
Ask YC: How did you choose a name for your startup? - endlessvoid94
I'm a student working in my spare time on a web application.  One of the big things keeping me from taking it off my personal server (on a subdomain) is the lack of a good name, and hence a domain name.<p>Do you have an advice on how to come up with a good name?
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kn0thing
We knew the site would involve reading what's new online, so I would spend
classtime thinking about domains involving something like "read." It was also
during this classtime that I first doodled the alien in the corner of a
notebook.

I was in my beloved Alderman library when "reddit" came to mind, as in "I
reddit on reddit" (although this slogan was courtesy of PG). I'd also
registered reditt because I couldn't decide which one was better. Granted, I
was worried about how poorly it was spelled, but it seemed easy enough to
remember.

For a time, it was just added to a long list of potential names. We spent the
first month of YC without a confirmed name, but I always stuck with reddit
despite being repeatedly told how terrible a name it was :-)

Finally Steve acquiesced and we went with reddit. This was after wasting a
solid 2 entire days just hunting for domains -- not a great use of time, I
must say.

It was also before instantdomainsearch.com, which I highly recommend.

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boredguy8
I found a good URL that didn't have a squatter and then developed a product to
fit that URL.

~~~
ericb
Was the URL bass-ackwards.com? ;-)

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iamwil
"There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and
naming things" - Phil Karlton

For, <http://www.mobtropolis.com>, it came out of the concept of collectively
finding interesting things to do that were out of the norm. If they were doing
it all at the same time and place, it would be likened to a mob. I figured
this sort of thing would only happen in more urban areas with denser
concentration of people. Hence after a short brainstorming session..."Mobs in
the City" became "Mobtropolis".

I hesitated for a while since it's a 4 syllable word, and people might not
remember it. But since I couldn't find anything better, I just went with it.

After a while, a name just grows on you and others, as long as you're
consistent about it. It also helps you when you're pitching it if you don't
feel stupid saying it. I would imagine del.icio.us wasn't exactly easy to
associate with bookmarking, but as long as people consistently associate a
name with a clear idea of what your product is, I think it'll be ok.

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ericb
I go to thesaurus.com and try mutilating synonyms of what I want to convey. I
mash word combos together, along with substituting similar sounding made up
syllables. If you tell me what you're working on and want to convey, I'll take
a crack at it. I bet others on here will too. Some examples of my creations
(I've only paid a squatter once):

Testomatix: test + automation + "ix" added in for high-tech-soundiness and
anti-domain-squatter non-obviousness.

RentRocket: I loved the alliteration, and got it cheap.

Wincognito: (privacy software and pop-up blocker for windows back before they
were free) win + incognito

Ziptuck:(fashion site) I have a theory that similar known names "prime" the
mind to remember other like names. (Osama, Obama, Paris Hilton, Perez Hilton)
and that the other associations of the 'original name' disappear quickly, so I
went with it.

Edit: Also, I suggest moniker's bulk lookup:
<http://www.moniker.com/domains/batch_reg.jsp>

~~~
xirium
A friend's favourite was: sport + portal = sportal

~~~
ericb
I like that--it's a good name. That's the spirit of what I tried for in most
of my names.

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ivankirigin
I had tipr.net for a while. I think tipr.com was some italian trading
platform.

I just kept thinking about it. It is a iterative process. I like flow of
consciousness. Two short words together work. Tipping, giving, paying, happy,
support, joyful, micro (all all other SI prefixes)...

Shortest words there: tip pay joy

tipjoy.com was available and I immediately purchased it.

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skeevis
Domain availability. Think of a two/three word description for what your app
is, see if it's available. Go to the thesaurus and look up alternates.

<http://instantdomainsearch.com/> roxx

~~~
s3graham
or ajaxwhois.com (not quite as fast, but does more than com/net/org for
delicious-type names)

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patrocles
or <http://domify.com> \-- it bruteforces the synonyms for you and checks
availability

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indy
I recommend <http://www.bustaname.com>. It allows you to check the
availability of websites as you type and has a word combining feature
(warning: it's very easy to waste hours on that site trying out various
combinations of words)

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bmaier
1.) always do your domain searches on <http://www.internic.net/whois.html> so
you can be sure that they're not being registered as you search for them.

