Previously on isoul.uk: Why I Started Wanting My Data Back — two decades of online accounts accumulate quietly until an account stops feeling like an account and starts feeling like infrastructure.
Some people name servers after their function.
docker01.
nas01.
backup02.
That is sensible.
I name my machines after spaceships from stories I love.
This is less sensible.
I recommend it.
A homelab is already unnecessary enough#
Most of what I run at home could be replaced with hosted services.
That means the homelab isn’t only infrastructure. It is also a hobby.
Once I accepted that, there wasn’t much reason to pretend the machines needed enterprise naming conventions.
I wanted names I would actually enjoy seeing.
Science fiction supplied plenty.
The pattern is spaceships#
I kept seeing TrueNAS examples with storage pools called tank, and sometimes dozer. In a path such as /mnt/tank, that’s the pool name, not the name of a dataset inside it. According to a TrueNAS community account, those names came from Tank and Dozer in The Matrix: a bit of personality tucked into storage documentation. That stuck with me: if a pool can have a name from a film, why should my computers be server01?
My own pattern is spaceships. The ships come from different stories I like, including Star Trek and Mass Effect, but the idea is consistent. I pick a name that feels right for the machine rather than a number that tells me nothing about it.
I care that the names are memorable and enjoyable. A good naming scheme should survive contact with things you like.
Names help more than I expected#
There is actually one practical benefit.
I remember names more easily than numbered hosts.
Mentioning one of those names is instantly clearer in my head than referring to another numbered host.
That matters once a homelab grows beyond a single PC under a desk.
The names connect the hobby to everything before it#
The part I like most is that the naming scheme accidentally connects different periods of my life.
I grew up watching science fiction because my older siblings watched it.
Later I got deeply into anime.
Then I became the sort of adult who runs Linux servers at home for fun.
Now those servers are named after things I watched decades earlier.
None of that was planned.
But it makes the whole setup feel more personal.
And if I am going to spend an evening troubleshooting a machine that refuses to behave, I would much rather be angry at a fictional spacecraft than server01.