What’s in a wireless network name?

What’s the name of your wireless network? Okay, you don’t have to tell me…but I was nosey enough to ask a few of my friends. I was really curious about what names people choose and why—after all, with wireless network names the sky is the limit. The things that matter with children’s names like tradition and convention (and how easy it is to scream out the back door) don’t matter for network names.

So how creative were my friends? Pretty creative! And, what I found interesting was that names fell into four general categories: a name meaningful only to them, boring/meaningless names, geek references, and then funny and/or cute names.

Personal names
StarklersI have a friend with a network with a name made up by her twin daughters. Their network is named “Starklers”—the name the girls gave a tacky Three Caballeros statue on a Disney trip. Another friend of mine named her network “Quilt” after her favorite hobby, and another has a wireless network named after two cats he once owned.

Boring/meaningless names
My husband and I win here. After previously having networks named with geek references (“Tardis,” for example, after Dr. Who or “Totoro” after that classic anime film), our current network is named “Blue.” Why? Because the new router has flashing blue lights (what can I say? We can’t always be brilliant every moment of every day 🙂 ).

Geek references
My neighbor’s network is named “Grey 17.” He’s a big Babylon 5 fan and said it’s an inside joke for “in-the-know fans.” Another friend almost named hers Porthos, after Captain Archer’s beagle on Star Trek Enterprise, before settling on a personal name.

Funny or cute
One of our friends had a network named “Friendly Neighbor” when he left it wide open (but you shouldn’t do this, as our tech blogger Josh told you a few weeks ago). Now his network is called “Good Fences” because they make great neighbors (cute, right?).

A quick Google search yields a lot of hysterical names for networks. My personal favorite has to be “FBI Surveillance Van.” I can just imagine the momentary pause as my neighbors stop and think about that one. Here are a few more that I thought were funny:

    • Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem

    • Caitlin stop using our Internet (which of course reminds me of, “Pennyalreadyeatsourfoodshecanpayforwifi”)

    • No free wifi for you (of course, inspired by Seinfeld)

    • Too fly for wifi

    • All your wifi are belong to us (after the Zero Wing video game meme)

    • You’re music is annoying

Which makes the next so much sweeter:

    • Your grammar is more annoying

If you’re now feeling inspired to make your wireless name something different, here are some instructions that might help guide you.

What do think? Does your wireless network name fall into one of these categories, or is there category of wireless network names my brief survey didn’t uncover? (Note: if you do decide to share your funny/cute/creative WiFi name, please make sure it’s safe for viewing at work, please.)

Thanks to Kaya for the blog idea!

Missy works on the Corporate Communications team and reports stories to TDS employees and customers. This is right up her alley because she’s an extrovert and also a big fan of research (really, she’ll look up just about anything that strikes her interest). Missy is a native of Madison, Wis. with an undergraduate in Anthropology and a master’s degree in Life Sciences Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her interest in the Internet as a mass media shaped her work towards a PhD in Journalism and Mass Communications. She’s also worked as an editorial assistant, copywriter, and production artist. In her off hours, Missy is a crafter, Pinterest addict, reader, wife, and mom of two kids.

7 Comments

  1. Alex
    on August 5, 2013 at 2:38 pm •Reply

    Great article! I’m inspired to change mine now, from the boring name that came with the router to something much more fun!

  3. fiascorally
    on October 9, 2013 at 4:33 pm •Reply

    Snowden’s backdoor, NSA Listening Post, and FBI Surveillance Van are good choices.

  4. Linda
    on December 1, 2013 at 6:34 am •Reply

    I am having a little trouble understanding the WIFI experience. I am a beginner to the program I will try to watch the tutorial maybe I can get it then.

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