RFC 1178 (rfc1178) - Page 3 of 8

Choosing a name for your computer

RFC 1178                   Name Your Computer                August 1990


      Don't use your own name.

         Even if a computer is sitting on your desktop, it is a mistake
         to name it after yourself.  This is another case of
         overloading, in which statements become ambiguous.  Does "give
         the disk drive to don" refer to a person or computer?

         Even using your initials (or some other moniker) is
         unsatisfactory.  What happens if I get a different machine
         after a year?  Someone else gets stuck with "don" and I end up
         living with "jim".  The machines can be renamed, but that is
         excess work and besides, a program that used a special
         peripheral or database on "don" would start failing when it
         wasn't found on the "new don".

         It is especially tempting to name your first computer after
         yourself, but think about it.  Do you name any of your other
         possessions after yourself?  No.  Your dog has its own name, as
         do your children.  If you are one of those who feel so inclined
         to name your car and other objects, you certainly don't reuse
         your own name.  Otherwise you would have a great deal of
         trouble distinguishing between them in speech.

         For the same reason, it follows that naming your computer the
         same thing as your car or another possession is a mistake.

      Don't use long names.

         This is hard to quantify, but experience has shown that names
         longer than eight characters simply annoy people.

         Most systems will allow prespecified abbreviations, but why not
         choose a name that you don't have to abbreviate to begin with?
         This removes any chance of confusion.

      Avoid alternate spellings.

         Once we called a machine "czek".  In discussion, people
         continually thought we were talking about a machine called
         "check".  Indeed, "czek" isn't even a word (although "Czech"
         is).

         Purposely incorrect (but cute) spellings also tend to annoy a
         large subset of people.  Also, people who have learned English
         as a second language often question their own knowledge upon
         seeing a word that they know but spelled differently.  ("I
         guess I've always been spelling "funxion" incorrectly.  How
         embarrassing!")



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