Naming Things Is Still the Hardest Problem

A name is a contract with every future reader of the code.

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A name is the smallest unit of design in a codebase. Every identifier you commit is a tiny API — a promise to every future reader, including future-you at 2am, that this thing does what it says on the tin. Get the name wrong and the cost compounds: misreads, defensive comments, wrapper functions invented to translate one bad name into a better one.

The hard part is that good names require you to already understand the system. You can only name a concept once you can see its edges. That is why early code is full of helper, utils, manager — placeholder names for concepts the author has not yet fully resolved. The fix is not better vocabulary. The fix is staying willing to rename when the concept finally sharpens.

Treat renaming as a first-class refactor. Reserve it the same respect you give to extracting a function or splitting a module. Naming is the interface the team thinks through. Keep it honest.