop)
• Breakout (laptop)
• Dominus (laptop; older, larger)

Mine are named after the penguins from the Madagascar movie : Skipper, Private, Kowalski, and Rico.

Unfortunately there's only four so I often supplement with a suffix. For example, I've got an old windows laptop kicking around that is "rico-w"

... I should really commit to a naming scheme with a wider array of options.

pretty new setup but so far I've got

symmetra - synology dsm (nas)
junkrat - intel nuc main server

need to name my desktop/laptop now and maybe networking gear. thinking ramattra for the router and zenyatta for the bridge

Naming my devices after stars. Specifically stars in Ursa-Major

Desktop: alioth Laptop: alkaid Smartphone: alcor SteamDeck: dubhe Server: sarir

My phone's name is "Samsung Smart Fridge™" because I think it's hilarious if someone is looking at hotspots or network info and go "what the hell is a fridge doing here-"

I started with pirates of the carribean, so...

blackpearl: main PC Redpearl: raspberry pi Purplepearl: refurbished laptop. The router is ... router

The phone is zizidane ("donkey dick" in French, also playword on Zinedine Zidane).

I have three Proxmox nodes named: acid1, freebones, and a partially decommissioned node aptly named pve

acid1 was named from a sticker I got in a big collection. I was extra sold on the name when I did some research into acid1 tests.

freebones is from an inside joke from a GPT3.5 bot I terribly finetuned using my friend groups entire chat history. At one point the bot randomly said “algebra: you get free bones” and I kind of just ran with that

• Knowledge - Desktop
• Enlighten - Laptop
• Insanity - Server
• Madness - Router

So many answers!!

First it was from planets from Ursula Le Guin's Hainish cycle.

Now it's the names of birds visiting my feeder: chickadee, titmouse, mockingbird, etc.

I use zerg units.

• NAS is named Nydus
• Homelab with a GPU is Hydralisk
• Jail instance that I can use for random cron jobs is Drone

I went with Willow related naming.

My main server and NAS is Madmartigan. Proxmox server is Willow. Headless gaming machine is Sorsha. Bedroom/office laptop is Elora Danan Living room laptop is High Aldwin Then two raspberry Pi's named Rool and Franjean.

I'm not even into Willow that much, I just wanted to find a world of characters I liked.

Server (big iron): Bender

Desktop (main character): Fry

Laptop (for accounting): Hermes

Netbook (small and dumb): Nibbler

Phone (held to my head): BrainSlug

HTPC (one big viewport): Leela

My home network is called The IT Clowd with these devices:

• Moss - physical server
• Roy - physical server
• Jen - vm - main docker host
• Richmond - vm - *arr stack
• Denholm - vm - monitoring, logging
• Douglas - vm - Home Assistant stack
• Basement - vm - development server

I use the most boring names: LASTNAME-LAPTOP LASTNAME-PHONE LASTNAME-SERVER LASTNAME-ROUTER

But, living in tight suburban spaces, I'm never confused whether a device is mine or somebody else's.

I use League of Legends regions. Except for one of them which is not a region but is called "lantern" after the Thresh's lantern in which souls are trapped.

Uhg y'all actually have creative names, here are mine:

My homelab - Pero-base
My main PC - Pero-main
My laptop - Pero-portable
My other server - Pero-web

I swear I'm not a narcissist.

weeb ones

my local hostnames are all David Bowie related. I have: outside (my laptop) blackstar (server 1) starman (server 2) heros (desktop1)

I name my devices after greek gods based on what I'm going in life at the time or after what their purpose is.

I named my first gaming PC "Poseidon" when I was doing ship related work. Now it's my server.

My gaming PC is "Asclepius", the Greek god of healing. Built when I got into healthcare.

Hermes, god of messeges, is my lil pi that helps with routing (pihole, pivpn, nginx).

My HTPC is Dionysus, Greek god of wine and parties.

My thinkpad is Persephone cus it looks good but doesn't do much. I might rename it.

