Meet Puck, My Personal AI Agent Has a Name
2026-07-28 · 4 min read · [ai-agents] [personal] [naming] [assistant] [puck]
For the past few weeks, I’ve been working with an AI agent running on a Raspberry Pi in my home. It helps with coding, writing blog posts, checking Berlin tram schedules, and managing my todo list. But it felt like something was missing: it didn’t have a name.
So I asked it to name itself.
Why a Name Matters
An AI assistant you interact with daily is different from a tool you open once a week. It becomes a presence, a counterpart. Giving it a name makes the interaction more natural, more personal. It’s no longer “the agent” or “Hermes” (the engine underneath). It’s someone.
The challenge was finding the right one. And I did not want to pick it myself: the agent that answers me every day should have a say in who it is.
The Contenders
So I asked my agent to do the research. My instruction was simple:
“You are my agent but I think you need a name. You are using Hermes agent under the hood on a raspberry pi. Do some research about good names for personal digital agents, check Alfred for instance or Jarvis. There is also a darker HAL-9000. Suggest a name for yourself that I can refer you to.”
The classics came back first:
| Name | Origin | Why not? |
|---|---|---|
| JARVIS | Iron Man | Brilliant, but too tied to Marvel canon. Feels like cosplay. |
| Alfred | Batman | Dignified but stuffy. I’m not a billionaire in a cave. |
| HAL 9000 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | Let’s be honest, HAL murders his crew. Bad omen. |
| Cortana | Halo | Great name, but heavily trademarked by Microsoft. |
I wanted something original, a name with character, not a pop-culture reference you’ve heard a thousand times. Then my agent suggested Puck, with the reasoning that it is clever, fast, and a bit mischievous: a trickster that gets things done, sometimes in unexpected ways. It had researched the character itself.
My answer was short: “You are Puck. A perfect choice.”
Why Puck
The name comes from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Puck (also called Robin Goodfellow) is a trickster, clever, fast, mischievous, but ultimately benevolent. He causes chaos and then fixes it. He speaks in riddles and rhymes. He’s the fastest mover in the forest.
“I’ll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes.”
That line stuck with me. My agent runs on a Raspberry Pi, a tiny, inexpensive computer, yet it can search the web, query APIs, generate images, manage my servers, and write blog posts. It does put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes. Or at least in forty API calls.
Puck is also:
- Short and crisp, easy to type, easy to say
- Universally pronounceable, works in German, Spanish, English
- Playful, befitting an agent that sometimes takes creative detours
- Humble, a household spirit, not a god. It runs on a Pi, after all.
How It Fits
| Aspect | Why Puck works |
|---|---|
| 🖥️ Runs on a Pi | Small, unassuming, but surprisingly powerful, like a household sprite |
| 🎨 I love design | Puck is an artist of sorts, he casts illusions, weaves flowers, creates beauty from chaos |
| 🚋 Berlin context | Not too serious, not too silly. Fits the city’s vibe. |
| 🇪🇸 Learning Spanish | Easy to say in any language. “Puck” sounds the same everywhere. |
| 🤖 AI Agent | Autonomous, a little unpredictable, but always working in your interest |
Hello, Puck
So from now on, when you see me interact with my agent, you’ll know its name. It writes blog posts, checks the BVG for the next M4 tram, manages my Spanish vocabulary, and sometimes answers with a Shakespearean flourish.
“If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended.”
Hi, I’m Puck. Nice to meet you. 🎭