For most people, our brains handle names better than numbers. That’s also why you type Bitpage.de into the address bar to visit my blog instead of the IPv4 address 202.61.247.73 or, even worse, the IPv6 address 2a03:4000:53:42b::1. For hobby and professional server admins alike, it helps to give servers memorable names instead of just numbering them. Personally, I remember server names even better when the name relates to the server’s performance. That’s why I named one of my more powerful servers Hyperion, known in Greek mythology as one of the Titans.
I even name the virtual machines at home according to their performance or purpose. At some point, though, it gets harder to find a fitting name. So I wanted to collect a few server names in this blog post, sorted by theme.
Of course, the list isn’t meant to limit your creativity, but rather to help out those who are short on ideas when naming things. If you also want to know right away how to set your hostname on Debian or Ubuntu-based Linux distributions, I’ve got a matching blog post for that (in German). I’ll expand the list here from time to time. You’ll understand, of course, that with this many names, being complete is impossible.
Greek mythology
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Achilles | Hero whose only vulnerable spot was his heel tendon |
| Agamemnon | King and commander-in-chief |
| Andromeda | Ethiopian princess |
| Aphrodite | Goddess of love, beauty and sensual desire |
| Apollo / Apollon | God of light, healing, spring and the arts such as music |
| Ares | God of war |
| Artemis | Goddess of the hunt |
| Athena | Goddess of wisdom, strategy and battle |
| Hades | God of the underworld |
| Hector | Hero |
| Helen | Worshipped as a goddess of vegetation |
| Hera | Protector of marriage |
| Heracles | God of strength |
| Hermes | Protector of traffic, travelers and merchants, and god of thieves |
| Hydra | Many-headed serpent monster |
| Calypso | Sea nymph and daughter of the Titan Atlas |
| Cassandra | Daughter of the Trojan king Priam who could foresee disaster, but nobody believed her |
| Minotaur | Half man, half bull |
| Nike | Goddess of victory |
| Odysseus | Hero who spent 10 years trying to find his way home |
| Pandora | She opened her box, which brought disease and death to mankind |
| Pegasus | The winged horse |
| Penelope | Wife of Odysseus |
| Persephone | Goddess of the underworld |
| Perseus | Son of Zeus |
| Poseidon | God of the sea |
| Zeus | Supreme Greek god |
Roman gods
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Amor | God of love |
| Apollo | God of the creative arts |
| Aurora | Goddess of the dawn |
| Bellona | Goddess of war |
| Ceres | Goddess of the earth and fertility |
| Diana | Goddess of the hunt |
| Epona | Goddess of horses |
| Fortuna | Goddess of luck |
| Hercules | God of sports |
| Janus | God of beginnings and endings |
| Juno | Goddess of birth, marriage and care |
| Jupiter | Father of the gods, ruler of the sky |
| Mars | God of war |
| Mercury | Messenger of the gods, god of merchants and thieves |
| Minerva | Goddess of wisdom and crafts |
| Neptune | God of the sea |
| Pluto | God of the underworld |
| Venus | Goddess of love and beauty |
| Vesta | Goddess of the hearth and the family |
| Vulcan | God of volcanoes and fire |
Egyptian gods and kings
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Anubis | God of death |
| Amun | Egyptian god of wind and fertility |
| Apedemak | God of war and fertility |
| Apophis | Serpent demon and enemy of the sun god Ra |
| Aten | Egyptian sun god |
| Bastet | Goddess of fertility, joy and festivals |
| Khufu (Cheops) | Builder of the famous Great Pyramid of Giza |
| Akhenaten | “Serving the Aten” |
| Hathor | Goddess of love, peace, beauty and dance |
| Heqet | Goddess of birth |
| Horus | God of the sky, the world and light, and protector of children |
| Imhotep | “The one who comes in peace” |
| Isis | Egyptian goddess of the north and protector of children |
| Cleopatra | “The divine one” and “beloved of her father” |
| Maat | Goddess of justice, world order and truth |
| Nefertem | Protective god of ointments, oils and fragrances |
| Nephthys | Sister of Isis, Osiris and Seth |
| Nefertiti | Wife of Akhenaten |
| Osiris | Egyptian god of the dead |
| Phoenix | Stands for rejuvenation and resurrection |
