Hostname Naming Scheme

Rules

Layer	Theme	Example
Physical machines	Solar system planets	`mars`
VMs / Containers	Moons of parent planet	`phobos` (on `mars`)
Cloud instances	Atmospheric / Noble gases	`argon`, `argonite`

Physical Machines - Planets

Hostname	Body	Notes
`mercury`	Mercury	No moons - standalone only
`venus`	Venus	No moons - standalone only
`earth`	Earth	1 moon
`mars`	Mars	2 moons
`jupiter`	Jupiter	95 moons - current main machine
`saturn`	Saturn	292 moons
`uranus`	Uranus	27 moons
`neptune`	Neptune	16 moons

Mercury and Venus have no moons. Avoid assigning VMs to them, or use them for truly isolated machines.

VMs / Containers - Moons (by parent planet)

Earth

Hostname	Moon
`luna`	Moon

Mars

Hostname	Moon	Notes
`phobos`	Phobos	Larger, inner
`deimos`	Deimos	Smaller, outer

Jupiter ← main machine

Hostname	Moon	Notes
`ganymede`	Ganymede	Largest moon in solar system
`callisto`	Callisto	2nd largest Jovian
`io`	Io	Most volcanically active body
`europa`	Europa	Subsurface ocean candidate
`amalthea`	Amalthea	5th largest Jovian
`thebe`	Thebe
`metis`	Metis	Innermost named moon
`himalia`	Himalia	Largest irregular moon
`elara`	Elara
`pasiphae`	Pasiphae
`carme`	Carme
`ananke`	Ananke
`leda`	Leda	Smallest named Jovian

Saturn

Hostname	Moon	Notes
`titan`	Titan	2nd largest moon in solar system, has atmosphere
`rhea`	Rhea	2nd largest Saturnian
`iapetus`	Iapetus	Two-tone surface
`dione`	Dione
`tethys`	Tethys
`enceladus`	Enceladus	Active ice geysers
`mimas`	Mimas	Death Star appearance
`hyperion`	Hyperion	Irregular shape
`phoebe`	Phoebe	Likely captured body
`janus`	Janus	Co-orbital with Epimetheus
`epimetheus`	Epimetheus	Co-orbital with Janus
`prometheus`	Prometheus	Shepherd moon
`pandora`	Pandora	Shepherd moon
`atlas`	Atlas	Ring shepherd
`pan`	Pan	Gap-clearing moon
`helene`	Helene	Trojan moon of Dione
`calypso`	Calypso	Trojan moon of Tethys

Uranus

Hostname	Moon	Notes
`titania`	Titania	Largest Uranian moon
`oberon`	Oberon	2nd largest
`umbriel`	Umbriel
`ariel`	Ariel
`miranda`	Miranda	Extreme terrain
`puck`	Puck
`portia`	Portia
`juliet`	Juliet
`caliban`	Caliban	Irregular
`sycorax`	Sycorax	Largest irregular Uranian

Uranian moons are named from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

Neptune

Hostname	Moon	Notes
`triton`	Triton	Retrograde orbit, likely captured KBO
`proteus`	Proteus	2nd largest Neptunian
`nereid`	Nereid	Highly eccentric orbit
`larissa`	Larissa
`galatea`	Galatea	Shepherd moon
`despina`	Despina
`thalassa`	Thalassa
`naiad`	Naiad	Innermost named moon

Cloud Instances - Atmospheric Gases

Suffix Reference

Combine any noble gas base with a suffix to encode role/tier/purpose. Or use base for network and suffixed for resources in that network. Or do whatever, I don’t care.

Suffix	Chemical meaning	Suggested infra meaning
(bare)	Element itself	Primary / generic instance
`-ide`	Binary compound - element bonded to one other	Paired instance, replica, read-replica, standby
`-ite`	Salt of lower-oxidation acid	Secondary role, worker, lighter variant
`-ate`	Salt of higher-oxidation acid	Elevated role, primary in cluster, ingress
`-ous`	Lower-oxidation acid form	Legacy, deprecated, older-gen
`-ic`	Higher-oxidation acid form	High-priority, production-grade
`-yl`	Functional group / radical	Sidecar, agent, auxiliary process
`-ane`	Saturated stable compound	Long-running, persistent, stateful
`-ene`	Unsaturated / reactive compound	Ephemeral, short-lived, CI runner
`-one`	Ketone group	Singleton, sole instance of type
`-ol`	Hydroxyl / alcohol group	Observability, monitoring, logging node
`-al`	Aldehyde group	Batch job, scheduled task node

Noble Gas Bases

Prefer noble gases - chemically inert, maps well to stateless cloud instances.

Base	Element	Weight	Use suggestion
`helium`	He	Lightest	Tiny/nano instances, lambdas
`neon`	Ne	Light	Edge nodes, CDN, lightweight
`argon`	Ar	Medium	General compute
`krypton`	Kr	Heavy	Memory-heavy workloads
`xenon`	Xe	Heaviest stable	GPU, high-compute
`radon`	Rn	Heaviest	Avoid - radioactive connotation

Construction Pattern

<noble-gas><suffix>[-<number>]

Examples (do not treat this as some sort of standard):

Hostname	Decode
`argon`	Primary general compute instance
`argonide`	Standby / replica of argon
`argonite`	Worker node
`argonate`	Ingress / primary in cluster
`argonene`	Ephemeral CI runner
`argonol`	Monitoring / observability node
`xenone`	Ephemeral GPU job runner
`kryptonane`	Persistent stateful DB host
`neonyl`	Sidecar / agent
`argonite-1`	First of multiple workers
`argonite-2`	Second worker

Non-noble gases (available if needed)

Base	Gas	Notes
`nitrogen`	N₂	High-availability, abundant
`oxygen`	O₂	Active/compute-heavy
`hydrogen`	H₂	Lightest - micro/serverless
`methane`	CH₄	Outer-layer / edge
`ozone`	O₃	Security layer, WAF, proxy
`carbon`	C	Data/storage nodes

Example Fleet

jupiter          # main physical workstation
  ├── io         # VM - small, hot
  ├── europa     # VM - medium
  ├── ganymede   # VM - largest
  └── callisto   # VM - secondary large

mars             # secondary physical machine
  ├── phobos     # VM
  └── deimos     # VM

argon            # primary OCI compute
argonide         # OCI standby/replica
argonene         # ephemeral CI runner
xenone           # ephemeral GPU job
kryptonane       # persistent stateful DB
argonol          # monitoring node
neonyl           # sidecar agent

Turns out, your services can named this way too. It is fun calling out “Oh shit, hydrogen is down, requests cannot get to callisto.”