What to consider when naming decks [closed]

Question

I'm relatively new to deck building, but I have noticed that sometimes players name their decks. What are the things to consider when I come to name decks?

Here are a few things that I consider (specifically regarding MTG):

1. It should bear some resemblance to what the deck does. Song of ice and fire would be relevant for a Red/Blue siren deck, but does not make sense for a ramping green deck.
2. Some decks make reference to a card that the deck has been built around.
3. You do not want to give too much about your deck away (disagrees with point 1 and 2). A name like Mill-ion cards in your graveyard really gives away that you will try and mill them, and may affect what they choose as an opening hand.
   • Maybe a good middle-ground is if your opponent can see why you named your deck what you did after you have played.
4. Clever names are more interesting and everyone loves a good pun, right?

Answer 1

You do not need to give your deck a name. A name for a deck is just an easy way to describe the same set of ~60 cards (accounting for the fact that you won't need a different name for a deck that only changes two cards).

A deckname is just used to communicate about that specific deck easier. If you want to name your monored Goblin-deck "Green Guys" (since goblins have green skin) and the people you talk with know what you're talking about, there's absolutely no problem.

Note about point 3 that there's no way for your opponent to know the name of the deck you play before you start playing, unless you tell him.

Answer 2

I rather think that people name their deck to express what's inside, to easily tell the other what you are going to play. Typically (at least with the people I play) we use the color code (see this question) added with the typical category of the deck (aggro, control, mid-range, combo... you can find an exhaustive list on various websites). This is the easiest way to explain what you have, for example if you say "I'll use my Selesnya aggro", people will pretty much what kind of cards are inside (in that case, white/green full of creatures and tokens, likely with low cmc to kill quickly).

On competitive (and less competitive) games, the format is also added to the name (t2, modern, legacy, EDH, poper...) for people to know which range of editions you are using. Some classical decks are quite different depending on this (t2 Jund or modern Jund for example) because some particularly efficient and famous cards are available or not.

If the deck use a particularly famous combo or game-mechanic it can lead to a very specific name (Melira-pod, Dredge...).

Finally, the Elder Dragon decks which are a special kind of decks (100 cards, a commander and other specific rules) are most of time named after their commander.

This way of naming decks is also useful to get advices for deckbuilding, when discussing with other players, if you tell them such a 'regular' kind of name, they will know quickly what kind of gameplay is in your mind and will be able to give you more accurate advices on how to improve

EDIT: As Brian S pointed out:

There are many famously named decks that don't really have much to do with the cards in the list.

But I recommend to only use non-classical names when your deck is more or less built like these famous decks, for the sake of clarity.