
Show HN: UnikNik – A name generator for startups and brands - monodeldiablo
http://uniknik.com
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monodeldiablo
TL;DR: I built this name generator for my own projects. It's decent and the
supply of names is essentially infinite, so I packaged it up and am dropping
it here in hopes that other people find it useful.

Long version: I hate naming projects. I know I'm not supposed to spend any
time on it, but it's one of those classic distractions for the perfectionist
in me. I would spend days trying to find the perfect name, but would always
wind up settling for some crappy pun or garbled nonsense.

Squatters have claimed most recognizable names and AI-driven or business-
oriented name generators seem to all spit out long strings of unpronounceable,
forgettable garbage. I didn't think it should be so hard to find a name that's
short, memorable, easily communicated in lots of languages, and yet still
unique enough to find an available domain.

My business partner hated that I would agonize over this for every project, so
she suggested I take a little time off and build a name generator that meets
my criteria. This was a fun project for me, since I love languages,
orthography and grammar.

I had a working tool in a day and we've been using it for inspiration ever
since (refining it along the way).

As we started taking on more long-term work, though, this tool has been
sitting in the corner largely unused. On my business partner's recommendation
yesterday, I took a few hours to package it up as a website. It's not the
prettiest thing out there, but hope it's as helpful to others as it has been
for us.

Let me know what you think and good luck, everybody!

How we used it: During branding brainstorming sessions, we got in the habit of
generating 50 or so names, out of which we'd find 1-2 strong candidates and
10-20 reworkable names (add a letter, remove a letter, etc). We'd use the
resulting list of 10-20 names for our domain name and company name searches.
By the end of the exercise, there were usually a couple of clear winners.

Full disclosure: The site has one occasional ad on it, to offset hosting
costs.