The services that I run on these are just named "device-service" e.g. hermes-nginx

My laptop is called xontros-gatos, which in my native language means fat-cat. Similarly, my server is called server-cat, a small laptop that I have for testing stuff is called small-cat and a new laptop that I just got is called fatter-cat.

I LIKE CATS I LIKE CATS I LIKE CATS I LIKE CATS I LIKE CATS I LIKE CATS I LIKE CATS I LIKE CATS

Y'all are too creative for me... I have:

• poweredge-r520-0
• poweredge-t620-0
• poweredge-t620-1
• pi4-0
• pi3b-0
• pi3b-1
• pi3b-2
• pi3b-3
• vostro-3525-0
• ideapad-c340-0

I only have 1 box really, it's named Hal. Seems helpful, not entirely sure if it's on my side. Could murder me. I keep an analog shotgun next to it.

MacBook Pro: mbp.domain.com
Raspberry Pi 2: rpi2.domain.com
Raspberry Pi 3: rpi3.domain.com
Raspberry Pi 4: rpi4.domain.com
Raspberry Pi 5: rpi5.domain.com
(Yes, I have one of each.)
Synology DS415+: ds415.domain.com
Phone: iphone.domain.com
Watch: watch.domain.com
AppleTV: appletv.domain.com
Nintendo Switch: switch.domain.com

I’ve always done characters from Beatles songs

• Walrus
• Martha
• Her-Majesty
• Submarine
• MissLizzy
• Blackbird
• NowhereMan
• SgtPepper
• Jojo

Huh. I thought for sure someone else would be using my scheme.

LAN computers are all Tolkien swords: sting, orcrist, gurthang, glamdring, etc. If I run out of swords, I'll start adding other weapons: aeglost, the spear; dailir, the arrow. We don't get a lot of named battle axes, which I always thought weird; I'd think dwarves of all people would forge legendary axes, and certainly name them.

My WiFi and VPN networks are forests in Middle Earth: fangorn, bindbole, dimholt, lothlorien, etc. The only exception is my LAN itself which is... "lan". Because short.

My cloud VPSes are named after Greek Titans: hyperion, phaethusa, tethys, etc.

Mobile devices have whatever names they come with, because they're so ephemeral.

My devices are cringely named after songs in Haken's discography.

Desktop is MESSIAH. Laptop is AFFINITY. Phone is NIGHTINGALE. Steam Deck is SHAPESHIFTER. Router (and its WAP) is PORTALS. My NAS is the only one that falls outside of this, it's generically (last name)NetNAS. I should rename it, but I don't want to break anything 😅

Eta: changed my NAS' hostname is ARCHITECT. Nothing broke! Yay for me.

When I was 18 and in my first job, my boss and I installed the very first windows NT file servers for a major uk public sector organisation. They were all named after beers that we'd drunk on team nights out. We had Blacksheep, Tanglefoot, Snecklifter, and so on. They were in a test environment so it didn't matter. Until they went into production...

That was over 30 years ago now, but I still usually resort to beers.

I don't have a whole network setup like the rest of you guys, but I've been naming my desktop pc's SHODAN ever since I built my first one. Secondary/partner's pc is named XERXES. I'll probably never change them.

Fedora is called fed. Ubuntu is ubu. Laptop is laptop 🌝

I use Roman gods. Juno, Jupiter, Pluto, etc. I have a beelink minipc that I named Mellona, the Roman goddess of honey 😆

I set up my current desktop while reading Gaiman's The Sandman, so it's called Morpheus. Because I felt I needed to keep with the theme, my laptop is hades, my phone persephone, my server apollo, my router helios, the media centre PC is orpheus, the pi that boots and updates it outside of usage hours is eurydice, and the pi that runs home assistant is zeus (because it's responsible for light(n)ing.

Oh, and the work profile on my phone is sisyphos.

