An Apple by any other name
Macintosh has been associated with Apple since the launch of its original all-in-one computer in 1984, reportedly named after the pocket-sized McIntosh apple cultivar. So when it comes to providing names for the external devices I plug into my Mac (backup drives, iPods and my iPhone for example) it seemed like a good idea to follow this convention:
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Macintosh: Internal hard drives on new Macs are labelled ‘Macintosh HD’ by default, yet I always found the HD suffix unnecessary, so I remove it.
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Cameo: My back-up drive is named after the Cameo cultivar. I choose this name as it also refers to actors making short appearances as themselves in film and television, and this seemed to fit somehow.
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Elstar: My iPod Nano is named after a Dutch cultivar, a cross between Golden Delicious and Ingrid Marie apples. I just liked the name in this particular case!
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Fireside: The iPod I owned prior to Elstar was named ‘Fireside’, a name chosen as it evoked the idea of listening to music by a fire.
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Braeburn: My iPhone is the newest device to be connected to my Mac. The description of the Braeburn cultivar on Wikipedia seemed to fit well here: “becoming increasingly popular in the UK”.
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Discovery: Needing a name for my Mac for when it appears on different networks, I choose Discovery as it shares a name with HMS Discovery, and the idea of my Mac docking with different networks around the world.
If you’re facing a similar problem finding naming conventions for use on a Mac, why not go with this list of apple cultivars. After all, there are plenty to choose from!