Heimdall borrows its names from Norse mythology. They look intimidating and read worse out loud, so here's how to say them. Each entry gives the IPA, a plain English respelling (stressed syllable in CAPS), the myth, and what it maps to in Heimdall.
Heimdall · /ˈheɪm.dɔːl/ · HAYM-dawl
The ever-watchful god who guards the Bifröst and can see across all realms and hear grass grow. The project itself — the watchman over your fleet.
Bifröst · /ˈbɪf.rɒst/ · BIF-rost (Old Norse closer to BEEV-rurst)
The burning rainbow bridge between Midgard and Asgard. In Heimdall: federation — hubs relaying to parent hubs across sites and networks. The
↑ edge relaybadge is the Bifröst.
Ratatoskr · /ˌrɑː.təˈtɒs.kər/ · rah-tuh-TOSK-er
The squirrel that races up and down Yggdrasil carrying messages between the eagle at the top and the serpent at the roots. In Heimdall: zeroconf service discovery — daemons announcing themselves and finding their hub across whatever networks are available.
Yggdrasil · /ˈɪɡ.drə.sɪl/ · IG-druh-sil
The immense world tree whose branches and roots bind the nine realms together. In Heimdall: the federation topology — the tree of hubs and the hosts under them — and grouping the fleet along it.
Realms · /rɛlmz/ · relmz
The nine worlds Heimdall watches over (Midgard, Asgard, and the rest). In Heimdall: the hosts and sites being monitored — "Watch Over All Realms."
Mímir · /ˈmiː.mɪr/ · MEE-meer
The wise being who guards the well of memory and knowledge beneath Yggdrasil; Odin traded an eye for a drink from it. In Heimdall: metrics history and the OpenMetrics/Prometheus export — the well the fleet's remembered readings are drawn from.
Gjallarhorn · /ˈɡjɑː.lar.hɔːrn/ · GYAH-lar-horn (the "Gj" is a gy glide)
The horn Heimdall sounds to warn the gods that danger — Ragnarök — is coming. In Heimdall: alerting — threshold rules that raise the alarm and fire notifications when something is wrong.
Hliðskjálf · /ˈhlɪðˌskjaːlv/ · HLITH-skyahlv
Odin's high seat in Asgard, from which he looks out over all the realms and sees everything that happens. In Heimdall: the full-screen single-host "top" view (the
tkey) — sit over one host and see all of it at once: CPU, memory, power, accelerators, net, disk.