name-on 1.0.0

Name-On

Name-On generates a new Adjective-Noun-Number combo with each request. Useful for unique, human-readable names for projects, containers, or anything else.

Try it live: name-on.clintcparker.com

The Name-On web app generating a new adjective-noun-number combo on each click

Installation

CLI

Install the name-on command-line tool using any of these methods:

# Homebrew
brew install clintcparker/tap/name-on

# .NET Tool
dotnet tool install -g name-on

# Shell script (Linux/macOS)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/clintcparker/name-on/main/install/install.sh | sh

# PowerShell (Windows)
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/clintcparker/name-on/main/install/install.ps1 | iex

Web App

No installation needed. Visit name-on.clintcparker.com to use the Blazor WebAssembly app directly in your browser.

CLI Usage

name-on [options]

A terminal session running name-on with no arguments, with -n 5, and with custom formats

Option	Description	Default
`-n, --count <N>`	Generate N names	1
`-s, --separator <SEP>`	Separator between parts	`-`
`-f, --format <FORMAT>`	Name format using: `adj`, `noun`, `num`	`adj-noun-num`
`-v, --version`	Show version
`-h, --help`	Show help

Examples

name-on                         # clever-otter-123
name-on -n 5                    # Generate 5 names
name-on -s _                    # clever_otter_123
name-on -f adj-noun             # clever-otter
name-on -f noun-adj-num         # otter-clever-123

Shell Completions

name-on completions bash >> ~/.bashrc
name-on completions zsh >> ~/.zshrc
name-on completions fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/name-on.fish
name-on completions powershell >> $PROFILE

Customization Options

The web app exposes the full set of options under Show Options. Your choices are saved to localStorage, so they persist across reloads.

Format templates: Adjective-Noun-Number (default), Adjective-Noun, Noun-Adjective-Number, Adjective-Adjective-Noun, Noun-Number
Joining styles: dash (word-word), underscore (word_word), none (wordword), camelCase, PascalCase
Number range: 0-9, 0-99, 0-999 (default), or 0-9999, with optional zero-padding
Word length filter: minimum and maximum word length, with a warning when the filter leaves too few words to choose from

The web app customization panel, showing name format, joining style, number range, and word length controls

The CLI covers a focused subset of these: --format for the template and --separator for the joining character. See CLI Usage above.

Architecture

Name-On is a Blazor WebAssembly (WASM) app that runs entirely in the browser, plus a cross-platform CLI tool. Both use a shared C# core library for name generation. There are no server-side APIs required.

Solution Structure

name-on-core: Shared C# library with the core name generation logic
name-on-blazor: Blazor WASM frontend, directly references and uses name-on-core
name-on-cli: Cross-platform command-line tool
name-on-unit-tests: Unit tests for the core library
name-on-cli-tests: Tests for the CLI

Development

Prerequisites

.NET 10.0 SDK (pinned in global.json)

Build

dotnet build name-on.sln

Test

dotnet test name-on.sln

Run the Web App Locally

dotnet run --project name-on-blazor

Roadmap

Migrate to Blazor WebAssembly (WASM) only
Remove Azure Functions and legacy static frontend
Modernize deployment for static hosting
Add customization options for name format
Add CLI tool with cross-platform installation
Theme packs / custom word lists
Bulk generation and export
History and favorites

License

MIT