List of Potential Names

Owned by Bill Branan
Jun 16, 2017
5 min read

UPDATE as of 8 March: After significant feedback that the existing process was unwieldy, we have 1) closed the current feedback survey, 2) removed names that have domain conflicts or other problems, and 3) created a new, much shorter survey for naming feedback.  Please take 5-10 minutes to complete the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/hydra-renaming before the end of day next Tuesday, 14 March. If you already took the original survey, please take this one too.

Voting is now open for the Round #1 Hydra Community vote so you should no longer add to this list.  Please use the names here to decide your Round #1 preference(s) and please be careful to type them into the voting form exactly as here (the auto-count on the form is case sensitive).  The voting form can be found at https://goo.gl/forms/vR5RDSKdH7kAKp4M2 and the Round #1 voting closes on Saturday March 11th.  The Round #2 vote, using only the most popular names from Round #1, will open on Monday March 13th - watch for an email with details.

  • Typhon - Hydra had only 9 heads, the giant Typhon had 100
  • Polykeyon - Project Polyceann (pronounced roughly poly-keeon; or we could make it easy to pronounce and go with Polykeyon.
    Google has no hits at all (unlike for Polyceph, which would be perfect but is already a 3D visual software project out of the University of Chicago). 
  • Slavic Dragons Such As...
    • Zmey
    • Zmeu
    • Smok
    • Zahhak
    • Zilant
    • Zirnitra
    • Lamya
  • Welsh Dragons Such As...
  • Hykudrax
  • Frydra
  • Presana
  • Presiva
  • Adoriella
  • Valkin
  • Hyvarti
  • Sufia
  • Tagtune
  • Mutz
  • Tenejo (esperanto for repository)
  • Fedsy
  • Booji Repo
  • Rookery
  • Interplanetary Repository
  • Rulora
  • Hierophant - a person, especially a priest in ancient Greece, who interprets sacred mysteries or esoteric principles
  • Oradora
  • Wortem
  • Preservitas
  • Mušmaḫḫū
  • Balaur
  • Datacommune
  • Nornia
  • Hymoot
  • Pcdmoot
  • Völuspá has a nice set of diacritics to use
  • Norniheim. What I like about the “heim” aspect is the implication of home. Which Hydra meetings are somewhat like a second home for me.
  • Hygge
  • Kanzi means "hidden treasure" in Swahili.
  • Some riff/translation of the word "commonwealth"
    • Res Publica
    • Komunumo Commonwealth in Esperanto
  • Similasi the Soresol term for public and publish.
  • Renpō is Japanese term for public and publish.
  • Ripojitori
  • Apotheke
  • Thesaurus, a storehouse for treasure
  • Apium - latin for Bee
  • Dracarys - The High Valyrian word for "dragonfire"

  • Lentun ['lentun] (n. 6pauc.3ter. community (relexified paucal of lenton.) Source: https://wiki.dothraki.org/High_Valyrian_Vocabulary)

  • Taal - Klingon word for tree
  • Sor (other Klingon dictionaries give the word 'sor' for tree).  
  • Phalanstere
  • Phalanstery
  • RoycroftRepo; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roycroft
  • Orochi -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamata_no_Orochi
  • Yam Yamgod Collective https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yam_(god)
  • Yammu
  • Nautilus (note: previous name of Gnome file manager)
  • Musaeum
  • Communitas
  • Ouroboros
  • Words for "Togetherness"
    • Unio (Catalan + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unio_(bivalve))
    • Kuneco (Esperanto_
    • Samvera (Icelandic)
    • Anori (Igbo)
    • Simul/Conjunctum (Latin)
    • Miara/ka (Malagasy)
    • Pamoja (Swahili)
    • Kalisi (Telugu)
    • Kunye (Xhosa)
    • Papo (Yoruba)
    • Hygge Danish (hyːɡə) noun - the practice of creating cosy and congenial environments that promote emotional wellbeing
    • Issho (together, Japanese) or Isshoni (common usage also implying movement, pronounced ee-shho-nee)
    • samUha (‘flocking together to achieve a common goal as part of a community, Sanskrit)
  • Doce: Digital Object Curation Environment 
  • Docent.
  • Stack. We're a community building a stack of software that is useful for providing access to digital collections.
  • Camillo
  • Argonauta
  • RepositoryPro
  • RepoDM
  • Durian
  • Yog-Sothoth - Grandfather of Cthulhu, said to take the form of a conglomeration of glowing spheres

  • Muundo wazi - (open structure in Swahili per Google translate and Word Hippo

  • Aaron (for Aaron Swartz)

  • Agora Repository (The agora (/ˈæɡərə/; Ancient Greek: Ἀγορά Agorá) was a central spot in ancient Greek city-states. The literal meaning of the word is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center of athletic, artistic, spiritual and political life of the city.)

  • Agorasophia
  • Agorax
  • Agoraphoria
  • Quartz
  • Amethyst
  • Jasper
  • Sapphire
  • Topaz
  • Pachydermita
  • Agra (home of the Taj Mahal)

  • Ragnarok "is the final battle, equivalent to Judgment day in the battle of good and evil, when balance is restored and a new creation begins."

  • OICOS. - open international community for open software.  Product name: amphora?

