The best names have two syllables.
Or, sound so foreign people look up the meaning--like Physibles? I guess that website could promote any name
though?
“Startup Names” by Paul Graham (2006)
61–70 of 70 posts
Re: “Startup Names” by Paul Graham (2006)
#62Completely agree. There will always be good names available. Curious if PG would still rate textpayme high as I think its an awful name! Selfishly curious, how would you rate my company's name, Modea?
I see Modea, I think Medea, which is probably not the connotation you want. OTOH, who's familiar with classical mythology these days?
Re: “Startup Names” by Paul Graham (2006)
#63I was talking to my parents about my latest side project, Anorak ( http://anorakci.com ) and they both laughed at the name. I genuinely felt embarrassed when I explained to them that the majority of startups etc have "silly" names. As I was talking about Anorak to them, every time I said it's name, I felt silly. And yet, it's never bothered me before. I'm not changing the name, but it made me realise.
That ci on the end hard to remember. I checked and anorak
is taken--as usual, but there's got to be something else? Maybe Theanorak?
Re: “Startup Names” by Paul Graham (2006)
#64I was talking to my parents about my latest side project, Anorak ( http://anorakci.com ) and they both laughed at the name. I genuinely felt embarrassed when I explained to them that the majority of startups etc have "silly" names. As I was talking about Anorak to them, every time I said it's name, I felt silly. And yet, it's never bothered me before. I'm not changing the name, but it made me realise.
That ci on the end hard to remember. I checked and anorak is taken--as usual, but there's got to be something else? Maybe Theanorak?
It is, but it stands for "continuous integration" - I'd have gone with "anorak.com" but as you said, it's taken.
Re: “Startup Names” by Paul Graham (2006)
#65"Nominology is my neologism for the study of naming things!" It's called onomastics, son. Now get off my lawn.
Delighted that this is one of the first comments! :) Note the update on the "nominology" article: "As soon as this went to print, Rob Felty (a linguist) informed me that the established term for what I've called nominology is onomastics. Scooped by 295 years!" And further discussion in the comments: http://messymatters.com/nominology/
Onomastics:
EVOC - R
BREV - Y
GREP - G
GOOG - G
PRON - Y
SPEL - Y
VERB - R
Nominology:
EVOC - Y
BREV - Y
GREP - G
GOOG - G
PRON - G
SPEL - Y
VERB - Y (nominologize?)
Seems like nominology wins on at least a couple nominological categories. :)
Re: “Startup Names” by Paul Graham (2006)
#66Re: “Startup Names” by Paul Graham (2006)
#67Re: “Startup Names” by Paul Graham (2006)
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Delighted that this is one of the first comments! :) Note the update on the "nominology" article: "As soon as this went to print, Rob Felty (a linguist) informed me that the established term for what I've called nominology is onomastics. Scooped by 295 years!" And further discussion in the comments: http://messymatters.com/nominology/
Onomastics: EVOC - R BREV - Y GREP - G GOOG - G PRON - Y SPEL - Y VERB - R Nominology: EVOC - Y BREV - Y GREP - G GOOG - G PRON - G SPEL - Y VERB - Y (nominologize?) Seems like nominology wins on at least a couple nominological categories. :)
Ha, nice! I mean, "onomastics" really should win simply for already being the established term. But if one were picking the name from scratch then I'd say "nominology" has probably...
* greater evocativity (at least for us philistines)
* nearly equal brevity (same number of chars, one more syllable)
* equal greppability and googlability
* greater spellability, maybe (again, at least for us philistines)
* equal pronouncability
* equal verbability (nominologize/onomasticize, nominological/onomastic, nominologist/onomastician)
Re: “Startup Names” by Paul Graham (2006)
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crippled names imply crippled products. Dropping vowels should be your last option.
Like flickr?
Yes, names like Flickr.
Names with dropped vowels look like typos, typos relate to sloppy work, so that's an association you get with a name like this. You then have to put in extra work to undo it. Can it be undone? Sure, but why create this hurdle in the first place?
Re: “Startup Names” by Paul Graham (2006)
#70Things like this seem like touchstone topics for startups, HBO's Silicon Valley had a scene with the sanest member of their group at a whiteboard filled with names desperately saying "choose one so we can get back to work", and I've certainly been in the same spot. I wonder if startups just compress the ridiculous corporate silliness into short bursts.