| Ptah | Patron of craftsmen and artists |
| Ra | Egyptian sun god |
| Ramses | “Beloved of Amun” (god of fertility) |
| Seth | God of chaos, ruin and the desert |
| Sobek | Ruler of the waters |
| Thoth | God of the moon, magic, science and scribes |
| Tutankhamun | “Living image of Aten” |
Stars and planets
| Name | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Venus | Earth’s sister planet, often called the planet of women |
| Jupiter | Largest planet in our solar system |
| Mars | Most similar to our Earth, with hills and high mountains. Often called the planet of men. |
| Mercury | Closest planet to the Sun, with surface temperatures of up to 427 °C |
| Sirius | Very bright star in the constellation Canis Major |
| Canopus | In the constellation Carina, 309 light-years away |
| Saturn | 6th planet in the solar system, which takes about 30 years to orbit the Sun once |
| Arcturus | Brightest star in the constellation Boötes |
| Alpha Centauri | Star system whose stars are “numbered” alphabetically |
| Vega | Brightest star in the constellation Lyra |
| Capella | Latin for “little goat” and brightest star in the constellation Auriga |
| Rigel | Brightest star in the constellation Orion, and a young one at that |
| Procyon | Bright star in the constellation Canis Minor |
| Altair | Altair (also called Atair) is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila (the Eagle) |
| Acrux | The brightest star in the constellation Crux (Southern Cross), 25,000 times brighter than the Sun |
| Antares | The brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, which is why it’s also called Alpha Scorpii |
| Pollux | Brightest star in the constellation Gemini. The name is the Latin form of Polydeuces, one of the Dioscuri in Greek mythology. |
| Fomalhaut | Brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. German readers can’t help giggling here, because it sounds a lot like “Vorhaut”, the German word for foreskin. |
| Castor | Latin for “beaver” and second brightest star in the constellation Gemini |
| Bellatrix | Latin for “female warrior” and third brightest star in the constellation Orion |
| Avior | Double star 630 light-years away from Earth |
| Sargas | Bright star in the constellation Scorpius, also called Theta Scorpii |
| Menkalinan | Double star, 82 light-years away |
| Polaris | Brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor |
| Epsilon Centauri | Star in the constellation Centaurus. With an apparent magnitude of +2.30, it’s one of the “bright giants”. |
| Alpha Lupi | A star in the constellation Lupus (the Wolf) |
| Zeta Centauri | Star in the constellation Centaurus |
| Delta Centauri | Blue main sequence star in the constellation Centaurus |
| Zosma | Star in the constellation Leo, also called Delta Leonis |
| Girtab | Sumerian for scorpion, also called Kappa Scorpii. Part of the constellation Scorpius. |
| Eltanin (Etamin) | Also called Gamma Draconis, 150 light-years away with a magnitude of 2.4 |
Allowed characters in server names and hostnames
As usual in computer science, not every character is allowed everywhere, for historical reasons. For your server’s hostname, it’s a good idea not to use any special characters. In general, the convention of lowercase letters and hyphens to separate multiple words has become established. According to RFC952, the allowed characters are A to Z, the digits 0 to 9, the hyphen (–) and the period (.). Each part of a hostname between the periods may be up to 63 characters long. While RFC952 still set the limit at 24 characters, RFC1123 relaxed this rule. My tip, though, is not to push the limit, but to choose short and concise hostnames.
How do you name your servers?
I’m curious what you think! Do you give your servers names that anyone can remember, or do you simply number them? If you go for memorable names: Which theme appeals to you most? Fiction, mythology or the stars? Do you take the server’s purpose into account when choosing a name, or is the main thing for you to quickly find a name you can remember? Feel free to tell me in the comments. If you have any more cool hostnames to add, please share them in the comments as well.
Header image: xkcd Permanence, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.5
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