On Names

Sep 28, 2022

Names are fascinating.

People generally like to be called by their names instead of "Hey". Everything that is slightly valuable nowadays has somewhat distinct names. In today's world a name sometimes is the key to access knowledge. You'll know what I am talking about if you ever wanted to buy parts of things for repairment, google seems incapable and dumb, until suddenly a right name is entered then voilà! Everything works. Same thing applies to learning, as a newbie to something, a veteran can give me a few names/concepts to study with, which often leads to visible progress of understanding.

Names are powerful. In both ways.

A good name has the following attributes:

• It clears confusion; speed up communication
• It is built on consensus, even if just local consensus
• It helps understand the underlying concept

In direct contrast, a bad name:

• Make things much more confusing; costs more time to clarify things.
• No consensus on what it refers to, sometimes it could mean the opposite
• It misleads thus deviates from the underlying concept

Names help people go deeper. Without naming colors, a visual designer's life will have to talk in numbers instead. Flowers, animals, reptiles and insects, all studies based on consensus of names.

Naming can easily go wrong, behind a bad name, one can often find:

• Unclear or shallow understanding of domain
• Wrong abstraction of the problem
• Careless or even unconscious decisions

Stay conscious when naming stuff. If one finds it is hard to name certain things - by good chance it is an opportunity to get a deeper understanding of the domain, you might find it valuable to discuss with a few folks instead of just letting it be.

If you ever find a certain name confusing or inconsistent across the code, documents and communication - dig deeper, oftentimes you will find values and opportunities to improve significantly other than just that one name, it might turn out you need a glossary for the domain.

Any of these echos? What's your experience with names? Feel free to share.

Cheers!