In doc/contribute.rst, we say that "branches should have meaningful names". We give two examples, one of which actually references the issue number. Could we require that all branches directly reference the issue the branch is addressing? So names like the following are fine:

• "issue_20_fix_wrong_index"
• "implement_db_editor_248"

But names like the following aren't okay except in rare cases:

• "fix_wrong_index"
• "implement_db_editor"

I personally find it hard to understand what someone is doing in a branch when they don't reference an existing issue.

[edit]:

Final decision: <issue_number>_name_of_the_branch