2.) Read <http://www.thenameinspector.com> from beginning to end

3.) Come up with words that describe your ideas then use thesaurus.com

4.) Look to chop words down by syllables and then combine. ie. a personal
bookmarking service or online profile service that was described as "my
highlights" would become mylights.com.

~~~
ericb
I agree overall, although Moniker's batch lookup is much faster, IMHO.

<http://www.moniker.com/domains/batch_reg.jsp>

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nkohari
That's one of the hardest things about a startup, if you ask me. I find that
brainstorming a little each day helps, and then eventually names will come to
you when you're not trying to think of them.

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edw519
Opened a text document on my Palm Pilot. (You could use any computer, but I
always have my Palm with me.) Every time I had an idea, I appended it to the
end. Every once in a while, I sorted them into "most desirable" sequence.
After a year or so, I noticed that the same name was at the top of the list
for the previous 3 months. It won.

(It's also amazing to see how bad some of your ideas look a week later.)

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streo
I like to have a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern throughout any name I
create. Such names are easy to pronounce and can sometimes have a sing-song
sound to it.

I usually think of the idea I am working on and write as many words about it
as possible. I then filter/add as needed. After I have a long enough list (and
this is where it gets sketchy) I read the words aloud and then set the list
aside.

At this point it's worth mentioning that I'm HIGHLY dyslexic and this is where
it comes handy: I start mixing the words together in my mind by cutting them
up and combining them. This is a process that is very specific to how I might
create a name for a project and it might not work for you ;)

Also, I sometimes violate the first rule of the consonant-vowel pattern if I
have two words that compliment each other semantically. This can yields the
worst results, but it helps filter out what I don't want in a name.

When creating a list of words, I sometimes throw in adjectives that are not
related to the concept but evoke a certain feeling/emotion/color. This
sometimes helps, sometimes doesn't.

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m212a
I found my application name, Tasko (<http://taskodone.com>), from esperanto.
(mean 'task').

[http://www.itanda.com/dictionary.php?Dictionary=EnglishEsper...](http://www.itanda.com/dictionary.php?Dictionary=EnglishEsperanto)
<http://www.kisa.ca/vortaro/>

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pkaler
You are not trying to pick a name. You are trying to build a brand. The
canonical text on the subject is The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding.

The name, logo type, mascot, tag line etc should all be coherent and
consistent.

Here's Steve Yegge on branding: <http://blip.tv/file/319044/>

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gibsonf1
We worked with words that essentialized what we were trying to achieve - never
more than 2 together.

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jbyers
I recommend naming your startup "Essentialize", or some variation thereof.

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ruslan
Oh, we spent much time trying different combinations of short english words
having any relations to what we do, but all the domain names were taken. Then
we tried a world play on english and latin words and came to "talk" + "naut"
(lat. for sail) = talkonaut.com, which I believe precisely represents our
mobile chat/voip software we develop: talk while you go. We also discovered
that there's a chinese word "taikonaut" meaning astronaut (cosmonaut). So we
used the idea of "talk while travel in space" in logo and promo. I think
digging some rare languages (greek, latin, japanese, maybe scandinavian) can
give you interesting names as well.

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NoBSWebDesign
If you know your target market (and you should), and you have direct access to
them, propose possible names to them and get feedback, while at the same time
soliciting them for more name ideas.

We struggled with ours for a while. We had several possibilities that we
liked, and started telling people we'd meet at conferences and whatnot. When
we talked to them again days later, they would always remember one more than
the others. We had several clever names with nice flow and alliteration, but
RateMyStudentRental.com is what everyone always remembered (though for us,
this is most likely due to the already-existing and popular
ratemyprofessors.com).

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elad
Think about what your application's supposed to do - what are its benefits for
users, then come up with some metaphors for that. Should be terms that give
people a general concept of what it is that you're offering. Then use the
various domain search engines mentioned here until you find a free domain.
BTW, make sure you can get the .com, .net, .org, and that all the rest (.biz,
.us, .eu) are free. Once you're certain you have a name you'll stay with,
register a trademark ASAP.