  • RAMS (Rails Asset Management System)
  • Names based on Akipo (alternative spelling of Equipo, spanish for “team”), plus includes the sound of “keep” and “po” for repository
    • Hykipo a portmanteau of Akipo plus Hydra
    • Akipoh (at least two "akipo" domain names already)
  • Panador - wide ranging digital object repository
  • Unidor
  • Lutra or Udros ... it means otter and there's a link with Hydra https://thestateoftheleftinengland.wordpress.com/tag/hydra/ (nothing in https://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmtext/ or http://tmsearch.uspto.gov, nothing significant in http://www.wipo.int/branddb/en/)
  • Cristata - species name of the Star Nosed Mole. "One Body, Many Snout Appendages"
  • Axil ("the upper angle between a leaf stalk or branch and the stem or trunk from which it is growing" as in Fedora is the trunk, Axil holds up the leaves)
  • Lennu - the Finnish Prime Minister's dog - source: https://twitter.com/KELLYWEILL/status/834254961127071744

  • Librease; Libreez; Librair

  • PachyStack - tools for creating a repository that never forgets
  • Haquifer or Haqueduct - replace the one-body-many-heads metaphor with one-reservoir-many-pipes (which chimes with the DAMS acronym many of us are using); keeps the initial h as a nod to our hydra heritage; and associates with hacking for our open-source commitment (though hack is admittedly a two-edged word); and a good basis for with visual designs
  • Radiolaria (many pseudopodia)
  • Octopoda (one less arm!)
  • Draco
  • Drako
  • MultiDraco
  • DracoIR
  • Quokka  https://www.instagram.com/p/BPt4RtkgADY/  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quokka
  • Hyfe - mashup of Hydra+Fedora > Norwegian word with origin hyphae > Ancient Greek ὑφή ‎(huphḗ, “web”): web, filament, underground branching mass
  • Hapory or Hypory - based on Maori word for "community"
  • Hypository
  • Hypro - simple contraction of Hydra Project but with the "professional" connotation
  • Hyla - (genus of tree frogs).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyla  Named after Hylas, the companion of Heracles, which is a bonus connection to Hydra.  And cute little green tree frogs make a nice contrast to hideous monsters.  :-)
  • Repose - play on repos, pleasant sounding, actual word
  • Airlock - a device that allows the passage of objects between a pressure vessel (fedora?) and surroundings while minimizing change of pressure in the vessel. Also used during fermentation to prevent oxidation when preserving food or making beer/wine. Also... space age!
  • Kompano - Means partner in esperanto (in a sense Hydra is defined by its partners)
  • Drekar (alternative spellings Drekkar, Drakkar, langskip)- Common form of Viking langskips with a Dragon's head at the front that were vessels built for speed and maneuverability, powered by oars.  Essentially, symbolizes how much the community accomplishes by quickly, nimbly moving together.  It would not get far with just one person rowing, but by coordinating many much can be done.
  • Orchard

  • Grove

  • Mandelbrot

  • Thicket

  • Freidra
  • Sodality - an organized society or fellowship (This was leaning down the community aspect)
  • Uyuni (for Salar de Uyuni salt flats and their super neat fractal pattern)
  • Buntai (team, Japanese)
  • Higra
  • Themes Without a Specific Proposal
    • "The best brand names, like poems, work by compressing into a single euphonious word an array of specific, resonant meanings and associations"
    • "Gemstones have nice names?"
    • a boat of some kind? like, the ark saved the animals and we're going to save the digital objects. plus we can be a jolly crew. (great idea, 'ark' specifically as a name is used by a KDE compression program)

    • a fruit, eg Kumquot, Lychee, Sapote (sapote.org avail), Tamarind, Rambutan, Sloe ; )

    • an animal - something that swarms or has other collective behavior, eg Locust - obscure eg aardwolf - some kind of whale?

    • a plant - eg Rice, Asparagus, Dahlia (dahlia.software available) - thinking something that clusters/divides

    • a tree - stable, perennial, branching - eg Laurel (laurel.software)

    • Tessellation; something on the theme of? (http://tessellationsoftware.com/index.html)
    • Something to do with multi-faceting - 
    • slavic and eastern-European dragons often had multiple heads; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_dragon and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balaur
      Given our current logo looks a bit dragon-like, that might be an easy transposition. Combine that with a story that dragons often protected things, that makes for a nice, albeit violent, narrative
  • Proposals Already Identified as Unacceptable Under the Terms of the Agreement to Rebrand
    • Ydra (Modern Greek spelling of Hydra)
    • Idra, similar sounding
    • Hyδra
    • "The Project formerly known as Hydra"
  • Proposals Already Used for Software Projects
    • Starfish (many arms, was a sw company but now is not?) (actually it is a software product developed by Cambridge Computers and was in a poster session at Hydraconnect 2016)
    • Hidora (taken - swiss platform and also linked to other communities)
    • Swarm
    • Prisma
    • Tanuki
  • Joke Submissions
    • Localsportsteam.io
    • Trogdor (Trogdor the Reposinator)
    • Hytimes
    • Hylandora (tied to efforts between Hydra & Islandora- limiting and phonetically very confusing with Islandora?)
    • HIBM. "No one ever got fired for buying HyBM."
    • ContentNG
    • Repositorisaurus
    • FLEECE - Fedora Library E.. Electronic Community E...
    • Codecrufters
  • Objectionable Connotations/Web Presences
    • Othala - a futhark rune (ᛟ) that means 'heritage' and has connotations of both community and physical inheritances. The repository is the community where we store our inheritance, and the rune is a great simple basis for a logo. (has an ADL entry)