Embodiments are directed to association of storage objects in a multi-tenant, cloud-based storage environment. More specifically, a first object can be made available in the file system of the environment and can be accessed, for example, by its file or object name. At some point thereafter, an auxiliary object can be provided that is related to the first object. For example, this auxiliary object can comprise metadata or other content associated with or related to the first object. According to one embodiment, this auxiliary object can be assigned an identifier that not only uniquely identifies the auxiliary object but also identifies, within the identifier itself, the relationship to the first object. This relational naming can be used to track the relationship between objects, e.g., to update the auxiliary object based on changes to the first object, but without a separate mapping of the objects.