unique-namer

A Python package and command-line utility to generate unique and memorable names (e.g., talented-toucan, naughty-watermelon) and IDs (e.g., broken-radio-7ab4g). These names/IDs are ideal for naming temporary directories, user session IDs, gamer tags, project names, process names, or submitted jobs.

The generated names cover a wide range of thematic categories, including science, animals, or history, often with a humorous twist. While creating unique-namer, I was inspired by the creative names used by Docker for its containers and Nextflow for its processes.

Features

• Over 17 million unique names
• Nearly infinite unique identifiers
• 25 categories
• Customizable names and categories

Table of contents

1. Categories
2. Requirements
3. Installation
4. Using Without Installation
5. Usage
   1. Generating Names
   2. Customizing Names
   3. Getting Category List
   4. Adding Custom Categories
6. Command-line Utility
   1. Getting Statistics
   2. Generating Names
7. Versioning
8. Tests
9. License

1. Categories

Categories allow you to customize generated names to fit the specific topic or theme of your project. The default category, general, includes widely recognized nouns and excludes more specialized or uncommon terms.

2. Requirements

• Python version 3.6 or higher
• No external dependencies are required

3. Installation

Install unique-namer from PyPI:

pip install unique-namer

Alternatively, you can install the latest version directly from GitHub:

pip install "git+https://github.com/aziele/unique-namer.git"

4. Using without installation

If you prefer to use unique-namer without installation, you can clone or download the repository:

git clone https://github.com/aziele/unique-namer.git
cd unique-namer/src/

You can import namer in Python:

python
>>> import namer
>>> namer.__doc__
'Generate unique, human-readable, and memorable names or identifiers'

You can also use unique-namer as a command-line tool:

python -m namer

5. Usage

5.1. Generating names

The generate function returns a string with a randomly generated name consisting of an adjective and a noun.

import namer

name = namer.generate()
print(name)   # Example: 'blushy-cyclist'

category - str or list, default is general

The generate function selects nouns from the general category by default. If category is provided as a list of categories, the function randomly chooses one category from the list to generate a noun. Each category is chosen with equal probability, regardless of the number of nouns it contains.

import namer

name = namer.generate(category='astronomy')
print(name)   # Example: 'crazy-supernova'                 

name = namer.generate(category=['physics', 'biology'])
print(name)   # Example: 'pink-bacteria'

To use all available categories, set the category argument to __all__.

import namer

name = namer.generate(category='__all__')
print(name)   # Example: 'lonely-momentum'

suffix_length - int, default is 0

Adds a random suffix of the specified length to the generated name to create a unique identifier. The suffix consists of alphanumeric characters (0-9a-z).

import namer

name = namer.generate(category='history', suffix_length=3)
print(name)   # Example: 'annoying-cleopatra-9a1'

separator - str, default is '-'

Specifies the separator to use between the adjective, noun, and suffix in the generated name.

import namer

name = namer.generate(category='sports', separator='_')
print(name)   # Example: 'savage_judo'

style - str, one of title, lowercase, uppercase

Specifies the text case format of the generated name.

import namer

name = namer.generate(suffix_length=5, style='uppercase')
print(name)   # Example: 'DAMAGED-ELECTRON-J20ZX'

name = namer.generate(separator=' ', style='title')
print(name)   # Example: 'Lazy Unicorn'

5.2. Customizing names

To tailor the generated names to your specific project needs, such as adding a date or project name, use the _generate function. This function returns a Python list of name components and a separator. You can modify the list and then format it into a string.