I recently de-embarrassed my hostnames. I went with names that are one step removed from being dead obvious. Feels nice having descriptive, but not uncreative, names for everything

• Custom built desktop pc: Studio
• Home theater PC: Theater
• Server: Gamut (this was Nexus until I ran into bs regarding the TLD preload list in web browsers... had to go with a non-tld name)
• Everything else: Based off the model. For example, my Asus Vivobook S 15 is just "Vivobook", etc

All swearwords, all the time. Generally puns on the servers purpose.

• Rlyeh -host/nas
• Cthulhu
• Yog
• Yibb
• Hastur
• Hotep
• Cylitha

I use Alps bigger peaks for the hosts like:

• Castore
• Polluce
• Lyskamm
• Gnifetti
• etc.

(yes, mainly from Monte Rosa) and smaller peaks for the VMs:

• Grigna
• Grignetta
• Resegone
• Cornizzolo
• Palanzone
• etc.

I use characters from whichever book I'm reading at the time. Examples:

• Arya: From ASOIAF, a small but powerful Ultrabook
• Cthulhu: From HP Lovecraft, a huge 17" laptop
• Horus: From the Horus Heresy books, A powerful laptop
• Binky: Death's white horse from discworld, a white desktop
• Peaches: A rat that always carries a book with her. My home server

My devices are named after planets from Doctor Who: mondas, telos, skaro, villengard.

I am a simple person.

My PC: Panda
My wifes PC: notpanda
Docker VM: dockerhost.home

I have been using Uranus moons for all my devices.

I'm in the name after location and function fraction. All but my printer, he's named Cthulhu because printers are a menace to humanity and it supports wake-on-LAN.

cooking-phasers

baconaxe

foot-therapy

Are my current guys.

You had me digging through old hosts files and ssh configs to find some of these.

I try to name them something that resembles what they do or has something to do with what their purpose is.

Short is good, and if it can match more than one of the machine's purpose/os/software/look, the better.

If it's some sort of personal machine, it gets a personal name

Phones

• traveller
• pawn
• rook
• bishop

Virtual Workstations

• boxy

• moxy

• sandbox

• cloud

• ship lxc container host

• dock docker host

Laptops

• ciel Razer blade stealth with a rainbow LED keyboard
• arc runs arch.
• lled is a dell

Desktops

• bench
• citadel
• bastion

All of mine are animals, chosen similar to their functions (ie my 2-in-1 is "weasel", my Chimera VM buildhost is a busy/hard-working "beaver" (busy "bumblebee" was taken by my old Gentoo binhost VM), "orca" is my media server (big black PC case), "bluejay" is my rpi (tiny, in a blue TARDIS case), etc.

It's fun! (I have too many computers.)

Solar System objects for my local network and names of extra solar objects for my offside servers. With all the moons and named trans neptunian objects in the solar system I so far had no issues finding a hostname candidate.

Desktop: HAL9000

laptop: HALjr

Phone: HALnano

Then HALserver, HALprinter (octoprint), HALhome (home assistant) and so on... Big fan of Stanley Kubrick haha

Tried to get the hal9.ooo domain name but it was taken...

Edit: I use Dave as the username, so that in the terminal it is dave@hal9000, which just seems appropriate

I use concepts of games I like. Right now Alan Wake and Pacific Drive are the two of them.

• Main Laptop: Typewriter
• Steam deck: Poet
• NAS: The Lake
• Main Pc, that has become more a render station since I mostly work on a laptop and game on a steam deck: Lighthouse
• Hue Hub: Light switch
• Phone: Flashlight

But when I started to be more interested in networking and installed openwrt on my router, I was more infatuated by Pacific Drive:

• Router: Outer Containment Wall
• WiFi 5/2.4 Dual: ARDAnet
• WiFi for iot: RemnantNet
• GuestNet: OEZone
• VPN: BreacherNet
• Switch: SparkTower

@Krik devnull, devzero, devrandom
obv, devnull runs fileserver

Used to be astronomy based. Sol for actual network and then planets and stellar bodies and stuff. But I have so many devices now.

Now I just make it ass informative with as free letters as possible. Almost everything is 3 or 4 letters long.

So like fsrv for file server, msvr for media server and so on.

