this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2025
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Hi fellow selfhosters!

What hostnames do you use for your systems and services?
And maybe why if it's an interesting story.

I'll start:
Steam Deck: krax
Smartphone: krix (once I get LineageOS installed again)
MiniPC: krux
Reserved for future use: krex & krox

Creative, I know. 😅 The names have no deeper meaning. The x comes from Linux. That's it.

I know some of you use god names of certain pantheons, such as Thor. But I find that boring as a lot of people are doing that.  
 
 

Now let your pants down and tell me all about

your embarrassing host names!

(page 5) 28 comments
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

I gave up on cute or clever names a while ago; now I go with “storage0”, “router0”, “wap00”, “vmhost0”. Always with a numeric suffix because there will be a -1, -2 some day.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

My first computer job was at a college that used names from ancient history and mythology. So I mostly still do that. Medea is my plex server. Zeus and Hera are the hosts for docker and VMs. Heimdall is the router.

The only break in the pattern is my storage, which is currently NASC and NASD...

Oh and my personal machine used to be HAL_9000 (complete with wallpaper and theme sounds) but now I just name it "box."

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Charybdis, hippo, appa, Momo, pabu

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

Desktop: 30p87
Laptop: 30p87-laptop
Phone: 30p87-phone
Server: 30p87-server
DNS server at location bv: 30p87-dns-bv
DNS server at location db: 30p87-dns-db
Switch at location bv: 30p87-bottom-bv
Switch at location db: 30p87-bottom-db

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Very German of you.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Reserved for future use: krex & krox

Poor "kryx".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

'fuck' and the family of 'fucking'

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I named my old white bitfenix prodigy m "Baymax" because it was white and had rounded edges.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

@Krik For my personal devices, i use the names of the 12 Colonies of Kobol from Battlestar Galactica. So I currently have 2 laptops: Aerilon and Caprica. When I get a new phone, I'll probably name it Scorpia or Tauron.

Choosing a good naming scheme depends on how many you need, and how often you add to your collection.

If you need some inspiration, check out this list. https://namingschemes.com/Main/_Page

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Current homelab+desktop+laptop host count here is 22. All anime characters or references. It’s a fairly large pool to pull from, so it’s worked for me for 20+ years now. Mobile devices (phones, tablets, etc) and game consoles aren’t really as clever though.

All of them are in a piHole DNS though so no host files keeps it easy to track. Services have names that mostly are just what they are though and cnames to the matching host that hosts them (or load balancer, whatever)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

My media server is called "The_Nexus."

My phone when I host anything on it is "The Hackinator 9000" because I think it would be funny for a normie to see and freak out.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Hardware hosts usually get a mix of hardware description and main use, e.g. en old Esprimo with Proxmox is esprimox. Virtual hosts are garden themed - auth server is mycel, monitoring will be called canopy once I move it, VM with lots of docker stuff is garden etc.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Depends on how many hostnames I need. If I just need 2, using opposite duals is fun, {romeo,ruliet}.shakespeare.com. 4 I almost always use cardinal directions or the seasons; {north,south,east,west}.domain.com or {spring,summer,fall,winter}.domain.com.

If I need a lot of potential subdomains, you can't beat the Greek or NATO alphabet, giving you 24 and 26 hostnames respectively which can be further enhanced by using the purpose of the server with the alphabet;

  • beta-w02.domain.com # second webserver on beta
  • beta-db02.domain.com # second db on beta
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Usually, some type of pun based on the hardware.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Internal server (Home Assistant etc.): domus
External server (Nextcloud etc.): nimbus
Router/firewall: murus

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I call them after what service is running on it. E.g. openvpn.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago
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