I name my home devices from Norse mythology (Loki, Thor, Odin, Baldr, Freyja, among others).

XXX-SV-YYY-001

XXX = location shortcode


SV = Server


YYY = purpose shortcode (DCN for domain controller, WEB for webservers, etc)


001 = number LOL

For workstations we keep it even more simple:

XXX-DS0001 or XXX-LP0001


XXX = location shortcode


DS = Desktop


LP = Laptop

Only thing named here are UPS (Odin, Thor, Loki). New stuff will get named when I get around to replacing.

At work, we label them MTXXX (MT being related to the company name, the rest being whatever service its primary function is). For workstations, I keep it similar if it’s a laptop, but with a name shorthand tossed in, or I leave it generic if it’s a multi-use workstation.

At home, my servers are named around the Alien franchise. My big storage server is NOSTROMO, and my hypervisor is SEVASTOPOL, the station from Alien: Isolation. The guests are named after different decks.


LORENZ-SYSTECH-SPIRE runs some, uh, file related software.


SEEGSONCOMM is a Plex server.


SOLOMONS-HABITATION-TOWER is a DC that hosts WEYLAND.CORP on it.

My old Wi-Fi was Terminator themed, “Skynet Global Defense Network.”

Workstations are name the same as their asset tag.


Servers are typically what they are and where they are

such as

State-Location-Function-Number

I’m worried at all the people naming stuff after Loki. Given that he’s a trickster god, that seems like asking for trouble 🙂

Naming stuff after Loki

The server is down. No, it’s up again. No, it’s down again. No, it’s up again. Now it’s sideways somehow.

They were named that before I got here, and when I replaced the devices in December, I kept the names.

That’s friggin’ sweet. At work it is super boring (BANK, BRANCH, JOB JRCBTELLER1]), but at home I have my external drives and network shares named after different alcohol (Whiskey, Bourbon, Tequila, Bud Light, Scotch, etc.) and I have all of my PCs/VMs named “SkunkOS” or "SkunkWHAT IT’S USED FOR. (Domain at home is called Skunkworks, hence the Skunk names)

I had a file server that liked to crash/reboot/lose data for no reason once in a while. That’s the one I named Loki. All the others were fine, until Thor took a lightning bolt and fried pretty much all its internals 😢

At a previous job we had mx servers named Bender and Flexo.

A former coworker also told me about an unfortunate naming convention where they would designate computers with a letter for their function (e.g. W=Workstation, S=Server) followed by either the assigned user or purpose of the server. This lead to the regrettable email server name: SEXCHANGE

Oh my god I wish I could like that post… That’s absolutely hilarious!!! 🤣

That’s like this site before they put the hyphen in:

@dimforest knows allllll about that!

EE is such a lame site. I’m glad they kept a name that literally could mean something like that.