ivynamed

Ivynamed is a fictional nomenclature and data-asset naming standard used in discussions of digital taxonomy. It defines a method for creating human-readable identifiers paired with a persistent, machine-unique component to name digital objects such as documents, images, datasets, and software packages.

The standard specifies a two-part identifier: a human-friendly token sequence for readability, and a persistent namespace-unique suffix that ensures global distinctness. The token portion uses hyphen-delimited lexemes drawn from a controlled vocabulary; the suffix is a cryptographic hash or monotonically increasing number managed by the namespace administrator.

Governance and ecosystem: A central governance body maintains the namespace registry and token inventory; implementers can register new namespaces; metadata linkage via a standard schema; resolution mechanisms to locate the object across systems.

History and usage: Conceived in the early 2020s by researchers exploring readable identifiers; adopted in some educational and cultural institutions as an exercise; not widely standardized; varied tooling.

Reception and critique: Proponents highlight readability and interoperability; critics note complexity and potential for token drift; competition with established naming schemes like DOIs and UUIDs; no universal adoption.