
A Two-part Rule for Naming Your Startup - transburgh
http://gigaom.com/2008/06/21/a-two-part-rule-for-naming-your-startup/
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sutro
So these web-archiving startup founders hire this "startup consultant"
character to help them rename their company. What do they get for their money?
He writes a blog post criticizing their current name, calling them Google-
wannabes, and saying "it's a good thing" that they hired him. He then posts
his three new name suggestions (one of which has a well-known history as
another company), publicly taking any potential credit for the names away from
his own clients.

Alternate title suggestion: How Not To Be A Consultant.

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mhartl
_one of which has a well-known history as another company_

I noticed this too; "Architext" was the original name of Excite.

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ComputerGuru
I'm afraid I must agree with the commenters on Om's site - what a fluff
article! Honestly, if it weren't Om, I would say it was written by someone who
named a startup for the first time and is overly-excited about his role in
it... No substance, conflicting points (re: twitter) and bad conclusions
(ArchWeb? names should _flow_ ).

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tptacek
Another two-part rule for naming your startup: (1) pick a name, (2) move on
quickly to something that matters.

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gojomo
Don't assign this article much credibility. He doesn't know 'Lycos' was taken
from the name of a spider, nor that 'Architext' was the original name of
Excite.

I'd agree Brightmail, PayPal, and IronPort are great names. But Lycos and
Xobni are pretty good names, too. His case against them is weak -- and his
criticism of Xobni is actually its strength: now that he knows it's 'inbox'
backwards, will he ever forget it? (Vidoop may have issues, but it depends on
their market.)

And the novel suggestions he makes -- PermaPage and ArchWeb -- are literal and
clunky.

If you need outside advice on naming your company, demand some stronger
linguistic/naming reasoning and experience.

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dkasper
The name Architext is definitely already used!

Permapage makes me think of perma frost, but I could just be in a weird mood.

ArchWeb is ok, but doesn't flow as nicely as the other two.

I think rule number one of finding a good name is for it to be easy to say and
catchy. Two or even three part names often do this, but it's definitely not
the only way. Most people realize this. Probably the main reason people resort
to weird words like vidoop or squidoo or whatever is because they are trying
to find a domain name that isn't taken.

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tortilla
I have no problems coming up with clever names. It's the clever businesses
that I have trouble with.

