Over the years I have gathered a huge number of images for my genealogy research... pictures I have taken, and downloaded images of source material. I have often not changed the names of the files as they were transferred from my camera or from the download site. This resulted in files that could not be identified unless they were opened.
By renaming files with a standardized format, it is not only easier to determine what they represent, but also what information you may be lacking.
The recommended format is:
SURNAME, Given Name - Subject Date.suffix
For example, SMITH, John J - Fed Census 1920.jpg
By using this format, you will know the content of each file, as well as be able to sort your files by name and see whether there is a missing date in a series. Furthermore, this naming convention lends itself to be an image caption, such as would be assigned in genealogy software such as RootsMagic. (In a future post, I will discuss how you can easily add multiple images to RootsMagic and bulk assign the filename as the caption).