

Ask HN: How to choose a name for a web app? - mstefff

I'm nearing completion of a web application planned to launch near the end of May. The only problem, well one of the problems, is that I'm completely lacking any ideas for a name. I don't think I'm alone, but I find this to be one of the hardest parts of developing. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas, methods, thoughts, or anything at all worth discussing on this topic.<p>Thanks..!
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dbreunig
Pretend you are in a rock band or own an ad agency that pretends it's a rock
band. Give yourself a non-sequitur of a name that doesn't attempt to
communicate your already in-definable style.

If you're stumped, take an adjective and a noun that don't go together;
combine. Strawberry Frog. Velvet Underground. Zeus Jones. Led Zeppelin. Rick
James. Got the hang of it?

Now check to see if your name has a .com yet? It does? Eliminate all vowels
and check again. Still stuck? Put a few of them back in. Got it? Good.

(If you STILL can't get a dot come with no vowels, consider making your app a
mobile one and get the oft-ignored .mobi address. People will make fun, but
stick to your guns. You're an innovator.)

Let's walk through a demo, just to make sure we're all on the same page:

1\. Adjective: Tasty, Noun: Shirt. 2\. TastyShirt.com? No. TstyShrt.com No.
TastyShrt.com Yes. 3\. Profit.

~~~
dkokelley
Don't forget, you can always take a word and add an r to the end. Flickr,
coordinatr, tshirtmonstr, Ycombinatr...

Actually, don't. It's a fad and it should be over soon.

For me, the biggest issue was making sure I had a .com to go with it. Go to
instantdomainsearch.com and just start typing as things come to your mind.

There are other sites that automatically mash words together and check their
availability, so search for these generators. There are a few generators
already posted here, so be sure to check them out.

------
joshwa
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=91005>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=114920>

<http://searchyc.com/>

------
epi0Bauqu
First, some meta-advice: start the process early and let it go for a long
time. Keep thinking about it and talking to people about it. I find that good
name ideas come over time and come in spurts.

There have been some good name posts on news.yc, so search for those. What I
strive for:

\--As short as possible. \--Memorable (often through rhyming, alliteration,
repetition, etc.) \--Something people can spell. \--Something related in some
way to the app (this is just my preference). \--Easy to pronounce (e.g. people
know where the accent goes). \--Good connotations (or at least not bad).

There is also some psychology involved in certain sounds, but I forget the
specifics of at the moment--search for it.

Finally, I find instantdomainsearch.com, a rhyming dictionary, webster, and a
thesaurus useful tools in the process.

------
thetable
Follow brainstorming techniques. Write everything down, no matter how bad.
Write down fragments that characterize your idea. Explore metaphors: If your
site is about finance, maybe think about up/down movement, growth, even
gambling and excitement. Visualize these themes and keep writing things down.

I found that you don't want your name to be too descriptive (e.g. I find the
name "FriendFeed" way too descriptive and boring), but on the other hand it
shouldn't be yet another five-letter, random-string, 2.0 name.

Twitter is nice because it plays very loosely with disseminating information
to whoever's listening out there. It's better than smsfeedr.

Google is nice because they've identified a large number as something that
loosely characterizes what they do.

------
ssharp
Easy!

1\. Pick one word that is somewhat related to what you do. Make sure it ends
in "ER" or "ED".

2\. Add .com to the end of it

3\. Drop at least one of the vowels, preferably the last one.

4\. Register that domain!

Bonus points if you can find a word that ends in a top level domain. Then,
just add a random dot anywhere else in the name. And Poof! You now have a
three level domain that nobody will ever remember how to type in - but hey,
it's sooooooo web 2.0.

------
kyro
What I do is create a list of words that you can use to describe what your
site is, does, promotes, enhances, etc. Start combining some of the words
together, keeping it as simple as possible. Alter some words, like changing f
to ph, and play on their meaning. Use a thesaurus and a dictionary.

Don't get too stressed over it. Often, the name will jump off the page at the
most random of times.

~~~
wanorris
Also, go through all the domain suffixes you can register and look for ideas.
Sometimes you can get a memorable domain name that way. Sites like last.fm
have done a good job of this.

Free (unregistered as of this writing!) example: stepinsi.de .

------
DaniFong
I threw together a script that could try to coin words (say, by taking any
letter, plus a suffix that your really like) or attach words together, and
then check that against whois.

[http://daniellefong.com/2008/03/01/on-naming-startups-and-
ru...](http://daniellefong.com/2008/03/01/on-naming-startups-and-ruby-
hackery/)

------
cmm324
Get a group of friends together, a bottle of wine and a laptop to record the
stupid things you guys come up with. The next morning go through the list and
whoola... most likely you have a good name that has a domain available.

Good Luck, Chris

------
alex_c
Two sites that have been posted here before that might be useful:

<http://www.nameboy.com/>

<http://www.makewords.com/>

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mstefff
Well its a finance / wall street focused site so if anyone wants to lend a
creative hand, I'm more than open to suggestions. Thanks..

~~~
maw
Dollr.

~~~
maw
(I don't honestly think it's a good name, but it fits with the pattern at
least. Most of the names I see I find kind of tasteless. I much prefer names
not based on misspellings.)

~~~
alaskamiller
what pattern?

------
mstefff
I'd just like to thank everyone again for their input. Hopefully soon ill be
posting with not only a name but a live link.

------
gscott
I like to go to tdnam.com and click on 'Closeouts' sometimes there are really
good names in there

------
vlad
I just got a sweet idea.

~~~
mstefff
Thanks for the tip. That is a good idea. Never knew registrars offered returns
on domain names before. I usually use namecheap to register because the name
transferring is so easy, which is really helpful when it comes time to sell. I
think dynadot offers that too.

~~~
vlad
You're welcome.

------
LPTS
Some of these suggestions are awful.

This explosion of companies named phoodcaphe.com and this dropping the e is
not a good trend. It's cheap knockoffs of a few successful companies and
products that did it well, like iMac and Flickr. You will not get the same
advantages is terms of uniqueness and descriptiveness unless you do it well,
which, if you're using nameboy, you're not.

Also, if you aren't inclined towards verbal skills you really should delegate
the decision to someone who is. You need a visionary idea that distills all
the hard creative and technical work you did down into a word or two. Harder
then haiku or poetry, and the result of that decision is going to be the lens
through which the world views your technical work. A bad decision here could
cripple your company, and a good one could make everything from funding to
securing partners to advertising easier. Take it as seriously as any other
part of your business.

~~~
sabat
"explosion of companies named phoodcaphe.com and this dropping the e is not a
good trend. It's cheap knockoffs of a few successful companies and products
that did it well"

Some of the names are awful, I agree. But most of these companies -- including
Flickr -- are using this kind of technique because all the domain names in the
world are already taken. It's a defensive/desperation thing.

~~~
LPTS
I must of got really lucky because we got our first choice (for facing
customers) and second choice (for facing Doctors) and third choice (for facing
investors/internal). I also got the websites I wanted for my music composition
hobby. Not one person had anything we went for across .com, net, or org.

Our conversation went like this. "Blah blah" "Blah Blah" "So we're settled, we
want these names?" "Yup" "I'll see if they are available." "Cool" "OK, we're
golden. All done" "I'm gonna register the name for my music studio too."
"Cool" "Done"

