I am intrigued by what people name their computers, their printers, and their other devices. I think that the names of system elements reveal a lot about the people setting up the network. Humans tend to name the things in their lives they spend time with. The computers here definitely fall into that category.

Here at home we have had a wide variety of computer names. We have had the usual LOTR based names like Frodo, Bilbo, and Gandalf. We had one machine we thought of as Sauron - it was a real pain to work with. The first laptop was supposed to be Legolas, but it ended up something else. The first tower computer we bought was named Ivory. We’ve had Speedy (which was when we bought it, but isn’t now) and Spare (which wasn’t either). We have Fire, Web, and Mail - the three internal servers. My personal computer is Penguin. It is a Penguin Computing computer complete with the penguin face plate. (it runs Windows XP. Sacrilege, I know.) My tablet and the various laptops all have names that imply portability.

While computers get personal names, I have noticed that printers get weirder names. One I know of is called Otter. The other ones at that facility were all named after animals as well. Another company has taken computer naming to a higher level. For example, their printers are Porky and Guppy.

Where do you draw computer names from? Do you personalize them as we do, or do you keep the names descriptive? Let me know - Maybe I’ll get enough ideas to write a Computer Names Part 2!