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
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)
Thanks, This helps me figure something out. It is hard to come up with a good hostname sometimes… and I’m only just trying to come up with the hostname for my own laptop :D