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Before naming your startup, read this.

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Re: Before naming your startup, read this.

#41

Post by kmontrose »

A compelling product will make a mediocre name memorable, but not vice versa.

My go to example for this is Google, the largest site in the world. It's a) a joke name b) that almost no-one knows c) and if you know it, it's misspelled! But because it's was head and shoulders above its competitors that garbage name is now part of the vernacular ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/google ).

Other pretty bad names (that we all accept as "good" now): Wikipedia (the hell's a wiki in 2001?), Twitter (what part of that conveys online SMS, or micro-blogging?), Flickr (no e, at least it's not .ly).

I think it's worth looking around for good names, but it's cut-throat out there in .com land, and if you're ever spending more time thinking up names than improving your product you're doing it wrong.

This is all completely ignoring the "search to find" user behavior that is (by my measurements anyway) really really common, even in pretty technical audiences.

Re: Before naming your startup, read this.

#43

Post by bobsil1 »

kmontrose wrote: post #41

A compelling product will make a mediocre name memorable, but not vice versa. My go to example for this is Google, the largest site in the world. It's a) a joke name b) that almost no-one knows c) and if you know it, it's misspelled! But because it's was head and shoulders above its competitors that garbage name is now part of the vernacular ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/google ). Other pretty bad names…

Twitter evokes short bursts of speech, Flickr evokes light and movies, Google evokes size.

Re: Before naming your startup, read this.

#44

Post by lobster_johnson »

kmontrose wrote: post #41

A compelling product will make a mediocre name memorable, but not vice versa. My go to example for this is Google, the largest site in the world. It's a) a joke name b) that almost no-one knows c) and if you know it, it's misspelled! But because it's was head and shoulders above its competitors that garbage name is now part of the vernacular ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/google ). Other pretty bad names…

Exactly. The notion that a name should be transparent -- that its linguistic meaning should make the product obvious -- is a myth. Google, Apple, Nike, Lexus and McDonald's are all brands where the name bears no resemblance to the product or even industry they represent. The product gives meaning to the name, not the other way around.

Re: Before naming your startup, read this.

#45

Post by thaumaturgy »

The article author of course has an interest in convincing startups that naming is important. That doesn't make him wrong, but I think it's easy to see that a name does not a successful business make, and that naming is one of the tarpits that any business owner can get stuck in.

Pop quiz: rate the expected success of each of the following businesses based only on their name:

    Ford
    Reebok
    Nike
    Apple
    Chevy
    Applebee's
    Jack In The Box
    Google
    MicroSoft
    WalMart
    Lowe's (which, by the way, competes successfully with The Home Depot...)
and finally, my personal favorite:

    Pets.com
A "good" name only does one thing: it gives you a very brief head start. It might make it easier for people who aren't really interested in your business to talk about you. How far do you think that will carry you? How far can you get if you avoid the name tarpit entirely, and just concentrate on your brand, your product, or your service?

Re: Before naming your startup, read this.

#46

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

joejohnson wrote: post #24

Chart.io, Like.fm (Extreme obviousness meets extreme brandability): I know exactly what these companies do before I even visit their sites. Really? Cause I have no idea what Like.fm does. Chart.io? It's a place to input/output charts or something? This post is pure pseudoscience.

I can't be the only one that was confused by the name Last.fm when I discovered it. I thought it was about FM radio.

Re: Before naming your startup, read this.

#47

Post by [deleted] »

rdl wrote: post #15

I didn't find several of the "strong examples" to be much stronger than the bad examples. I absolutely believe in passing the telephone test: a receptionist (not expert in your field) should be able to transcribe your name accurately over a low quality cellphone call. Using technical terms (e.g. git) complicates this, especially if they're longer, and rules out homonyms, frequently confused sounds, etc. I'd rather ha…

[deleted]

Re: Before naming your startup, read this.

#48

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

minimaxir wrote: post #8

A great example is Nyoombl. Guess how to pronounce it. Go on, guess. Read the comments of this TC article to gather how impactful the name is: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/11/nyoombl-debuts-social-video...

..."nimble"? That's pronounced... nimble? What?

Re: Before naming your startup, read this.

#49

Post by minimaxir »

blahedo wrote: post #26

When I tried to tell my browser to scroll slightly to the right by pressing my right arrow key, the site hijacked the keypress and took me to an unrelated page. Wtf? FAIL. Edit: AND it keeps reloading itself every couple minutes. Who designs this?

TNW, and a few other blogs, support navigation by keypress. (left/right = new article)
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