Robot names have been around for a while; when I look back at a lot of the heaviest CD posting years (2003-2005) I see plenty of robot names; I don't know how much farther back they go, but I'd guess that far more than half of the robots that have competed have had names, even if only known within the team that built it. When you put six plus weeks of creative work into something, it's human nature to name it.
Favorite names and favorite robots seem to go together. As I started a mental list of favorites, I hit a dozen before typing any. I knew I would leave too many out, so I'll pass. In most cases, one word names are best, and most of the memorable multi-word names are puns or (usually geekish) references.
We're only in our fifth year, but we've named all but one of our competition robots and all three of our prototype/practice robots.
2012 Rebound Rumble: T1G3R (All our later competition robots are
officially T1G3R
year-2011.)
2013 Ultimate Ascent: T1G3R
2 (not properly a name by Dr. Joe's description; internally, we simply call it the frisbee launcher because all of the students that had anything to do with it but one have graduated.)
2014 Aerial Assist: Buzz (our prototype/practice robot was Woody, named after the primary material in its chassis, and Buzz was a natural for the Aluminum follow-on)
2015 Recycle Rush: Atlas (Practice was Peabody; forced names, but names nonetheless.)
2016 FIRST Stronghold: T1GGR [tee one double guh er] (It's bottom is made out of rubber, and its top is made out of springs*, it's bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. The practice robot was named R00 [are double naught] after Tigger's "little brother".)
As you may have guessed from my commentary, my favorite names for our robots are T1GGR and Buzz, probably because they came about most naturally. Still, they're enough to give me a Disney spell.
* Yes, we know we swapped these around.