Creating a table layout is a little like art, but don't worry if you're not a "Da Vinci"! If you follow some basic guidelines about table design, you will do just fine.
One of the most important things you can do when you design your tables is give them a good name. The name of the table should describe what types of records and data it is meant to hold. Remember, unless you change it, the name you give your object in the database is the name you will use to refer in the code. Do you really want to create an "S-9619" object every time you create an order, or does creating a "BillOfLading" object make more sense? I think just about every developer in the world would agree that more descriptive names, even if it means a little more typing, make the database structure more understandable and the eventual code more readable in the end.
Table names should be singular, like the objects they represent. Each row of the table in the database will represent a single object such as a "Contact...