In a Blaugust2025 post, Varun Barad writes on their eponymous site about device naming:

It is only in the past few years, after I read a post by someone on how they decide names for their devices, that the thought even occurred to me that those names for my devices don’t have to be so dry and meaningless. That I can treat naming my devices with some thought put into it, and name them based on some theme or the purpose that they will be serving.

Since then, the theme I have started with my devices is “celestial bodies/objects”. I try to name my devices based on some constellation.

I’ve been naming my devices for over 20 years. While celestial bodies, sci-fi, Greek mythology, and movie references are all excellent, evergreen options, I went a different route. Most of my devices are named after cities and beaches in the country I was born: Trinidad and Tobago.

When selecting names, I try to have some logical (or at least defensible) reason behind my choice. Broadly speaking, computers are named after cities, and iPads are named after beaches, with some exceptions:

• Port of Spain: The country’s capital. Everything revolves around it. This is my main computer, historically a desktop Mac (currently an older 5K Intel iMac). However, as I’ve moved to a “desktop laptop” lifestyle, this name will shortly shift to my M4 MacBook Pro 14".
• Scarborough: Previously the capital of Tobago, prior to the island’s unification with Trinidad. This is my secondary/travel computer, currently an M1 MacBook Air 13" (on which I’m writing this right now).
• Diego Martin: My extended family lived here; it was practically my second home. This was my main computer at work. The name, like me, is now retired.
• Curepe: This is my iPhone. I cannot for the life of me recall my reasoning behind this name, beyond it being another city where some of my family lived. It could just be because it’s short.
• Maracas: My favorite beach, home of big waves and bake and shark. It’s the name of my iPad Pro, my companion while lounging.
• Petit Valley: A small town adjacent to Diego Martin, I gave this name to my very petite Raspberry Pi.
• Piarco: A small town, but more relevant here, the name of the international airport, thus the name of my WiFi network—first christened when connectivity was provided by an Apple Airport base station.

Names remain stable even when replacing a device, so, for example, my current iPhone is Curepe16, and my current iPad is Maracas7. Other names I’ve used over the years include Arima, Belmont, Mayaro, and St. James.

My naming scheme inspired my wife to follow suit: Her MacBook Air is named “Harbin,” after her city of birth.

Not all my devices are named after Trinidad and Tobago cities and beaches, though. A handful of old devices are named much more prosaically, to more easily identify them; “iPad 1st gen 16GB” or “iPhone 6 Silver 16GB,” for example.

I rarely name my accessories. One exception: on a recent trip to Hawaii, I managed to forget my precious AirPods at home, a potentially devastating error while on vacation. Luckily, Costco had a sale on AirPods, so I picked up a pair on the trip. They ended up being a backup to my pair at home. I did not give them a city or beach name.

I called them SpAirPods.