·:[ Sound and Fury ]:·
• • • • •

Naming conventions have been around for years in various forms. In the United States Navy, battleships were named after states, submarines after fish and destroyers after people. As computer programmers began to program in groups, they too developed conventions. Any group writing or editing endeavor will seek to establish useful naming conventions. This is also true for online collaboration tools.

A good set of naming conventions:

• Has planned growth inherent. In World War II over 175 Flechter class destroyers were commissioned. If they were being named after states, the naming pool would have run dry quickly. Fortunately, the Navy was not lacking in heroes after whom to name the destroyers.
• Can adapt over time. Initially, monitors were named after states. When battleships were built, the monitors took the state capital’s name and allowed the name to be transferred to the new ships (i.e., USS Florida became USS Tallahassee). Now, the Ohio-class of submarines carry on the states’ names.
• Has a simple and easy to remember scheme. Since the conventions will be used by numerous people over a period of time, a simple rule set is most likely to be followed and survive. Overly complex or detailed conventions can quickly overload the system and will be abandoned.
• Are self-explanatory. The resulting names should not require an index or reference page to explain what they mean. Web sites for many ships now follow a “www.shipsname.navy.mil” convention. This allows new users to accurately extrapolate unknown site names. For example, http://www.florida.navy.mil/ is the site for USS Florida (SSBN 728). This feature also allows the naming conventions to be self-documenting and self-promulgating. New users can learn the conventions through observation.
• Are useful. Online this may mean naming in a way that an alphabetical list yields meaningful results.
• Has inherent meaning that carries from one name to another. SSBNs are Submarines with Ballistic missile capability and are Nuclear powered. CVNs are also nuclear powered. (The “V” stands for fixed-wing aircraft and is carried over to the numeric designation of fixed-wing squadrons, like the Pukin’ Dogs of VF-143.)

Other random thoughts on names:

• Length
  In many ways, the ideal length is “long enough.” That is, long enough to convey the proper meaning, but not so long as to be unwieldy. Online, the proper length may be based on where the list of objects is displayed and how many characters are shown by default.
• Order
  What goes first? Internal to an organization, should a person be lastname.firstname.job.division, or job.division.lastname.firstname, or division.job.lastname.firstname?