How do you name your software projects?

Question

I'm starting a new project and having a terrible time coming up with a name for it. While researching something, I came across this blog post, which suggested using a random word generator. I thought that was a great idea, so I gave it a try and got 'something' right off the bat. I hit the generate button a few more times with more spectacular results.

I was wondering what other naming techniques programmers might use. I'm just talking about having a name to call a project, not necessarily a 'real' name. I'm sure the Stack Overflow community has some great ideas.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I'm talking about an internal sort of name, like a nickname. It most likely wouldn't ever be made public, just something to refer to the project internally. It could be anything - and I think that's why it is so hard to come up with a good name, because there are no limits on what it could be.

Answer 1

Before google, the goal was something people could remember, so overlapping/overloading names was a good thing. Nowadays, you want something that isn't already in google and that has either a memorable or obvious spelling so that people who hear it can google for it and find you.

Answer 2

My favorite source for project names is Greek mythology. Lots of stuff to play with there, and with a little research you can even find a meaningful name.

Answer 3

In general, the naming of the solution (meaning all projects relating to a single application), is based on the business problem solved. If i cannot come up with a simple name, I work with the business owners and other business people to come up with an answer.

As for projects within, the general scheme is:

COmpanyName.ProjectName.Layer.Tier

It can go further than this, but it makes it easy to figure out libraries. Note that you are not stuck with the original name. That is one reason refactoring is around.

Answer 4

Where I work we went with Japanese mythology. There's plenty of creatures and gods to choose from, and we'd always pick a name that matches the functionality of the project in question somewhat. For our game project we're working on:

Fujin - God of the wind, creator of worlds, for our art pipeline and game world builder software.

Tenjin - God of schools and learning, our base engine for educational games.

Yomi - The underworld, our online back-end.

Etcetera.

Here's a giant list to pick from.

Answer 5

We try an pick names which were meaningful. One project we picked for example was named after the road the hotel was on where we spent three weeks figuring out how we were going to actually build what we needed.

EL Pronto was a fun project it was supposed to have a sense of fast and emergency to it so the name sort of fit.

My all time classic however was for a project that was really an addition to the product. We had speced out an important piece of the app, but the business owners said there was no way they needed it, we told them they were crazy. The second day of the pilot the business owners called us and asked us what it would take to put that feature back in. And so project FYITUS was born. Pronunched Foo-Yi-Tus. I'm sure most of you can figure it out.

We've also had Project Twister which was for a project which could easily spin on and on and on and on and on.

Key is for the name to be fun, and memorable.

Answer 6

I quite like the new style of "Web 2.0" names typically including just two syllables, e.g. Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, Weebly, even Plone, or Drupal.

I think it's important for names to roll off the tongue and thus become catchy. You might even find that a project's nickname eventually becomes the nickname.

Here is a Web 2.0-style name generator that I like:

• http://www.dotomator.com/web20.html

Answer 7

For internal names, I usually use:

• Planet Names
• Short element names from the periodic table
• Characters from cartoons that I grew up with (I.e. Thundercats)
• City names

Its funny to use geographical names because they can also indicate how far away (in technology, language or purpose) any two projects are from each other. If "Jason" is working on a Python server and "Mark" is working on something in .NET .. Mark (On Mercury) might naturally say that Jason is on Neptune.

Meanwhile, two other projects might be as close (but different) as Lead and Gold. But, sending two people from the oxygen project and a project manager from the hydrogen project over to the potassium project might be a bad idea. Now I'm just getting silly.

The accounting droids love short names for cost coding and charging time to projects, so its up to us to amuse them :)

Answer 8

Our company has specific rules and procedures for official project names, but occasionally smaller things are name-able by the rest of us. I often try for obscure cultural references. I was once able to work Sam And Max into an internal authorization tool. Someone else had already named the database as SAM - the Security Authorization Manager. I had to add a client module to a distrubuted UI whose name started with M, so MAX was M's Authorization eXtension.

I spent the next 2 months explaining my seemingly random giggles.

Answer 9

Usually just something based on a pronounciation of the acronym (if it has one).

e.g. TWD becomes Tweed, JSC becomes Jacy, etc.

Answer 10

We tend to give it some code that identifies the client, the month/year the project begins, and a counter to distinguish similar projects.

As for informal names, we just call it what it is: CompanyName WhatKindOfProject TimePeriod

Answer 11

My Machine name scheme at home is based on Norse mythology; I've also used that as a source of "project" names. My other main inspiration has been the NATO codes for former Soviet/Warsaw Pact aircraft: Fishbed, Bear, Flanker, Backfire, Colt, Badger, etc ...