February 29, 2008 | The Task at Hand
Last weekend, I was presented with a question. A question I didn't have an answer to. A question I STILL don't have an answer to (nearly one week later). I think I may need help.
The question? Oh, right! Of course. That would help, wouldn't it. Last weekend, I was asked what name I had chosen for the new iMac. And I was embarrassed, because I haven't come up with one yet. I'm a horrible parent!
It was somewhat easy with other things. I had a little help naming my car (see super old post here). For some reason the iPod was easy to name (Clive - I just liked the name, and was reserving it for a future pet, but it worked for the iPod).
It's been so much harder coming up with the appropriate name for the iMac. I was thinking "Juno", but every pregnant hipster is probably going to be naming their kid that for the next couple of years (heck, if I were pregnant, it would be at the top of the baby-name list), so I've put it low on the iMac name list for now. Then this morning, while I was burning a CD for the boyfriend he mentioned "the burninantor", and that's when "Trogdor" seemed like a good name. But it still doesn't seem quite right. The boyfriend's iBook is named "Emily", after Emily Dickinson (because she wore white, and his iBook is white), so maybe I should continue with a literary theme for all of our apple computers?
I've been racking my brain and I just can't come up with something that seems right. Which is why I'm asking for help. I'm not necessarily asking y'all to pick out the name, but maybe you can offer some suggestions, or themes that might lead me to the right name? Otherwise, it may be months before my poor iMac gets a name!
my glue gun's name is Pricilla, I also name my houses--the last one was Belinda.
Is your computer a boy or a girl?
Something my sweetie came up with is a computer name that allows him to name all the things that go with his computer by the same theme. So his compy and iPhone have Transformer names. I copied him and named my stuff after a cowboy theme. But I'm due for a new computer soon and expect to be faced with a similar quandary. May the naming muses smile upon us!
HoneyBee
All my electronic devices have names. And as they are so seductive, I like to use names such as Ginger, and Twiggy and Vixen and such. go with what feels right, what kind of feeling does the new ibook bring out in you. If you use it for graphic design mostly, maybe a great designer, maybe a font, maybe...
If you want a lady author, why not Virginia (Woolf), or Ursula (LeGuin) or Octavia (Butler)? Mary Shelley?
I can't think of too many exciting male authory names, but Edgar (above) is cool. All my favorite authors tend to have dull first names, I guess. Herman Hesse?
Jean-Pierre Jeunet / Marc Caro, if you want to include scriptwriters?
I remember our very very first computer (1980-something) was Steve. We thought we were so clever.
My iBook is Baby Bird.
His MacBook is Tobiko.
my car: charlie
my computer: ibean
my juicer: rhoda
my cuisinart: sammy
my kitchen aid: gertrude
my humidifier penguin: theo
my french press: clarice
now you must ask yourself- is your computer a HE or a SHE.
go from there! I'm waiting....
Keeping with the literary theme, perhaps Poe, or if you need it a little geekier, Edgar?
My MacBook Pro is Octavian. Seemed regal, powerful, and slick enough, plus I am quite fond of the name. (The other option for that name was as a cat moniker.)
And it's conveniently given me a pattern for other hardware. My external drive is Hadrian.
My black MacBook is called 'cash', naturally after St. Johnny Cash. For me, the biggest concern is "am I going to be embarrassed to have this show up in the hostname registry?"
My Apple machine was "jmorton" (hold the applause please) but I had a legit Class A IP address all to myself, so that was cool. I honestly can't remember a single machine name I had at NGS.
Given that the machine is metal and glossy, not to mention really fast, I would suggest something in the Metallica-Motorhead-Judas Priest line. But I also kinda like ML's suggestion.
Posey.
Don't ask me why, it just is.
Jason will be excited when he sees this post.
if not Juno, how about Fairbanks? :-)