Architecture for generating meaningful names for a flattened data structure. The architecture comprises a system that observes user activity associated with a hierarchical data structure, and then generates meaningful names derived from file and folder names or other character string data that are easier to navigate and understand by the user. The system includes a valuation component that facilitates applying the valuation metrics to each node of the data structure. A selection component selects the one or more nodes for the naming process. A naming component receives and processes the selected node information from the selection component and generates the name(s) for the one or more nodes for the given user. An output of the naming component is the flattened representation in the form of a meaningful name(s) for the data structure.