I wouldn't say my hostnames are very creative, but they all have some kind of backstory.

Main desktop: POwOful
It's a pretty powerful desktop, so why not call it that :)

Laptop: LenOwO
Can you guess the laptop brand?

Server 1: Shitbox
It's my first server box I ever built, so it's underpowered and pretty shitty.

Server 2: Stowage
My proper server with actual data parity, and it's pretty powerful

Server 3: Jank
This one is another shitmix of hardware with random harddrives in raid 0. I am aware that they'll die at some point, and all of that data stored on it will be lost, so i use it as temporary storage whenever I need to copy something from one machine to another.

Robot vacuum: suckywucky
Yea....

All of my infrastructure is named after terminator.

• Cthulhu (primary server)
• Azathoth (backup server)
• Nyarlathotep (main laptop)
• Shodan (router)
• Theseus (rebuilt thinkpad x220)

Fictional planet names (mostly early Star Wars because I’m old): Dantooine, Naboo, Tatooine, Jabba (not a planet, but server for “data storage” hence smuggler reference), Bespin and odd one out Arrakis (laptop).

Backup: VEEAM01
DC: DC1
VM for taxes and other stuff I don't want on my main pc: ZAHLNIX01 (tl: not paying anything)
NAS01: My NAS file share VM
TEST01: Testing VM
Appoxo-PC2: My main PC (as it's mark 2)
Proxmox host: PVE2 (I planned a cluster but have no other nuc to use in the cluster)
NAS: Current jellyfin and main docker host
PiNAS02: My Raspberry Pi 4

As you see: Very creative.

I named mine after different Half Life characters: GMAN- Server FREEMAN- Main Gaming Rig ALYX- Laptop

And so on...

I use names of bones for my different serves. I have metacarpus, clavicle, femur and coccyx.

I use lore from Starcitizen (planet name, space station, satellite, etc.)

I'm a fan of Composers. Current and past servers

• Bach
  • B.W.V. 565
  • B.W.V. 1067
  • B.W.V. 906
• Mozart
• Williams
• Goldsmith
• Zimmer
• Arnold
• Poledouris

New ones will be

• Giacchino
• Melumad

Services are just what they are.

• git
• Nextcloud
• APC
• etc

im very lazy now but i used to use tyrande, shandris, and then rotate around any other kalimidor/kaldorei places and people because when i played warcraft i was obsessed with night elves

My server is still called driveway because the install originated in an HP laptop a customer ran over with their car. Motherboard still worked though!

I usually use pokémon, typically from the first few generations.

I use "butler" terms, like:

• Jarvis
• Archibald - used for my old Arch desktop
• Alfred

They serve me well, and I give them due respect.

Man I do variations of food truck that don’t exist. Example. Gaming pc : food station Phone:food truck Laptop: foodpad Server:foodcentre

I use characters from Haikyu and Thor.

I have asahi, hinata, daichi and heimdal running.

My personal use devices are all some variation of Pingu (eg. iPingu, Pingtendo etc.), and my NAS devices are based off Pokémon puns (Storlax and Archivysaur currently).

My wife on the other hand is boring, so her’s are just system default.

Norbert, Norbina, Morbert, Morbina, Hassio, Nassio

I tend to use the names of angels for my personal devices (which surprisingly was inspired by this and not NGE)

For laptops I tend to use demons instead, just seems to fit better (which actually was inspired by Gundam IBO but this is the list)

For example:

• desktop (Linux side) is Raziel
• desktop (windows side 😩) is Azrael
• main laptop is Gusion
• eBay Thinkpad is Barbatos

AI from fiction:

HAL M.O.T.H.E.R AM Jarvis

Man I’m lame.

Used to be {env}-function##

Now it’s {env}-{vlanlocation}-function##

VLAN location such as DMZ, Infra, Jump for jump boxes, IOTSec or IOTInsec, Etc

I name mine after space! Earth, Moon, Mars, Saturn, etc...

I use some generic names.

