Account names

Account names can be whatever you like. They can be capitalised or uncapitalised:

assets:cash
Assets:Cash

They can be in any language:

actifs:espèces
activos:caja
资产:现金
資産:現金
자산:현금

They can contain spaces (this is the reason that two or more spaces are sometimes required to end account names, in journal entries):

liabilities:credit card
Assets:Bank of the West

Spaces are good for readability, but can make command lines and scripting a little harder. You can also use punctuation, or run words together:

Assets:Bank-of-the-West
Assets:Bank_of_the_West
Assets:BankOfTheWest
assets:bankofthewest

The best account names are easy to remember, easy to spell, and easy to type.

It can be helpful if the last part of account names is unique. Eg say you have business and personal checking accounts:

assets:wells fargo:checking
assets:credit union:checking

you could instead name them something like:

assets:wells fargo:bchecking
assets:credit union:pchecking

making it easier to match the account you want (hledger register pchecking).

Account hierarchy

Colons in account names indicate subaccounts, subsubaccounts and so on, to any depth. The account name assets:bank:checking actually represents a hierarchy of three accounts:

assets                  ; top-level account    (depth 1)
assets:bank             ; second-level account (depth 2)
assets:bank:checking    ; third-level account  (depth 3)

Reports usually show accounts as a flat list, as above, for simplicity. But they can also show accounts in hierarchical "tree mode":

assets
  bank
    checking

Hierarchy is optional. You could use simple account names with no subaccounts:

cash
checking
credit card
starting balances
gifts received
salary
food
health
recreation
rent

But it's common to use at least two levels of accounts, to keep them organised. Eg:

assets:bank
assets:cash
liabilities:credit card
equity:start
income:gifts
income:salary
expenses:food
expenses:health
expenses:recreation
expenses:rent
expenses:utilities

or, displayed in tree mode:

assets
  bank
  cash
equity
  start
expenses
  food
  health
  recreation
  rent
  utilities
income
  gifts
  salary
liabilities
  credit card

The set of account names that you use is called the Chart of Accounts. Your chart of accounts will depend on your accounting and reporting needs. Start with a simple one, and expect it to grow and evolve as your needs change.

(Part of hledger by example.)