There are two hard problems in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors.
I've made peace with cache invalidation. Off-by-one errors? I'll get to those eventually. But naming microservices? That one haunts me.
You know the feeling. It's 10 AM. You've got a fresh service to build. The architecture is clear, the tickets are groomed, you're ready to go. Then someone asks: "What are we calling it?"
And suddenly it's 11:30 and your team is in a heated Slack thread debating whether email-sender is too generic and outbound-notification-delivery-service is too long.
I got tired of this, so I built a thing.
The tool
Microservice Name Generator. You describe what your service does, pick a naming style, and it gives you 5 names with README descriptions ready to copy-paste.
That's it. That's the tool.
But the fun part is how the names get generated.
Two modes for two moods
I built two naming styles because sometimes you're feeling creative and sometimes your architect is watching.
Fun & creative
This is the one I actually use. You type "a service that sends emails" and instead of getting email-service like some kind of animal, you get names like:
- Hermes, the Greek messenger god. Obviously.
- Pidgeot, the carrier pigeon Pokemon. Tell me that's not perfect for a delivery service.
- Paul Revere, the original "one if by land, two if by sea" notification system.
The prompt behind this mode pulls from mythology, pop culture, video games, history, all of it. I told the AI to think laterally. Don't just describe what the service does, find a clever reference that connects to it.
Each name comes with a README description that sounds like it was written by a developer who is way too enthusiastic about their service name:
> The swift messenger of your application stack.
**Hermes** handles all outbound email delivery with the grace
and speed of the Greek messenger god himself. Whether it's
transactional notifications or bulk campaigns, Hermes ensures
your messages reach their destination without getting lost
in the underworld.
I'm not going to pretend that's not delightful.
Professional & enterprise
For when you need to keep it boring. Sorry, "enterprise-grade."
This mode generates names like srv-outbound-emails and api-user-auth. Kebab-case, prefixed, scannable in a service registry. Your platform team will love it. The README descriptions read like internal documentation because, well, they are.
I included this mode because I know not everyone gets to name their service "Cerberus" at work. But they should.
Copy-paste ready
One thing I was adamant about: the output has to be immediately usable. Every name comes with a copy button that grabs the markdown README description. There's also a "Copy All" button if you want to dump all five into a doc and let your team vote.
No reformatting. Generate, copy, paste into your repo, done.
Go name your services
The tool is free: kollabe.com/tools/microservice-name-generator
Go generate some names. Send the weird ones to your team's Slack. Name your next service after a Greek god. Life's too short for svc-data-processor-v3.
What's the best (or worst) microservice name you've ever seen at work? Drop it in the comments. I collect these like Pokemon cards.
Top comments (1)
NIce, I was able to get some pretty funny ones