• Phone: phone
• Current Laptop: fedora
• Old laptop: laptop
• Router: openwrt

Devices are named after characters from books I recently read, trying to match the name with the character of the book. But for virtual hosts for services I use their purpose (wiki, files, feed…) because I wasted too much time updating all the bookmarks last time I migrated to a new server.

• Omnigon: refers to my network and server overall
• Terragon: Utility desktop
• Pyrogon: Gaming desktop
• Aquagon: Laptop
• Aerogon: Phone
• Sonogon: RPi sound server
• Minigon: Cyberdeck

Named mine after "objects" from Iain M. Banks' Culture Novels.

Currently I have:

• gsv
• hub
• excession
• drone

Nice and short, and map roughly to the "power level" of the hardware, so to speak.

And my Yubikeys are named after Special Circumstances agents 😄

Too many hosts.
Current scheme: British towns names. They are quite unique.

Physical machines (except my gaming PC) get Ratchet & Clank character names, and matching labels to go with it. My trusty sidekick Thinkpad T14 G1 is named "Clank". It runs LMDE.

VMs and LXCs get actually-descriptive names, since those are what run my services.

Gaming PC is called "Dagny"; it's a Scandinavian name for "a new day", since that PC was a gift to myself after my divorce. It's currently the only Windows machine in my house now.

I name them after a female important character in whatever novel I'm enjoying when I set the system up. Back when I was single the female was important, now it is just tradition.

Since I like fantasy there are plenty of names available that are both pronounceable and nonsense.

I went with alpha, beta, gamma ...

I think a similar post came few time ago, but no ashamed in my case. I use late pet names, for me as a tribute to their memory. Also, I try to put some logic in the name, like the squirrel name for a lightweight VM with not much services / workload or dog name for the reverse proxy (guardian function).

Desktop: Octiron
Laptop: Octogen
Phone: Octarine

I used the names of the eldrazi from magic the gathering:

Ulamog: desktop PC Emrakul: NAS / Plex server name Kozilek: NUC mini PC

All my personal devices are named "AHE"+n. So the abbreviation for "at heart engineer"+ a letter signifying the device. So my phone is "AHEM", my laptop is "AHEL", my desktop is "aheo" (O for office), my server is "ahes".

At home, colors Whatever color the purpose is.

I use readable names.

I'm using one system for testing purposes, so it's called testingPC.

Any containers are named for the container purposes, like my pihole is named pihole.

My system is so boring that any person were to pick it up after I got hit by a bus would be able to figure out everything.

My only currently active machine is a laptop named buttwarmer as per my cat's suggestion.

I do marvel weapons/artifacts:

Phone: Mjolnir

Tablet: Stormbreaker

Laptop: Darkhold

Earbuds: I.C.E.R

Backup NAS: EyeOfAgamotto

Etc, etc 😅

Mine are all named for the colour of the case, or case accent when ambiguous, though network infrastructure items are named for their models, being the typical default.

I sometimes use A records or mDNS-SD for the actual services provided and use a *.home.arpa. domain.

Another theme at another site is native fauna and flora names.

No cringe, no pop culture.

ok so don't hate me but h001, h002, h003, and so on.

That's h for host. I also use n to number networks, and k to number physical keys.

I list them all in my keepassxc password database, where I can include any additional information.

With the prevalence of vms, docker containers, and docker networks, there's just too many things to name. By numbering them I can just side step that whole game.

I tend to use food names, like tomato and sausage. But no potato, and definitely no apple.

I also utilize the special-use domain home.arpa for all my LAN systems, so accidental collisions are largely impossible.

I've gone through lots of themes. These days it's mostly where things are or what they are for. Topshelf, closet, code lives on monkey, work laptop is named work. I've had more fun themes but the novelty wore off.

I mostly use battlestar galactica ship names for my own hardware, but it's been mixed with boring '<function>.mydomain.foo' names as well. I should rename a bunch of stuff around and include them in my DNS.

