Name the Thing After What It Does

A name is documentation
that can't go out of date —
because the compiler reads it too.

data, handle, process, temp.
These are names that gave up.

The good name is a small promise.
retryCount. isExpired. pendingCharges.

You read it once and you already know
what it holds and what it won't.

If you can't name it,
you don't understand it yet.

So keep going until the name is boring
and exactly right.

That's not a formality.
That's the design finishing itself.

– Serguey Asael Shinder