What is in a name

Well, it looks like I will be adding to my laptop collection sooner rather than later. After some checking it appears that Natalie has suffered a rather fatal hardware error. It is fixable, I think, but the time and effort that it would take to completely diagnose, acquire parts and repair could probably be better spent just by getting a new machine and saving myself the hassle. Plus, it would benefit the economy so I could consider myself to be an upstanding American in the process.

However, Natalie's early demise makes me wonder why I didn't name her Lindsay like I had originally thought. She acted much more like a Lindsay: showy, unstable, prone to viruses and leaving the stage much earlier than one would have anticipated.

The most important part of obtaining a new computer is, of course, the naming of it and for that I should give a little background.

My first computer (or at least non-Commodore 64 computer) was a Packard Bell and possibly the only computer that was promoted as having been built out of cheap, second hand parts. I believe a hamster was involved in its operation at one point. What I remember most about it was the fact that when you started it a chipper female voice would say "Welcome to Packard Bell's Navigator". My original plan was to call my first PC Hal (as I am a good Illini) but the female voice required a change of strategy. Hence my first computer (and several after that) were named Helena, partly after Hal and partly after Helena Bonham Carter. This lasted through my first business school laptop (the Helena Mark IV) whose useful existence was cut short by a misplaced bottle of Sprite.

When I picked up the replacement laptop I decided it was time for a change and hence named the new machine Julie (after the lovely and talented Julie Delpy). Given that I am typing this on Julie as we speak I have to say that this has been the best, and certainly longest lasting, machine that I have ever owned. And at nearly eight years Julie outlasts every relationship I have ever had by several miles. Think about it, night after night I sat down at this machine and wrote and surfed the internet and thought. When I bought Natalie to replace her I was actually saddened by the thought that I would no longer be using her.

The obvious question here is why do I name inanimate objects and why do I name them after somewhat famous women (Natalie is short for Natalie Portman.) The naming is pretty straightforward in my mind. When you spend as much time on a computer as I do you begin to develop a rather personal relationship with the machine and it helps if you can speak with it on a first name basis. As for the famous women, while some might argue that it has to do with the screen backdrop I just always view my computers as being female: mysterious, powerful and prone to doing whatever they want to do without my input whatsoever.

So I am putting out a request for ideas on what to name the new laptop. The current leader is Beth in honor of Beth Orton. Any and all suggestions are welcome in the comments. Plus if anyone has any recommendations on what type of machine I should get I would love to hear those as well. Otherwise it will be a trip to Best Buy and a random look about the store and then blindly choosing one. It has worked in the past.