I absolutely
do not rename file names. I will quite often add a name to a photo once it is posted.
Sometimes it is obscure allusions, typically in the format of "Paging <name>" (
examples here).
Sometimes I use Bible verses:
I Corinthians 11:15;
The Gospel According to St. Mark 8:36;
The Gospel According to St. Matthew 7:7;
1 Timothy 5:22;
Hebrews 13:16
For my ship photos I keep it simple and informative....Name Of Ship (City)
Sometimes I have a series, such as policewomen directing traffic:
She Whistles at Men, each with a roman numeral suffix. I use the same sort of format for nature shots or stuff done at temples or cemeteries....name of place plus roman numerals.
Sometimes I take a photo for the sole reason that I saw something and thought of a title that I hate to waste:
Signs a Woman Puts Out.
For stuff that I have posted to my one-a-day Aminus3 account, a name is pretty much called for. For stuff that just goes to Flickr, it gets named when I get around to it, and sometimes not at all.
On Flickr, the far more important thing is to be sure to include some descriptive text in the box beneath the photo and to include tags. Adding to relevant groups is also helpful. Thanks to diligent attention to tagging photos (thereby giving the search engine something to work with) last week my Flickr account stats rolled past 1,000,000 views.
As far as keeping some detail/info on photos, I add keywords in Lightroom (which also takes care of English tagging for Flickr, Japanese tags I have to add manually once uploaded).