I use Arthurian legend related stuff. Servers and desktops are locations. My portable devices are the names of swords. IoT devices are more explicitly descriptive since I won't need to type in, but it's more important to recognize them when I see them, like lightswitch-livingroom.

I name based on OS and location.

fedoraDesktop fedoraLaptop fedoraServer fedoraSchoolServer unraid qnap ubuntuServer

They're all some kind of machine. Steam deck: SteamMachineryV1

PC: ArchMachineryV2

Phone: Android_μMachine

Oddly enough my server goes by MonoVerse, which I named first and I guess it just stuck.

They're all some kind of machine. Steam deck: SteamMachineryV1

PC: ArchMachineryV2

Phone: Android_μMachine

Oddly enough my server goes by MonoVerse, which I named first and I guess it just stuck.

Ubiquitous and Tiamat are my servers, Polyglotal for my home assistant voice endpoint, and some more. Points for the reference

I select hostnames drawn from the ordinal numerals of whatever language I happen to be trying to learn. Recently, it was Japanese so the first host was named "ichiro", the second as "jiro", the third as "saburo".

Those are the romanized spellings of the original kanji characters: 一郎, 二郎, and 三郎. These aren't the ordinal numbers per-se (eg first, second, third) but are an old way of assigning given names to male children. They literally mean "first son", "second son", "third son".

Previously, I did French ordinal numbers, and the benefit of naming this way is that I can enumerate a countably infinite number of hosts lol

Charybdis, hippo, appa, Momo, pabu

My first computer job was at a college that used names from ancient history and mythology. So I mostly still do that. Medea is my plex server. Zeus and Hera are the hosts for docker and VMs. Heimdall is the router.

The only break in the pattern is my storage, which is currently NASC and NASD...

Oh and my personal machine used to be HAL_9000 (complete with wallpaper and theme sounds) but now I just name it "box."

Desktop: 30p87
Laptop: 30p87-laptop
Phone: 30p87-phone
Server: 30p87-server
DNS server at location bv: 30p87-dns-bv
DNS server at location db: 30p87-dns-db
Switch at location bv: 30p87-bottom-bv
Switch at location db: 30p87-bottom-db

'fuck' and the family of 'fucking'

I named my old white bitfenix prodigy m "Baymax" because it was white and had rounded edges.

@Krik For my personal devices, i use the names of the 12 Colonies of Kobol from Battlestar Galactica. So I currently have 2 laptops: Aerilon and Caprica. When I get a new phone, I'll probably name it Scorpia or Tauron.

Choosing a good naming scheme depends on how many you need, and how often you add to your collection.

If you need some inspiration, check out this list. https://namingschemes.com/Main/_Page

Current homelab+desktop+laptop host count here is 22. All anime characters or references. It’s a fairly large pool to pull from, so it’s worked for me for 20+ years now. Mobile devices (phones, tablets, etc) and game consoles aren’t really as clever though.

All of them are in a piHole DNS though so no host files keeps it easy to track. Services have names that mostly are just what they are though and cnames to the matching host that hosts them (or load balancer, whatever)

Hardware hosts usually get a mix of hardware description and main use, e.g. en old Esprimo with Proxmox is esprimox. Virtual hosts are garden themed - auth server is mycel, monitoring will be called canopy once I move it, VM with lots of docker stuff is garden etc.

Depends on how many hostnames I need. If I just need 2, using opposite duals is fun, {romeo,ruliet}.shakespeare.com. 4 I almost always use cardinal directions or the seasons; {north,south,east,west}.domain.com or {spring,summer,fall,winter}.domain.com.

If I need a lot of potential subdomains, you can't beat the Greek or NATO alphabet, giving you 24 and 26 hostnames respectively which can be further enhanced by using the purpose of the server with the alphabet;

• beta-w02.domain.com # second webserver on beta
• beta-db02.domain.com # second db on beta

Usually, some type of pun based on the hardware.

Internal server (Home Assistant etc.): domus
External server (Nextcloud etc.): nimbus
Router/firewall: murus

I call them after what service is running on it. E.g. openvpn.