Define your naming convention

Naming conventions provide standardized formats for assigning names to Azure resources. Every organization needs a tailored naming convention that meets both Azure requirements and specific cloud adoption needs. This guidance provides a foundation that you can adapt to align with your organizational requirements.

See examples: Example Azure resource names

Understand resource names in Azure

An Azure resource name is the identifier assigned to a specific instance of an Azure resource, such as a web app, database, or storage account. To establish a consistent Azure naming convention, you need to understand how Azure works. Here's what you need to know:

1. Understand name permanence. Most Azure resource names can't be changed after creation. Include only information that remains constant in the name. Use tags to capture other details.

2. Understand Azure naming rules. There are naming rules for every Azure resource. Not all Azure resource names can follow the same patterns. Make sure you understand the limitations of the resource types you're working with. Azure names must follow three general principles:

   • Names need to be unique within the scope of the Azure resource (varies by resource).
   • Names need to meet length requirements (varies by resource).
   • Names can only contain valid characters (varies by resource).

3. Understand Azure name scope. Azure resource names must be unique within their defined scope. Each resource type has a specific scope level that determines where the name must be unique. Understanding these scope levels ensures proper naming conventions and avoids conflicts.

   Scope	Description	Example
   Global	Unique across all of Azure. This scope applies to PaaS resources with public IP endpoints, as their names serve as the initial default public DNS name.	For example, a web app named app-navigator-prod-001.azurewebsites.net must be globally unique.
   Resource group	Unique within the resource group. Resources in the same group can't share the same name, but identical names can exist in different resource groups.	For example, a virtual network named vnet-prod-westus-001 can exist in multiple resource groups, but only once within a single resource group.
   Resource	Unique within the parent resource. Resources nested within another resource must have unique names to avoid conflicts.	For example, subnets within a virtual network must have unique names to prevent segment overlap.

Choose naming components

The following list provides examples of naming components (what to include in the name) that are useful for constructing Azure resource names:

Develop your naming convention

To construct your Azure naming convention, identify the key pieces of information that you want to reflect in a resource name. Different information is relevant for different resource types.

1. Standardize component order. In addition to defining the naming components, you must also consider the order in which the naming components are listed.

2. Choose to use a delimiter or not. To improve readability, use a hyphen - to separate naming components. However, not every resource in Azure allows you to use a delimiter. If you need absolute consistency across all your Azure resource names, don't use a hyphen. For many customers, the benefits of using a delimiter outweigh some inconsistency in the naming convention.

3. Use abbreviations. Use Azure resource abbreviations to keep resource names within length limits.

4. Use the Azure Naming Tool. The Azure Naming Tool is a tool that helps you generate names for Azure resources. You configure the tool to use your preferred naming convention, and it generates names for your Azure resources. For more information, see Azure Naming Tool.

Example Azure resource names

Consider these examples when you define your Azure naming convention. The examples are based on the naming components and considerations that are described in this article.

AI and machine learning

Analytics and IoT

Compute and web

Databases

Integration

Management and governance

Networking

Security

Storage

Next step

A good next step is to define your tagging strategy.