h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am one of a number of people who suffers from an affliction known to the general public as "Having To Much Freakin' Time On Your Hands!" (Or TMFTOH, to the medical community). Due to this condition, one of the symptoms I and others like me experience is having your creative mind go berserk. You just keep churning out ideas (of variable quality), until, finally, you head explodes;...

...And that's just no good for anyone, especially not your housekeeper. Obviously, these excess ideas need a safe dumping, and many of these can be found on the web. So here I am, proposing the construction of yet another one. Right in this very community, in fact.

This dump will take the form of various lists of name ideas. Got an idea for a researcher nickname, but already named yourself? You'd send it in. It wouldn't be restricted to hypothetical researcher names, of course. It could be names for bands, companies, ships, Lovecraftian gods, whatever.

I'm talking about more than a running forum here. I'm talking about a constantly maintained guide entry, akin to the Overwhelmingly Huge List of Clubs.

YES! That's a fantastic idea - where do we start?

Well, it would probably have to be maintained by some kind of team, as seems like it would be a bit big for an individual. I'm not an ACE or anything yet, so I don't know; Are you guys able to co-author entries or anything like that. I think I've seen entries done by more than one person...

Anyway, I envisioned it something like this: The main page would be a short introduction to the concept of the Name-O-Matic, followed by a series of links to the various name-lists. The lists would be broken up by category (Researcher Nicknames, Band Names, Company Names, etc.). People would contribute to the lists by posting suggestions onto the proper forums. A team of dedicated editors will peruse those forums, adding any particularly creative ideas to the lists (and maybe sending a little message of congratulations to the researcher who submitted the name). By the way, I haven't mastered all the intricacies of the Guide yet, so if there are more efficient ways of approving name submissions, I'd be happy to hear them.

name for a band

Fuzzy Worm & the Jerk Weasels

I've always thought that there should be a band called "Carbonated Heroin."

Any of the spacecraft from Iain M Banks' culture stories - good for anything
BCNU - Crescent

If I ever have a band, I would call it 'Long-Necked Toothbrush and the Hard To Reach Places'. However, there is no chance of this, because I am as musical as a plank of wood, and so must live out my musical fantasies vicariously... Oh, the pain of abject talentlessness...

In my rapidly retreating adolescence I used to come up with names for collections of poetry or novels.

My favourite used to be "Angels Unawares" as in entertaing angels unawares, but as I'm a bit obsessed with angels, that's no surprise.

At least, not to me.

Ramble, ramble, ramble, ramble, ramble....

A friend of mine was in a band called 'Keep Calm & Dig'.
The band isn't called that anymore, so its free to enter the repository.

Love & hugs,
Adam

PS: If anyone is interested, the name came from a World War I poster that was meant to help boost moral amongst the soldiers in the trenches.

if you are ever stuck for a name, go to http://babynamer.myfsb.com where I have posted a java applet that provides you with unlimited names for your naming pleasure.

...now, if somebody were to actually construct the Name-O-Matic, we'd have a permanent location for all your names. I'd do it myself, but I don't know that my meager skills are up to the task. And I don't think I'd be all that committed to keeping the thing up to date. If this thing is gonna be done well, I'd say it's a job for some H2G2 guru(s).

Perhaps you should ask Peta ( http://www.h2g2.com/U24 ) or Abi ( http://www.h2g2.com/U281 ) - post a message on one (or both) of their pages, give them a link back to here and ask them what they think!

Some friends on Skye were forming a band, but after hearing a rehearsal they were none too pleased at my name suggestion...

"Howling Gaels"

Suggested name for a james Bond villan:

"Volex Pentcon"

(It's also a brand name of mains cables used for PCs...)

Good names for pubs

1) Dog and b*****d

2) The bottled faced

3) The splintered glass

I think I'll skip on the Splintered Glass.

How about "the Wet Spot" for another pub (bar) name?

A good number of years ago if we needed to refer to any old pub, we used the term "Pig and Whistle" or "Duck and Dishcloth".
With the modern trend to rename pubs with meaningless titles, I doubt that we could come up with anything more stupid than can Whitbread.

Some pseudonyms for Aberdeen pubs include "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" and "The Warthog and Anteater".

Names for pubs and inns are pretty simple, as the generally follow one of two layouts:

Type 1: "The_(insert animal/mythical creature name)_and_(insert ANOTHER animal/mythical creature name)"

Type 2: "The_(insert adjective)_(insert noun)"

There's also a slightly more archaic one for inns

Type 3: "Sign of the_(insert noun, preferably animal/mythological)"

...and here's a handy list of words to use!...

ANIMALS:
pig
goat
horse
dog
cock
hen
wolf
bear
fish
armadillo
tsetse fly
three-toed sloth
lesser striped bandicoot
kinkajou(tm)

MYTHOLOGICALS
dragon
unicorn
centaur
basilisk
manticore
kraken
spherey horror that is...Yog-Sothoth!

NOUNS
lady
bullet
galleon
man
guy
dude
homie
John Doe
Homo Sapiens

ADJECTIVES
hanged
drunken
blind
dancing
green
red
blue
firey orange
yellow ochre

...you get the idea