If you find naming things difficult just append the type to the variable name, like strName, strCityName, nrAge, arrUserList, and try to make the types redundant. Then stop using the type annotations when you feel they are unnecessary: strName:string -> strName -> name This of course only works in high level dynamic languages where you wont have 25 ways to represent a number, or 32 ways to make a string (different encodings). In a typed systems level language the compiler should be able to optimize and figure out the best type to use though.