random name generation

I believe it was Docker that started to rely on human-readable, auto-generated names; each container gets assigned an adjective and a name out of a pool of “notable scientists and hackers”, which you can inspect here.

Other people use Star Wars planets, capitals of the EU, or a slightly different version of the Docker approach using animal names.

Now, this is pretty cool, but I wanted a more personal system. I love reading Charles Bukowski, so I prompted a LLM to generate names in the context of his books, for an imaginary race track horse. Bukowski wrote a lot about betting at the racetrack, boozing, writing itself, and women.

After some slight adjustments and sighting several lists, I got some picks that resonated with me, and are now virtually engraved into the AWS environment of my former job: manic-muse. My home server is running under the alias of my-boy-bobby, and my new chess account is called pulp-pony.

Maybe somebody out there is doing something similar - let me know, I’d be interested on what you came up with!