Ask HN: Tips for coming up with a new web startup name

I would broaden the question to, how do you name anything properly? Or even more abstractly, how do you categorize anything intelligently?

Names are delimiters; In your case you're delimiting your product in someone else's mind. And while names may be arbitrary, humans understand things in terms of things we already know.

Think of baby naming. I have a two standard names stuck together. It's an Anglican/Christian English name. Though I think Christopher may be derived from Greek. Maybe it's too generic. Compare that to Shanacqua-Tibea. Nobody would know how to pronounce it, and it's too unfamiliar to remember immediately. For social reasons, you might have to remember it (to prevent embarrassment), but that pressure isn't there when someone searches in Google.

I like a mix between the familiar and different. You need to hook them in with something they know, while adding a twist to it.

I usually take 1 of 3 approaches:

1. Look for a metaphor - like for instance, "digg" because you're uncovering stuff, or "YCombinator" because it's a company that spawns other companies

2. Be descriptive - like "RemindsYou" or "SalesForce" or "FriendFeed"

3. Kind of like JasonLBaptiste said - drop some or all of the vowels can work sometimes as well... so like "RCRDLBL" or "MSTRKRFT" or "PIPL" or "TWTPoll"

The process is pretty simple and a lot of fun: think of and write down some words that describe or are related to your project. These are the seeds, or starting point. You should be able to write down 10-50 such words. Try to write down words that are related to the way your product differentiates itself from its competitors. Also look at latin or greek translations of the words (use online dictionaries).

The goal is to come up with variations or combinations of words or related words. Use sites like morewords.com which can show you words starting with a word, ending with a word, containing a word, etc. You can try Google Sets, but it's not very useful for coming up with new stuff. Also do general Google searches for your words and see what other words pop up on the result pages. During this period, carry pen & paper around so you can write down anything you think of.

For most good names you'll come up with the .com won't be available, but that's okay, just keep trying. Be prepared to check 20 domains to find one that is available. Be sure to use non-evil domain checkers that don't automatically register the name.

A good name should be easy to pronounce, and based on the pronounciation, easy to write down, even for foreigners (names with vowels removed, used at the height of the web2 bubble, are no good). It should be related to your project (eg. Amazon is not really a good name for a hypothetical startup bookstore).

You should have 5-10 good names (which may be close to each other) at the end of the process, consult with your partners and pick the best one.

Good luck!

Another tip: Use a markov chain to generate random words and pick some out of those.

Here are some words I just came up with using a random word generator script I once wrote (in Python): zenthanooo, uroratou, arerent, malimanged, wastsal, matiri, rasanto ... you get the point.

They might not be the best names for your startup, but they might provide a starting point for brainstorming.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=370258 (Ask HN: How do I choose my startup's name?)

;)