Voyaging dwarves riding phantom eagles

It's been said before... the only two difficult things in computing are naming things and cache invalidation... or naming things and something else, but always naming things.

When I started in IT we used to name servers after Star Trek ships, the Enterprise, Excelsior, Voyager etc. This I could cope with because I was naïve and a bit of a trekkie (or should that be a trekker?) so this seemed amusing enough.

Then we started naming software packages after authors (Kafka), languages after snakes (Python) and chemical reactions (Rust), and the origin of some Javascript libraries is a complete mystery (JHipster anyone?).

Then there are scrum team names based on Lord or the Rings characters (Hobbits, Elves etc.) which, erm, ok, and Marvel universe characters, Iron Man, Batman, whatever-man... (sorry guys, but the Marvel universe is boring).

And if you have project code names based on birds of prey then please don't be surprised if I can't tell the difference between a goshawk and a sparrowhawk.

I have very little connection with these names and they often bear no resemblance to what these things do, or if there is then any connection is so obscure as to be missed by the vast majority (sometimes being clever is stupid). 

Occasionally this is a good thing - obscurity and ambiguity are sometimes beneficial - but often such names serve only to confuse, restrict the flow of information and require mental vlookups to cross-reference code names to something more readily understood. We may as well invent our own language.

So "voyaging dwarves riding phantom eagles" would be work done by the accounting team on the development database to onboard a new client (or a scene from the Hobbit). Which do you think is clearer?

Beat me over the head with Rick and Morty memes long enough and perhaps I'll get it, but I'd rather spend my time riding my bike than watching cartoons (personal choices folks).

Names matter - and they are hard - so if you want to communicate clearly then use clear, simple and unambiguous names. Fair to say, I don't work in marketing...