We use Pokemon. The reason? Nobody gets too attached to the name Jigglypuff.

There's always Finnish lakes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lakes_in_Finland Might be difficult to pronounce for some, though.

I once came up with a great name for a product I was hacking on with my roommate, so we used that name internally. By the time we'd been coding for a few weeks, though, what the product actually was had evolved and the name was no longer relevant (despite being scattered throughout the codebase, the github repo, the directory structure, etc).

Ever since then I've been a codename fan. I go for liquor names (since I work at home across from the booze shelf)- I'm currently building Frangelico.

Norse gods here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_gods

I generally use either the first thing that pops into my head (sometimes it's just obvious) or the song I'm listening to at the time, either name or a snippet of lyrics. SteelBreeze, ClubThing, Tain, Ronin, Arienette, etc. Works wonders.

I pick hostnames from this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_King_List

Characters from Bananaman. Not my choice, and I can't wait for the list to exhaust... though I like the idea of calling the devs VM test server 'zookeeper'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bananaman

Just be careful which scientists you use and in what context. Picking the wrong one could get you sued: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Apple_Computer

When I was with HP calculation division in the early 2000s, the project names came from Star Wars / Star Trek characters. Why? Because with we were working SciFi (SCIentific FInancial) calculators.

I use coffee shops or espresso company names, often local to Seattle. The list is quite limitless. Zoka, Vivace, Rococo, Velton, Olympia, Lighthouse, Ladro, and so on it goes.

To take the head-scratching out of the start of a project, and to give apps personality, we use surnames of film directors.

If I have to work on another project named after Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben, I'll quit this damn company!

You'll never run out of microbrew beers. I mean for naming. I do run out of the real thing while coding.

I used to use Japanese foods, so I've had directories named sushi, sashimi, miso, karasumi and so on.