I take too long coming up with hostnames, and using virtualization I’ve been installing lots of hosts recently. It’s hard to come up with a good name. I like them short (4-5 characters are easy to type) and memorable. A few examples of hostnames I’ve used in the past are dyad, koan, merk, zayin, alai and aeon. It would have been nice if there was a theme to these, but there isn’t one. They’re the result of random searches in dictionaries, on Morewords or wherever else. I like the idea of sticking to a theme so it’s easier to think of new hostnames when you need them.

In order to brainstorm ideas for myself and others, here’s a list of hostname categories. They work just as well for usernames too, in case you’re in the market for one.

Hostname categories

• Fish (or any animal)
• Shakespeare characters
• Greek gods
• Roman mythology
• Metals
• TV show / movie characters (e.g. Simpsons, Star Wars, Monty Python, Disney, Muppets, Loony Tunes, etc)
• Battles / Wars
• Oceans
• Rocks
• Car parts
• Pizza toppings
• U.S. Presidents
• Biblical characters
• Elements (but some are really long)
• Cities / States / Countries
• Street names
• Hobbits / Elves / Middle Earth / Fantasy / Science fiction
• Robots
• Painters
• Fruits
• Colors
• Music terminology
• Plants / Trees
• Sports teams
• Planets and other astronomical names
• Latin words
• Famous musicians / authors
• Spices
• Computer scientists
• Candy bars
• Transformers
• Peanuts characters
• Baby names
• Warcraft
• Other ideas

In case you’re wondering why they don’t all have links, I grew tired of searching for good ones :)

If you already have a list of names and want to generate more, plug them in to Google Sets.

Note: Some of these ideas came from these sites.

Update: NamingSchemes has a bunch of options too (via Lifehacker)