Ok, what I might do is Ask HN to pick from my 3 favorite brandname candidates!
Ask HN: How do I pick the best brand name?
11–14 of 14 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do I pick the best brand name?
#12Besides the obvious (lignuist's post is good)
One thing my friend did with naming his service was to ask his friends about the names. Two weeks later he called them back up and asked: What was the name of the service I asked you to name? He overwhelmingly got 1 answer that they could remember.
Re: Ask HN: How do I pick the best brand name?
#13If it's for a product, I say start with the name that most clearly communicates what it is that the product helps with / problem it solves. Think "Can Opener". That's the kind of name you want for your brand or product to start. Even the big brands started out more specific... McDondald's was "McDonald's Hamburgers" for a very long time before removing the Hamburgers. Apple was "Apple Computers Inc" a long time as well.
When you are small you have to be more specific because you have a lower number of impressions ( chances to talk to your potential customers ) and you need to make sure you are sending the right message. The big brands can afford to put their message in more places, so they can be more abstract. Small brands don't have that luxury.
Re: Ask HN: How do I pick the best brand name?
#14If you ended with only two names, try Pickfu.com to choose the best. It worked for me really well, I got 150 people reply in about 2-3 hours.