

Ask HN: How did you choose the name of your startup/product? - daKoder

Successful or not, you need a sexy&#x2F;catchy name for your startup&#x2F;product. How did you choose yours? Was a hard process?
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shawnreilly
I call it Namestorming (play on Brainstorming). I'll come up with some key
words that convey what the product does in 1 word. These will be the root
words. Then I'll look up all the synonyms, and any related prefixes or
suffixes. I'll put them all in a spreadsheet and try them in different
combinations until I come up with some cool ones. Then I'll do a trademark
search on the USPTO to make sure it's not already trademarked. Then I'll do a
Google search on the name, and see if anything comes up. Then I'll search for
the Domain and see if it's available. If it's a Web based product, a service,
or something tangible, then I consider the .com is essential. If it's an App
based product, then I'm ok with other domains, especially ones that play into
the word (for example, one of my unbuilt projects is named infostre.am). Then
I'll do a search in the App Store(s) and make sure it's not in use (previous
example is in use in the UK, but not in the US). The last test I do is to ask
10 people if they can spell it just based on saying the word verbally. If more
than 75% of the people spell it wrong, or everyone spells it different, then
that's no good. About 99% of the time, one of the above will fail, and I'll
toss the name and start over (usually its the .com domain squatters that ruin
it).

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tronium
Personally I haven't ever created a startup, but I have been slightly
successful in the marketing realm. Here's some tips: #1: Create a Unique Name
Now I know this sounds dumb and obvious, but creating a name that sounds to
similar to something else in that realm is just not a good idea. #2: Make it
either really abstract, or having an element of what you're doing in it.
Microsoft has the word "soft" or software in there. Apple, on the other hand,
is completely abstract. Both have been successful. #3: Make it short. You
probably don't want it to be 2 words or having a hyphen in there. Less than 10
characters is preferable. #4: Make it rememberable. Branding is everything,
and generic names like "Beats" and "Apple" have been really successful
nowadays. Also, knockoffs of real words are cool too. Think of a bicycle
making startup named "Byke".

As for actually coming up with names, I find it actually works best to: #1
Think about it throughout the day, no matter what you're doing. and #2 Sleep
on it. #3 Oh, and think about it in the shower too :P

I hope that helped!

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anilg3
One of my friend was starting a customer loyalty data analytics startup and
had "Cube" in his company name for DataCube. Initially I was going to join him
and others (all MBAs). When they kept talking about revising business plan
that they created in MBA program, I decided to go on my own with a personal
data analytics project. But I liked "Cube" as part of analytics project name.
As I was addressing data for peer to peer lending space, my wife and I came up
with combo word "PeerCube" as the name. We really liked the name. Luckily we
got the PeerCube.com domain name as someone had abandoned the ownership after
owning it for a few years. I believe name goes very well with what we are
doing.

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stevoo
With 3 friends, we chated for a few days and put down what we believed would
be the ideal name for company of that type. After several names and several
more exclusions that ended up being similar names with other websites or the
website was not available we ended up with a name.

www.fitorganizer.com The best we could figure out to create my start up.
Although we were a team, on the name, i am the completely alone on this
project.

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Mankhool
I asked my SO, "What would you call an app that would let you connect
instantly with anyone else using the same app?"

Answer: One Degree (as in one degree of separation between user A and any
other user).

Yes others are using the name, but I liked it and I can change it later.

But I named my corporation after a street name in Dubai that I have always
liked - Mankhool.

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MattBearman
I was just thinking around the word 'bug' and it came to me. It made me
chuckle and I couldn't believe the .com was available, so I went with it.

Occasionally someone finds it offensive, but most people love the name so I'm
sticking with it.

My product is called BugMuncher

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RollAHardSix
Start with a consonant, follow by a vowel, and being four syllables.