~~~
xirium
A former client named his educational enterprise after his building which was
named after his area. He was able to register the .com despite .net, .org,
.co.uk and .sch.uk being registered. How fluky!

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michaelbuckbee
I think that it is important to have a story behind the name it doesn't have
to be something complex, but a sense of authenticity does come through.

The easiest way to do this (and advice elsewhere here in the comments) is to
switch up different descriptors of your idea, businees, etc into something
where you can get a free domain.

I did this for my startup, Fabjectory, and it was even written up by The Name
Inspector:

<http://www.thenameinspector.com/fabjectory/>

\- Mike

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dkokelley
Check out <http://instantdomainsearch.com/>

It's a tools that lets you check the availability of domain names on the fly,
without reloading pages. They index available domains and then display the
results based on what you type in. the result is that you get the availability
quickly, but it's not always up to date (as we found out after several
"available" names were really taken).

It's still a powerful tool and a great brainstorming help.

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thomasswift
I did a domain hack using .us, but i would say you could also use an action
word plus your product name. 37Signals does it for most of their apps,
backpackit.com, campfirenow.com also the vitamin web resource
thinkvitamin.com. The trick is to create something memorable for people. I
also try to make its easy for people to say over the phone to someone. Take
slashdot.org, if the app is for normal people a name like that is not the
greatest.

~~~
altay
Your slashdot.org thing reminded me of this list:
<http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/27MichaelWard.html>

Email addresses it would be really annoying to give out over the phone.

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picnichouse
* Use a thesaurus * Read lots about the problem you're solving. You may find obscure (but cool) academic terms that apply to your space. * Buy theburdenofdestiny.com from me for a MILLLION DOLLARS

It took us _months_ to think of a domain name we really liked. We thought we'd
have to settle for something we hated. But we didn't -- we thought of
something, and we love it.

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josefresco
Our name was based on established (oldish media) competitors and a requirement
to have the main search word/term in the URL (not for SEO but rather to avoid
the confusion most 2.0 startup names incur)

<http://www.OtherWeather.com>

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lanceusa
Its hard to do. It took me 2 months to settle on fotoblur for my project. Try
combining different words together and you'll find something unique. The other
day I just thought of the url linkolicious.com ...and guess what, It was
available.

Nice try...I already registered it :)!

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hernan7
You can always hire some high-paid consultants to come up with the perfect
name for you:
[http://www.salon.com/media/col/shal/1999/11/30/naming/print....](http://www.salon.com/media/col/shal/1999/11/30/naming/print.html)

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wumi
“The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names” – Old Chinese
proverb.

~~~
ken
"But if you misspell it, it's easier to trademark, and the domain is probably
still free." -- the Google guys, the Digg people, etc.

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sutro
You seem to be having an e-dentity crisis. Try 37 Signals' Nametron 3000:

<http://www.37signals.com/enormicom/>

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atlacatl
It seems that latest iteration of web company names do the following: start
with a "regular" word, then start dropping vowels.

Flickr, et al.

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jamescoops
girlfriend came up with it based on certain requirements (had to begin with
"m" and be short)

~~~
kajecounterhack
like "mine," "moped," "moping," ...

or perhaps, "muzzle" ??

;)

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xirium
Science fiction has been very fruitful for band names, such as Duran Duran and
T'Pau.

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nextmoveone
I name the project/product based off what it does, like:

remindsyou.com (mine) routetracker.com

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mixmax
www.microsoft.ac is available through www.speednames.com

That's a great name, I'm sure you will get a lot of publicity if you do your
PR right.

All you need is a good lawyer ;-)

~~~
simplegeek
Do you remember the _www.mikerowsoft.com_ story :)

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carpal
An acronym of a common accounting equation.

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marrone
it is easy, you take a bunch of popular sites and combine into one mega name.

Myfacebookinrtube.com

~~~
xirium
yooglebookapedia.com

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simianstyle
my middle name + a color as a prefix

