Help me learn to think of better names for things

I feel morally obligated to proselytize the works of Mitch: I want to get a job as someone who names kitchen appliances. Toaster, refrigerator, blender....all you do is say what the shiit does, and add "er". I wanna work for the Kitchen Appliance Naming Institute. Hey, what does that do? It keeps shiit fresh. Well that's a fresher....I'm going on break. Mitch Hedberg (RIP)

A naming scheme helps. I name my cats after astronomical bodies (e.g., twins http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b56/Erythrosine/animals/kitties_in_winter_sun.jpg?t=1264625287), my pet chickens with dignified old ladyhttp://www.babynamesdirectory.com/old-fashion-baby-names.htm, and my computers after colors. At my old job, the computers were all given names of elements (helium, technetium, etc.), and at the job before that the computers were all given names of birds (heron, egret, etc.).

There was a very good post about names on the Blue recently, here it is: http://www.metafilter.com/87834/Where-unique-identities-are-born-every-day (also on http://projects.metafilter.com/2380/BabyZoink-is-a-name-inventor-intended-to-provide-new-parents-with-unique-names-that-nobody-else-has)

I like looking at word etymology (especially Greek and Latin roots) when picking names, because the connotations often carry over. A few tools that I use: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0192806408/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0550142304/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ http://www.bartleby.com/81/ To see how big companies decide on names, these pages may inspire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_name_etymologies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_band_name_etymologies

People say I am good at this, and I get assigned to name things a lot. I usually just talk about the thing a lot, like out loud to myself, and then at some point I notice that something jumps out at me because it sounds good. Like: "Well it's an internet site but it's about other internet sites, it's sort of I dunno a super umbrella commentary thing that is about other sites like in a meta way, it's kind of a meta-website I guess... but not like Google it's not just a big pile of all the other crap it also sorts out the good part from the bad and sort of filters out and analyzes the good parts... hm maybe I should call it MetaFilter... no wait that sounds like I'm talking about filters... well it's catchy anyway so let me write that down and then keep rambling for awhile maybe I will find something better....."

You can use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoonerism to generate something pronounceable that isn't a dictionary word (and is therefore easy to search for).

For human names (fictional characters etc), nothing works for me like a walk in a cemetery. So many strange and interesting surnames out there.

I like using Japanese words for things. My old Motorola RAZR's bluetooth name was kamisori (i.e., razor) and my new Sony phone is midori (i.e., green). http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C is a good resource for Japanese words. For my Macs, I've used semi-obscure varieties of apples (idared and epicure). If there's a general noun that applies abstractly to what you're naming, you can try using more specific versions of the concrete concept. Another technique I like to use is anagramming. Just take a few words that describe whatever it is you're naming and plug them into the http://wordsmith.org/anagram/.

A naming scheme helps I agree completely; all the computers and other devices on my network are named after space ships in sci-fi, but I won't reuse a name, so it forces me to be clever after a while. This limitation really improves creativity and gets me to dig a bit to find the perfect moniker for something. As for other things, like pets, I tend to look for something specific about it to aid in my naming choice (when we found a tiny http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydactyl_cat kitten with a giant head in the bushes years ago, we naturally named him "Darwin" for his efforts at attempting to evolve). My Siamese cat is named Oni (ghost/ demon) because she appears and disappears at will, by Australian cattle dog is named Ele (short for Electric Dingo) because she has an improbable amount of energy. This is nice because it gives you an explanation when people ask, but it means that you have to live with the critter for a while before you decide what to call it. Another direction we've taken is to go with a full, absurdly long title for a pet. Like "Super-Destructo-Atomotron-Nugget-Head of DOOM: Nuggetly Destroyer of Worlds and Demonic Swallower of Souls." which is the http://www.metafilter.com/75324/Since-we-are-encouraging-discussion-on-manners-of-spirit#2290841of our rabbit. Bestowing an honorary doctorate or professorship on a pet is also a nice touch. Particularly if you enjoy weird looks at the vet. As to other things in life, I just go with whatever comes to mind. For instance, as of this moment, my filing cabinet is now named Jeff.