I am of the old-school trend (I think), writing LQ and SQ. In college I did LGT and SND, but I've since shortened.
The space I'm in doesn't have a fly space perse, so we don't have rail cues, but during Harold and Maude this spring, I did hang an actor. Well, he hung himself. For that we had a carabiner rig and a fake noose, and I called it as such: Line ON (when he did it), Noose ON (when he did it) and when I got the secret signal from him: Ready to hang, the crew (we had two people, one on the line and one on a quick release safety for the prop noose which bore no weight) released the tension on their lines and he jumped.
As I operate my own light board, I only call Standby Lights and Lights GO without #s in tech to the designer sitting next to me, and for my sound cues, I'll give a Standby Sound XX (I too prefer letters, but can't always choose), and the just a Sound GO. If I am giving a Standby Sound XX through ZZ, I will then say Sound XX GO. When there are long breaks between SQ sequences, I'll give a "One Page Warning for Sound." It's a system that seems to work well for me and my ops, and I do check in with each new one to see how they like to get their standbys and calls.
For my current show, Take Me Out, I call each shower individually, but give one big Standby Showers ON, and then a Shower 6 GO, Shower 4 Go...etc.