

Ask HN: How to name an open source project? - Annonomus

What&#x27;s the best way to think of a name for an open source project? This will be one of my first projects I make, and I <i>suck</i> at naming. I know I&#x27;m not going to get a perfect name, but any tips so I don&#x27;t end up with a name like RWThemano (courtesy of http:&#x2F;&#x2F;mrsharpoblunto.github.io&#x2F;foswig.js&#x2F;... ironic how that doesn&#x27;t have a good name)
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LarryMade2
Your mileage may vary -

Depends on the target of the project. You probably want a name that works with
what it does. Something easy to pronounce and memorable helps. If its web-
based you might want to determine a name along with domain name availability.
In the case of my local community web search it started with
doitincalaveras.com and is now refined to doplaces.com, if you are persistent
with word combinations you can still get good short web domain names.

Here are some I did:

Many just get a name of what it does, character set editor, librarian (library
management), etc. If you don't expect it to be competing with a lot of other
things, this works fine, (you could always rename it later like - Bookworm
Librarian, without too much hassle)

Alliteration of existing words, names. Years ago I made a program to automate
cleaning up text files, I called it "Alphamix text file processor" (play on
Vitamix the food processor)

Second thought is an acronym, compile a long list of words that the project
entails and then try to work up a witty acronym consisting of those words for
the name. I did this for a databasse management system; I called it, WANDA:
Web Accessible Nimble Database Architecture. I had intended it to have a
female name as many of the application I develop with it would be used in an
office environment and was thinking of a smart professional assistant vibe.

Some play on popular character or story names (WANDA's logo is a fish,
thinking of a Fish Called Wanda...)

Mainly think of your audience - if its techies you can get away with a lot. If
it is not, don't get too weird (you know Atari was originally Syzygy, not a
great name for long term public recognition. It it is too obscure people may
not know what it is and you won't get the browse-by traffic that a more
pertinent name could provide.

If its something fun, you might go for the absurd such as my favorite game
name "Chess Maniac 5 Billion and 1" ... or maybe some name Douglas Adams would
have made up for your product.

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MrDHat
I, mostly, figure out the best use-case for the project and then translate it
into some other language to get a cool name. For example, I am currently
working on a 2 way synchronization system which will mostly be used as a
queuing system, so, I translated 'Queue' to 'Qatar', which is Hindi for queue
:)

Sometimes, I like to get the closest match in any other industry
(Communications in this case). We recently named a notification system
'satellite', and similar names for publishers and subscribers.

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hackerboos
Something that you can google. I hate projects with generic names that bring
up unrelated google results.

