I highly recommend the Igor Naming Guide, to anyone who hasn't read it:
http://www.igorinternational.com/process/naming-guide-produc...
(A bit surprised it hasn't been linked to in this thread already.)
Ask HN: Tips for coming up with a new web startup name
31–36 of 36 posts
Re: Ask HN: Tips for coming up with a new web startup name
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is, I think, great advice. I'll add my thoughts because I think there are a couple of other things to think about. This comes after doing one project with a name I now hate (Openomy) -- even though I love the story behind it -- and with having just named a second project. * SEO. Along with the fact that being too generic means you won't have access to good trademark protection, it also means that you'll never ge…
Thanks for the advice. Would you consider 'yunar' to be a spell-able name? The name sure looks pretty, it's pronouncable, but something tells me it's hard to spell and hard to remember. I've been struggling for months on whether I should use it or not.
well straight away I can think of
younar youner yuner
I guess it depends on how you say it and how people pick it up - ask 20 people you know to spell it for you after you say it just once to them and see what the results are like ...
Re: Ask HN: Tips for coming up with a new web startup name
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is, I think, great advice. I'll add my thoughts because I think there are a couple of other things to think about. This comes after doing one project with a name I now hate (Openomy) -- even though I love the story behind it -- and with having just named a second project. * SEO. Along with the fact that being too generic means you won't have access to good trademark protection, it also means that you'll never ge…
Thanks for the advice. Would you consider 'yunar' to be a spell-able name? The name sure looks pretty, it's pronouncable, but something tells me it's hard to spell and hard to remember. I've been struggling for months on whether I should use it or not.
Be sure to register every conceivable misspelling of your chosen name. Twiddla, for instance, gets maybe 3% of its traffic at twidla.com, and another few percent from Google searches for "Twiddle".
If you can't read your name over the phone without clarification, pick another one.
ps. I'd vote against going with Yunar. Besides having 7 plausible spellings, it just sounds bad.
Re: Ask HN: Tips for coming up with a new web startup name
#34I 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"
@auston, descriptive = non-trademarkable!
With the 2 names I've had to choose one was brainstorm -> short list -> check trademarks -> check domains. This lead eventually to "Barefoot Ceramics" (a paint your own pottery studio, http://www.barefoot-ceramics.co.uk). One of the top names "Ty Pots" (pun on teapots and "house of pots" in Welsh) I really liked but we discounted in because it's just too clever and can't be dictated easily. Barefoot is sometimes misspelt Bearfoot, but rarely - it's a term in pottery as well as being a reflection on the relaxing environment and earth friendliness we've tried to build.
The other was choosing a name that was a double-entendre from my location and the nature of the activity, I chose early and then scouted around for domain variations using different TLDs. This lead to BridgeHosting.net (web design, SEO, internet hosting, http://BridgeHosting.net). The pun is "connecting people" and that my location has lots of bridges.
My personal webspace is at http://www.alicious.com - I chose that because it can be an ending for various subdomains, eg "web.alicious"; noone can spell it or pronounce it!
Re: Ask HN: Tips for coming up with a new web startup name
#35[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Tips for coming up with a new web startup name
#36I agree with many of the approaches here and just have some personal experience to add.
I would start with writing down descriptive works and just keep playing with them, creating different combinations, looking them up in the thesaurus, etc. I haven't had any luck with latin, greek, etc names, the approach always sounds good, but I find the results unrelatable (if that's a word). You want something people easily understand, starting with foreign languages is starting from the complete opposite side.
Also, don't expect to pick it in 20 minutes. Give yourself a week or more where you toss all kinds of ideas around in your head, let different variations sink in, bounce ideas back and forth between friends, etc. Keep coming back to it over and over, even if it's just for 5 minutes.