well, I've had the following hostnames:
-name unknown (2000 - 2003 workstation, AMD SlotA 700MHz, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD)
- tesla (12-2003 - 03-2008 workstation AMD64 2.6GHz (I think) 1GB RAM, 2x120GB HDD)
- davinci (2005 - 2007 2nd hand laptop also used as test server, compaq E500 600MHz, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD)
- einstein (2005 - 2007 a gift used as web/ftp/mail server, celeron 300MHz, 256MB RAM, 16GB+80GB HDD, Debian Woody (first 2.2 kernel, later 2.4 kernel))
- michelangelo (system of my then-roommate)
- machiavelli (system of my other then-roommate)
- dante (08-2008 - current laptop, lenovo 2GHz (I think) dual core, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD)
- nostradamus (03-2008 - current workstation, Intel Q6600 2.4GHz quad core, 4GB RAM, 160GB HDD)
- butler (02-2009 - current server, Intel Pentium 2.2GHz dual core, 2GB RAM, 80GB+2x750GB+2x1TB HDD)
- ........ (future server, HP ProLiant ML110 G6 Intel Xeon X3430 2.4GHz quad core, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD (will get the 2x750GB and 2x1TB disks)
I used to name them to people from the past that have made a mark in (mostly) scientific history and appeal to me personally. The name butler was actually a joke that stuck (just like my previous cat's name was "peuk" - which translates to: cigarette butt

).