When you make a new site on Netlify, you might notice something different about its randomly generated site name. That’s because we’ve updated the word lists we’re using to generate those names!
Previously, we used Docker/Moby’s open source list for generating container names, which pairs descriptive words with notable scientists and “hackers.” This served us well for several years, but we decided to make the list a little… sweeter.
As part of our latest quarterly internal “Netlivation” hack day, several of us gathered to think up new lists of words for our site name generator, partially inspired by Pi(e) Day on March 14.
For the “left” list, which generates the first word in the pair, we’re still using descriptive words, but this time with an emphasis on positive vibes and fun pronunciations. We brainstormed words like iridescent and phenomenal, and even some fancy ones that many of us had never heard of, like effulgent.
And for the second, “right” list, we conjured up a huge list of desserts and sweets from around the world, supplemented with some cute animals, mythical creatures, plants, and other delightful words like gumption and moonbeam.
Those two lists now combine to make some pretty magnificent combinations. Here are some of my favorites so far:
- courageous-profiterole
- rococo-donut
- jazzy-biscochitos
- benevolent-meerkat
- frolicking-conkies
- whimsical-begonia
I’d love to find out what other combinations are coming up as folks create new sites. If you get one you especially like, post it here!
Huge shoutout to all of the Netlifolks who helped add and edit the word lists, and deployed them to production! This includes @perry, @hillary, @Ramin, @kristy, @nicola_a, @amberley, @charliegroll, @ascorbic, @joel.cloralt, @keiko, Jason Santa Maria, Cindy Hoots, and Danny King!
