Blog Post

#1489 The Name List

brian Thu 14 Apr 2011

How many times have you sat around trying to think of a good name for a class or concept in your software? Good names are concise and unique across the system. But lets face it, coming up with names really sucks. So over the years I've been collecting a list of words to spark my imagine (often leading me to thesaurus.com for further refinement). I've been scribbling this list on a tattered sheet of paper. But now I am going to start maintaining the list on this page and share it with everybody! The names in no particular order:

Kit                 Bag                 Cache               Association
Product             Vector              Dock                PlugPoint
Client              Group               Blade               Transcript
Server              Mediator            Page                Share
Builder             Attach              Bar                 Stamp
Director            Register            Descriptor          Parcel
Manipulator         State               Selector            Resolver
Prototype           Strategy            Concern             Find
Clone               Tactic              Pod                 Discover
Adapter             Policy              Capsule             Learn
Wrapper             Cell                Catalyst            Routine
Target              Sage                Sealed              Pigeonhole
Iterator            Archetype           Coalesce            Baton
Cursor              Canonical           Classifier          Dialect
Traversal           Assembly            Sieve               Reaction
Observer            Backplane           Tub                 Liaison
Dependent           Plug                Depot               Vat
Publish             Receptacle          Tribe               Promise
Subscribe           Bank                Attribute           Future
Interest            Document            Facet               Mint
Aspect              Deed                Annotation          Shard
Any                 Part                Meta                Rendition
Terminal            Artifact            Record              Sketch
Term                Host                Info                Syllabus
Variant             Actor               Manager             Reduction
Materialization     Pathway             Session             Synopsis
Relationship        Responder           Connection          Verse
Role                Authority           Exchange            Stanza
Relation            Feature             Memento             Compass
Preview             Alias               Token               Blueprint
Res (Latin obj)     Bundle              Solver              Diagram
Track               Tracker             Constraint          Read/Write
Sector              Proxy               Originator          Encode/Decode
Vessel              Surrogate           Caretaker           Marshal/Unmarshal
Behavior            Shadow              Housekeeping        Inflate/Deflate
Stimulus            Subject             Cluster             Cue
Request             Ambassador          Guardian            Query
Response            Extent              Orphan              Morph
Timeline            Handler             Zombie              Digest
Tag                 Command             Struct              Hive
Operation           Action              Realm               Media
Narrative           Transaction         Domain              Agent
Bridge              Interpreter         Zone                Dimension
Abstraction         Context             Generalization      Axis
Implementor         Expression          Specialization      Monad
Composite           Widget              Envoy               Pose
Component           Field               Broker              Interior/Exterior
Leaf                Property            Portal              Manufacturer
Tuple               Template            Door                Factory
Decorator           Visitor             Gate                Kind
View                Element             Cyber               Species
Facade              Entity              Resource            Mold
Subsystem           Node                Organ               Rule
Flyweight           Catalog             Slice               Event
Colloborators       Fragment            Extension           Trigger
Aggregate           Block               <x>let
Collection          Segment             Moniker

casperbang Sun 17 Apr 2011

Cool. I maintain a similar private "programmer lingo" mind-map, thanks for sharing yours. (Accessor, Cipher, Catcher, Default, Entry, Empty, Exception, Facilitator, Hash, Key, Locator, Level, Module, Optimizer, Provider, Pair, Primary, Quantity, Qualifier, Root, Resource, Repository, Sanitizer, Sentry, Service, Section, Trapper, Utility, Value, Volume, Zone... are some of the ones not on your list).

showka Sat 23 Apr 2011

I knew "Context" and "Node" would be on this! I find "context" in particular is a name I might lean on too much.

jodastephen Thu 11 Aug 2011

Some more words;

  • Checker
  • Conduit
  • Consumer
  • Converter
  • Dispatcher
  • Function
  • Helper
  • Identifiable
  • Link
  • Master
  • Producer
  • Receiver
  • Reducer
  • Result
  • Scheme
  • Search
  • Sender
  • Series
  • Socket
  • Source
  • Supplier
  • Transformer
  • Utils
  • Validator

ttmrichter Thu 11 Aug 2011

What? Source, but no Sink?

yliu Thu 11 Aug 2011

Great List, target is the one I use the most and it was in your first column :)

  • Show
  • Create
  • Worker
  • Dock
  • Greek Alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, .. )

rswindle Fri 18 Jan 2013

I love Quantity! Never used it but great idea, I will now!

Here's the alternates I've found useful: Retrieve(r) Deposit(or) Layer Unknown Boundary

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