Here's an example:

import namer

# Generate name components
name_components, separator = _generate(category='food', suffix_length=3)
print(name_components)   # Example: ['macho', 'pizza', '7dx']

# Create custom generate function
def my_generate(*args, **kwargs):
    name_components, separator = namer_generate(*args, **kwargs)
    name_components.insert(0, '2024')
    return separator.join(name_components)

name = my_generate(category='food', suffix_length=3)
print(name)         # Example: 2024-macho-pizza-7dx

5.3. Getting category list

You can retrieve the list of available categories using the list_categories function.

import namer

print(namer.list_categories())
# ['animals', 'architecture', ..., 'sports', 'technology']

5.4. Adding custom categories

To generate names or IDs tailored to your project, you can add custom categories. Extend the namer.data.categories dictionary with lists of words representing your custom category.

import namer

# Create two subcategories.
my_dogs = ['charlie', 'bella', 'biga']
my_cats = ['tommy', 'lucy']

# Add a custom category named 'my_pets' containing both dogs and cats
namer.data.categories['my_pets'] = [my_dogs, my_cats]

# Generate a name from the 'my_pets' category
name = namer.generate(category='pets')
print(name)   # Example: 'thankful-tommy'

6. Command-line utility

The tool is available as a command-line utility.

namer -h

or

python -m namer -h

6.1. Getting statistics

The stats command prints a table with name/ID statitics for each category.

namer stats

Output:

Category           Nouns  Example                  Name_combs  ID_combs (4-char suffix)
__all__             8189  changing-wages           17,196,900  3e+13
animals              460  delightful-crawdad          966,000  2e+12
architecture         134  quantum-bracket             281,400  5e+11
art                  177  potent-pastel               371,700  6e+11
astronomy            124  polished-ionosphere         260,400  4e+11
biology              729  wooden-organs             1,530,900  3e+12
chemistry            255  democratic-periodicity      535,500  9e+11
countries            182  backstabbing-sweden         382,200  6e+11
computer_science     334  precious-cdrom              701,400  1e+12
economy              175  fierce-debt                 367,500  6e+11
food                 217  offline-tartar              455,700  8e+11
geography            185  odd-hurricane               388,500  7e+11
general             5469  suited-transposition     11,484,900  2e+13
history              156  evident-marcopolo           327,600  6e+11
literature           587  understood-rhetor         1,232,700  2e+12
math                 157  vengeful-resultant          329,700  6e+11
medicine             700  ruling-rehabilitation     1,470,000  2e+12
microbiology         130  glistening-alexfleming      273,000  5e+11
molecular_biology    220  painful-electroporation     462,000  8e+11
music                203  flush-bass                  426,300  7e+11
physics              147  randomized-quark            308,700  5e+11
plants               178  wakeful-daffodil            373,800  6e+11
science              876  fair-asterism             1,839,600  3e+12
scientists           101  damp-curie                  212,100  4e+11
sports               191  blaring-racer               401,100  7e+11
technology           228  renewed-drones              478,800  8e+11

6.2. Generating names

The generate command creates a list of names or IDs based on specified parameters.

Example 1: Generating 5 names

namer generate 5

Output:

telling-adrenaline
infinite-gonad
close-span
bloody-blow
puffy-biology

Example 2: Generating 10 IDs with custom parameters

To generate 10 IDs from the physics and biology categories, with a random suffix of 3 characters, using _ as a separator, and converting name style to title, use

namer generate 10 --category physics --category biology --suffix_length 3 -- \
separator _ --style title

Output:

Visiting_Haploid_Eep
Eventual_Refraction_Cnr
Snugly_Monod_Sim
Cruel_Codon_46p
Relieved_Decibel_Cn5
Underground_Bug_7wf
Super_Acre_30r
Guttural_Farad_E1w
Lead_Stalk_Fi4
Formidable_Field_621

7. Versioning

The package follows Semantic Versioning with the format MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH:

• MAJOR version: significant changes (e.g., new features, major code reorganizations).
• MINOR version: category-related updates (e.g., adding/moving categories).
• PATCH version: bug fixes or vocabulary expansions without changing the list of categories.

8. Tests

To ensure that unique-namer works as expected, you can run tests using pytest.

pytest tests

9. License

MIT License