Naming Pro Tips

So, naming is hard. We've all agreed with this for a long while now.

But here are some protips from someone who has helped establish naming standards at ever place i've ever worked (up until current gig.. nmfp)

naming pro-tip #1:

always identify where the names will be used. the weakest link typically defines your criteria.

what do I mean? if you are using DNS, then periods can only be delimiters between components, which are restricted to this basic regex: ^[a-z][a-z0-9-]

naming pro-tip #2:

Consider the growth path of your architecture.

It hurts more to leave out region than add it.

For me this has lead to the following components for a complete naming structure:

system role and id cluster role and id region tier

naming pro-tip #3:

Never make a portion of the name implicit.

example: leaving prod off prod names, like databases, A records, account names.

This will hurt at some point because it makes exploring data, automation, reporting, etc a giant set of "AND NOT" rules

naming pro-tip #4

Consistency matters.

Going back and renaming everything will likely never happen, but having defined the patterns and followed them helps reduce complication over time.

If you don't like the standard your team/workplace defines after its agreed on. too bad

naming pro-tip #5

generation matters