
Ask HN: Naming an App is brutal, What did you consider? - bruceb
Trying to name an App
Racked my brain for days. Of course almost everything is taken.<p>It is a social space (we don&#x27;t have enough of those apps right)<p>I have a few names.<p>#1 Is made up word that is easy to say and a bit related to a real word I would like to use (but another app is using the real word).
If you say it most people would be able to spell it when searching on app&#x2F;play store<p>Though the made up word a few people have said it vaguely reminds them of a male body part&#x2F;something dirty. One person said it could be name for gay hookup app.<p>If you google the made up word there are less than 75k results and nothing specific or dirty&#x2F;naughty.<p>I wonder if the possible vague connotation would prevent people from downloading or effect branding?<p>#2 Is an existing word but missing an &quot;e&quot; (think flickr). Easy to say, can get any domain with alternative spelling (but .com)<p>Only problem is when searching people would most likely 
include the &quot;e&quot;<p>Could also use full name also though for that google returns 150m results. While there is no other app with the exact name, there are a decent amount who have it in there description. Might hurt finding it in app&#x2F;play store?<p>#3 Same name as a generic product but with different first letter but sounds the same. Only 600k results on google, most for the generic product. Might sound too much like pure chat app, and to lite sounding
for the app, not convey meaning of the app. (Though one can chat in the app).<p>Thoughts on what you considered when naming an app? Or thoughts on what my thinking is (and if wrong) would be great.
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matt4077
This decade-old guide has always been my favourite in regards to naming:
[https://www.igorinternational.com/process/evocative-
product-...](https://www.igorinternational.com/process/evocative-product-
company-names.php)

Based on this guide "CockroachDB", a perennial favourite of HN to argue about,
is one of the best out there. (Some) negative, or complex, emotions are
absolutely acceptable for a product, even desirable. They highlight "Plan B"
for the morning-after pill as an example.

You may want to tag on something generic/descriptive if you're going for
discoverability in the AppStore (as opposed to people searching for your
product specifically).

~~~
bruceb
Didn't know about this guide, checking out now and the discussion on
CockroachDB's naming discussion.

(I see a title: "CockroachDB Skitters into Beta" which is great).

For me it makes me think a database that can't be killed. I think it is good
but will read the threads to see what others think

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siegel
Figured I'd offer the legal perspective on this question:

For #1, how close to the "real word" is it? And how related is your app to the
other one using the real word? Are you opening yourself up to a lawsuit from
the company that offers the other app?

For #2, why are there a decent number of apps that use that name in the
description? Is it because the word (with the "e") is descriptive of what the
app does? Is it descriptive of what your app does? If so, you'll have
difficulty protecting your brand name.

For #3, is what your app does related in any way to the generic product?
Again, I'd be concerned about your ability to protect the name. Changing the
first letter to another that sounds the same will do almost nothing from that
point of view.

I know you're really looking for more marketing-related feedback. But figured
this could be helpful as well :)

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jetti
I picked my name based on what I feel to be a key feature of my product: ease
of use and less time from start to a finished product. That made me come up
with Breakneck Install. It is installation creation software (currently EXE
but the true v1 will only do MSI and will look a lot better than what the
current version does) with a goal of getting out of your way to make it the
easiest experience when creating a MSI.

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raleighm
I brought some name ideas to MTurk and asked 200 people for feedback. Very
glad I did this. Was fascinating seeing similar comments come up repeatedly
but entirely independently - comments I hadn't anticipated. I presented seven
names. Of the best two, one was much more popular than the other, but the
things that people who liked the second name liked about it were much more
diverse and interesting. It didn't have the broadest support but it had the
deepest support. I'll likely go with it. There are lots of necessary sources
of stress when naming, but one unnecessary one is wondering how representative
your own intuitions about names are. Asking people and having your fears
validated (positively or negatively) feels great.

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indescions_2017
Why are you so reluctant to divulge the candidate names you've chosen?
Probability of gaining valuable feedback is far greater than your concerns
over stealth or theft.

I like to use naming conventions. Non-english vocabulary tends to hit my sweet
spot. For a period, all my code names for internal tools were short japanese
words that did not have widespread recognition in American English. "jisho",
for example, which translates to "dictionary" makes a great name for a library
of hash functions. Currently digging on Sanskrit. "prem" which means "love"
and sounds like heaven itself is recognized around the globe. Or "autamika,"
perhaps less well known, but means "the highest place in the heavens where the
Gods make their thrones" or "to head in a northerly direction".

~~~
bruceb
Thanks for the feedback. I didnt know Prem means love, I have seen it
South/South East Asia.

I may post names though for now might hold back...

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lcnmrn
Pick a name composed of two simpler names like Facebook or Snapchat. I ended
up with Sublevel.net as a domain 3 years ago.

~~~
logicallee
to go further, make it sound like a bad Chinese translation (Face book, snap
chat).

Let's apply this to various kinds of apps:

Dating and marriage -- Love house

Hookup -- Sexy Quick

Chat -- Talk Now

Email -- Letter Exchange

Photoshop -- Photo Change

does it work? I think so. I could see all of the above working as well as
Facebook or Snapchat do. Writing the above lines took me just seconds and I
could see any of them working.

Excellent advice TBH. Never thought of it before. By the way I totally forgot
htat Exchange is a letter server: and a wildly successful one. (From
Microsoft). For this reason you would have to choose something different for
that - like Letter Trade. still, the point stands :)

