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[Murphy]

I sometimes find it difficult to make a good custom profession name. So far I have used "Forager" (hunter + fisherdwarf + plant gatherer), "Chef" (cook + fish cleaner + butcher), "Brewmaster" (just flavor for most skilled brewer), "Fortress Founder" (self-explanatory, assigned once I get my first immigration wave), and several others. So, do you use custom profession names? If so, what are they?

[Kel the Oblivious]

For the longest time I would name my various champions. Obsidian Lord was the one who used my finest obsidian shortsword, Earth Mother was the one who had a child on the job and wielded a steel warhammer, Magma Lord was the one who killed a rampaging magma man who slipped by my traps, Iron Master, was decked out in masterwork iron gear. Then I named all my crossbow masters various things, Snow, Ice, Rain, Ash, lord or lady

All my founders get the titled "The First" as well. The First Leader, Mason, Miner, etc etc.

I even named one of my useless peasants "Serving Wench"

[Jurph]

I use these fairly frequently.  With Dwarf Manager, keeping my dwarves in guilds makes life very very easy.

The Earth-Striker and his Diggers: My embarking miner, and any dwarf whose primary skill is mining.
The Mountainsmith and his Stonemasons: Embarking mason and his masonry & detailing staff
The Brewmaster and his Brewery Staff: Expert brewing (no hauling labors) and brewing with food and barrel-hauling enabled
The Head Chef, Sous-Chefs, and their Kitchen Staff: Expert cooking (no hauling labors) for the head chef, cooking and plant processing for the sous-chefs, and food-hauling and zero-skill kitchen tasks for the rest.
Farmhand: Planting, plant gathering, butchery, tanning, animal care, and other jobs you'd find on a farm.
Craftsdwarf: As a group, any of the blue skills.  I customize these and use nicknames to sort out which ones are making progress in their chosen craft skill.  Any blueskiller who goes legendary becomes Master {STUFF}crafter and has all other labors disabled, especially health care, burial, and item hauling, to prevent him deciding to venture outside during a siege to reclaim a body.
Reservist: Dwarves bound for military service (soapers, woodcrafters, peasants w/ no family, etc.).  Usually I set these guys up for pump operating, masonry (at block-only shops), detailing, and other fast-to-level skills.
Treebane: Anyone who chops trees or turns them into barrels or bins.
Hauler: has only hauling labors enabled.
Medic: has only health care and burial enabled.
Child: usually an immigrant; children can do hauling and stone detailing, so I turn all of these labors on using Dwarf Manager.  It's a great source of additional labor and a nice long-term source for military dwarves since they become legendary before they become adults.

[Porpoisepower]

I mostly use custom profession names to help identify unskilled/crosstraining labor force into the jobs I've set up for them.

[qwertilliopasd]

I generally use the standard names, with all caps names going to dwarfs that are training towards a new profession / all those lousy legendary wood carvers I get from not micromanaging around moods.

[tefalo]

I recently started using custom profession names, it's pretty useful for distinguishing old dudes from the migration waves.
I usually use names like blacksmih, farmer, wood dude, manager dude, loser(the emo dwarfs that die after a while), useless(stone detailers) and such.

[Zaranthan]

I use a rather simple trick: add a period to the front of their autorank. I use a graphics package, so the period character has a bunch of lit pixels all over, making it distinctive in the unit list AND allowing me to group dwarfs quickly in Dwarf Manager. Legendaries get special tags.

[Retales]

In my experiments to have one dwarf do both masonry and carpentry, I named them either "Marpenters" or "Carsons". Oh, I'm so clever 

[praguepride]

We need moar Marpenters!

[LegacyCWAL]

The original 7 get "Original" added to the front of whatever profession title they wind up with.

All the full-time haulers get the profession "Hauler".  While they're almost all peasants, I usually have at least a couple non-peasants who are too worthless to use for anything else.

Since farmers and craftsdwarves covers a zillion different occupations, I usually wind up retitling them with an abbreviated list of what they do.  Stuff like "Mill/Thresh" for dwarves who (surprise surprise) have Milling and Plant Processing enabled.  For sets of skills that go together well (such as Wood Burning + Furnace Operating), I give them a similarly descriptive title that isn't full of abbreviations.  Examples are Chef (cooking + brewing) and Leather (butchery + tanning + leatherworking)

Dwarves who are being cross-trained (usually to replace a lost dwarf or expand a certain part of the workforce) get their new profession as a title until they change colors.

Since smithing is so damned expensive to train up, I usually pick one of each type and add "Main" before their profession.  I want my good metalsmith making those platinum statues, dammit, not the no-tag scrub!

[Greenbane]

I pretty much use titles ending in -master for the chief dwarves in any given sector. Not very original, but longer titles would run off screen and that doesn't look well.

Brewmaster (Brewer)
Cookmaster (Cook)
Fleshmaster (Butcher)
Buildmaster (Mason + Mechanic)
Sawmaster (Carpenter)
Runemaster (Engraver)
Firemaster (Wood Burner)
Forgemaster (Furnace Operator)
Weaponmaster (Weaponsmith)
Armormaster (Armorsmith)
Bonemaster (Bone Carver)
Stonemaster (Stone Crafter)
Woodmaster (Wood Crafter)
Metalmaster (Metalsmith)
Leathermaster (Tanner + Leatherworker)
Trademaster (Broker)

Also, I rename champions with their previous title (Axe Lord, Swordmaster, etc.) for easy identification. Big squad leaders earn the title of General. The only exception are Expert Marksdwarves, which become Markslords instead. Neat and compact.

[Chromie]

Wow I'm impressed! Most of my custom titles are ... reminding me that a dwarf has a potentially-future-useful skill, when I make them a miner or something out of necessity.

My fort right now has a "Fishmason" and a "Glassbone" If I'm assigning an x dwarf into y profession I usually name "New [Profession y]" to tell them apart from the more skilled ones.

[xpCynic]

I usually don't overdo the profession names, but I'll use them when I need to remember who someone is or what I plan to do with them. If I get a useless immigrant and reassign his labor I'll name him "x-in-training."
My favorites right now are the military. My 3 original champions are Headsmashing Legend (hammer lord), Swordsdwarf Extraordinaire (swordsdwarf, of course), and God of Lucha Libre (wrestler).

[betamax]

I use them for actual management of my fortress. The first 5 useless dwarves who immigrate become "Stonehands". A stonehand is like a farmhand, except training in the field of stoneworking rather than farming. These guys are, primarily, smoothers, but also make blocks when I need them. Once they've gained sufficient skill in smoothing, they're allowed to use their real title of Engraver or Stoneworker, and get to do engraving.
Farmhands are similar, having the professions of Planters, Threshers and, when necessary, Herbalists. These are usually recruited from migrants which already have one of these professions, as not many are needed. Chefs are Brewer/Cook/Butchers. Finally, any dwarf who isn't absolutely essential to the running of the fortress becomes a Reserve. Reserves keep their old professions, but many laze around or haul stuff. They also all receive military training, so they can support my standing army in times of need.

[Porpoisepower]

Another organizational

One thing I find handy is to breakdown all my dwarves into squads based on their profession(Miners\Wood-workers\Stone-workers\Farmers\Nobles\etc...). This is useful because I can identify stand-alone dwarves as not having an official duty\use yet.