# Naming Things Is Hard

DevFeed: [Naming Things Is Hard](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/naming-things-is-hard-30002.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://engineering.freeagent.com/2026/02/02/naming-things-is-hard/>)

Author: Simon Fish

Published: 2026-02-02T09:37:06Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [FreeAgent](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/freeagent.md>)

Topics: [Code](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/code.md>), [Rails](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/rails.md>), [Architecture & Design](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/architecture-design.md>), [Requirements](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/requirements.md>)

Tags: [architecture](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/architecture.md>), [code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code.md>), [debugging](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/debugging.md>), [development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/development.md>), [general](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/general.md>), [rails](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rails.md>), [requirements](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/requirements.md>), [ruby](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ruby.md>), [ruby-on-rails](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ruby-on-rails.md>), [software](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software.md>), [software-engineer](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software-engineer.md>), [software-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software-engineering.md>)

## AI overview

The article examines why naming objects and methods in code is difficult, especially when domain models such as Rails Active Record models have broad responsibilities. It argues that precise names should reflect purpose and that clarifying requirements can reveal when complex concepts should be broken into smaller parts.

## Source excerpt

Choosing good names for objects and methods in code is one of the toughest things to do as a software engineer. It comes with the great and invisible reward of simplicity - second only to having less code in the first place, having code that's easy to reason with makes extending it and debugging it in [...]