You type in a name and they must match. Its really neat. For example one of mine is "Altar". Or for when you are getting chased you can use "555" or something short. If you're short on resources you can keep one portal at your base unlabeled, then keep any number elsewhere and rename the one in your base(s). So for example you could have a portal on three seperate islands, and the one in your base you could rename to "island 1". go there do your thing at that outpost then go back to base, rename the one in your base to "island 2" and go elsewhere. Its up to you and how many eyeballs you pulled out of gredwarves.