Coming up with a name for your startup can be a traumatizing experience, especially given the current domain shortage. So to help you out, here is a short guide to some the most common naming strategies.
Gibberish Names
Just try to think up of any made-up combination of letters that still remain more or less intelligible. Having a one-year-old nearby might help.
Pros:
- The domain name will be available.
Cons:
- You might end up picking something like Wesabe.
NOTE: some people might use the Eskimo defense to justify their bad name choice. As in: “But Waloobaloo does mean something! It’s “geolocalized social network” in Eskimo!”. This is not a valid point unless the target market happens to be the North Pole.
Siamese Twins Names
Pick two unrelated concepts and mash them together.
Examples: LimeWire, ThemeForest
Pros:
- Easy to come up with, makes you sound like a rock band.
Cons:
- People will forever ask you what it means.
Pun Name
Include a witty pun inside your name.
Examples: Reddit, Experts-Exchange
Pros:
- Cute and memorable.
Cons:
- You better make sure the pun is intentional.
Descriptive Name
You know, that thing your product does? Congratulations, you just found a name.
Example: Visual Website Optimizer
Pros:
- Good for SEO, plus you never have to explain what you do.
Cons:
- Might get a little long, and a little boring.
Trendy suffix name
Pick a word that’s vaguely related to what you do, and then at the trendy suffix du jour to it.
Pros:
- You’ll be the hottest startup of 2010.
Cons:
- You’d better hurry.
Name name
Just use your last name.
Example: Dell
Pros:
- Good for people who lack imagination.
Cons:
- Doesn’t work if your name is too common, too long, or too foreign.
Random word name
Pick some random word out of the dictionnary.
Pros:
- After you dominate your entire industry and crush all competitors, people might stop saying your name is dumb.
Cons:
- You might get into a lot of lawsuits with record labels, fruits, or rivers.
Specific word name
Pick a specific word that actually has something to do with your product.
Example: Basecamp
Pros:
- Easy to remember, easy to spell, means something.
Cons:
- The domain name won’t be available, so you’ll have to add some hard-to-remember suffix.
Microsoft name
Add “Microsoft” or “Windows” before some common word, and a version number after.
Examples: Windows Phone 7, Windows Live Hotmail
Pros:
- People might think you’re affiliated with Microsoft.
Cons:
- See pros.
Perfect name
Sometimes it just happens. The clouds part, a bright light shines down on you, angels start singing, and what they’re singing is the perfect name for your product.
Pros:
- It’s perfect.
Cons:
- Somebody else will probably come up with it instead of you.
There you have it. With this advice, you have no excuse for not coming up with a good name for your next project. As long as you remember that your name should be short, memorable, have an available domain, roll of the tongue, and not mean something offensive in chinese, you’ll be just fine.
Awesome list, love the Microsoft one.
Also love this comment form.
haha. awesome. the microsoft one is pure gold.
Glad you guys liked it
I love the comments box…. so nice and clean!
Oh…. and the article was cool too
Great list! I also think taking a random word and adding some random number to the end is also gaining in popularity (i.e. 37Signals, 23andMe)!
Good point, but I wonder if those numbers really are random? There must be some story behind that “37” (maybe the number of Porsches the co-founders wanted to own?).
Hey guys,
37 actually has a purpose. I quote from an old interview
“In the mid-1980s a group led in part by Carl Sagan conducted a five year project in search of signs of intelligent life in the universe. Using a radio telescope, they analyzed trillions of signals from outer space and of those trillions, only 37 signals were identified as potential signs of intelligent life in the universe. We felt that that was a fitting name because our goal is to provide our clients with intelligent interface design and as we all know, there are precious few signs of intelligent life out on the web today.”
http://spotlights.firmlist.com/37signals/
Good find! This makes me wonder what qualifies as a “potential sign of intelligent life”. Finding life at all would already be amazing, intelligent or not!
Example: Microsoft
Cons: See Pros
lol
Great list!
Amazing list, I won’t be original when I’ll say the Microsoft one made me roll on the floor laughing
Wonderful design for the blog as well! Favored at Twitter 
Thanks! But I have to admit the Microsoft is an easy target…
Thanks for this list! Great tips.
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Coming up with a good name is the hardest part ; )
i didnt know there was a domain shortage wow thanks for the great post!
it makes me wonder about what will happen when all words are taken, just like in gmail with common family-names…
What about the URL names? such as
http://www.builditwith.me
http://www.delicio.us — I think they changed it a while ago though
great list, made me grim quite a bit
Funny and true! Thanks for this :]
Muito bom!!!
Hehehe … this is nice … I thought up two good names that I wanted (for two different projects)… but in the time I took to decide, both the .com domains were taken up … just imagine that … the worst day of my life …
N this form is awesome