

Ask HN: How do I name my web app? - productnaming

I am about to launch a web app that is a major improvement over existing products. However, I&#x27;m stuck trying to think of a name for it.<p>How do you create names for startups, web apps, etc. that are memorable and convey what the product does?<p>So far I, I can only think of names that make sense, in which case the domain name is already taken, and names that don&#x27;t make sense (I&#x27;ve started trying non-English languages).<p>Any suggestions?
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nadavw
Hey, first time commenting in HN...let's hope i don't break any rules :) We
spent 5+ months thinking about different names & brainstormed literally for
hours. You can find lots of good idea generators & checks for domains, social,
etc here: [http://startupstash.com/](http://startupstash.com/)

We tried lots of languages (Greek, Spanish, Cherokee, you name it!) and even
looked at cocktails (hint from Gimlet Media)...but nothing felt right...at the
end we figured it needs to be something super simple but also tied into other
aspects of what we're doing...

Since most of our users are traveling, we thought about things you see while
traveling (animals, famous places, etc) as well as the actions you take
(packing, moving, flying, etc)...in the end we loved the idea of "pack" \-- it
can be a noun, verb, whatever you want...but it was obviously taken across
social media...

So we played around with Pak, Pakk, Pacq, Paqk, etc. We settled on Pak & Paq
then ran it by some friends--good thing!!!--as apparently Pak is a racist slur
for Pakistanis (never knew that)...so we went with Paq which fits into "have
you Paq-ed for your trip?" "drop a Paq" and our mascot...Ally the Alpaqa!

Another tip is to think about what your core demographic is and play to those
languages/strengths...While we loved "caja" (spanish for box) in Hebrew (we're
based in Tel Aviv) it sounds like "cacha" which means "so-so"

Hope this helps!

~~~
theGREENsuit
This is how I go about naming things - by thinking of an associated concept or
word or image. Recently, my workplace was looking to name their new BI tool. I
thought about what BI gives you, thought about images it invokes, etc.
Ultimately, I thought 'Echo' was a good name since you can think of business
data being the echo of business and it's not the usual 'intelligence',
'insight', etc.

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starshadowx2
Try sites like these:

* Namium - [http://www.naminum.com](http://www.naminum.com)

* The Name App - [http://thenameapp.com](http://thenameapp.com)

There are some more sites like these but more focused on domain names, all
from here - [https://blog.growth.supply/300-awesome-free-
things-e07b3cd5f...](https://blog.growth.supply/300-awesome-free-
things-e07b3cd5fd5b)

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drakonka
Ok so I went through a whole thing for this with my snail simulation. Usually
naming stuff is pretty easy for me but...well, it is hard to make a snail
simulation sound interesting and cool (because it's not). But I sure as hell
was going to try!

One of my big rules was that I didn't want it to sound too _gamey_. This is a
_simulation_, not a _game_. I also wanted it to sound kind of unique. The
other thing is...the .com. You wouldn't think .com domain names related to
snails would be very popular, but all the _snail_.com stuff I tried had
already been snagged! My list of brainstormed names included, but was not
limited to, the following:

* Snails

* Snail Simulator (sounded too gamey because of all the other _simulator games, but I registered the domain just in case)

_ SnailWorld.com (unavailable)

* SnailTales (too gamey and cutesy sounding)

* TheSnails

In the end I settled on...wait for it...Gastropoda.

It sounded unusual and the use of the name of the snails' taxonomic class kind
of promoted the simulation over the game aspect. Ignore the fact that slugs
should then also fall into this...and are not included in the simulation. But
as for the .com - even gastropoda.com was already taken!! I ended up
registering gastropodasim.com and learning to live with it.

But it never quite felt right. I kind of resigned myself to not being 100%
happy with the name - I just needed _a_ name. And then...I learned of the
.life TLD. Screw the long _gastropodasim.com_! I saw that snail.life was
available!

And, urged by the sheer appropriateness of this name and domain name to the
thing I am actually making, I learned to drop the .com and renamed the project
to SnailLife.

In the end availability of domains and some hard rules on the message I wanted
to get across (unique, not too gamey-sounding) was what drove the naming of my
simulation for me.

~~~
acpmasquerade
SimulatingSnails

Gastropodasim would never be the name of my choice.

~~~
drakonka
The domain name was gastropodasim. The name was Gastropoda. SimulatingSnails
is too long and sound more like an instructional project site rather than the
name of a simulation to me, but thanks for the suggestion. I prefer SnailLife.

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acpmasquerade
What is the concept of the app ? We can try if some hints are provided.

Also, namestation does good job in helping to crowdsource the naming (domain
names) problem.

Found an article suggesting some ideas behind choosing a good name.
[http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/239556](http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/239556)

~~~
productnaming
It's a document editor (meant as a replacement for google docs, etc.).

The main advantages of the app over what already exists are:

\- Minimalist design \- Faster \- Simpler \- New features \- Works on mobile
devices

That article is useful, thanks!

~~~
acpmasquerade
SimpleDoc.com is available. Domain is no-doubt good, but will it sound good
for your product ?

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panorama
The best, leanest compromise would be not necessarily needing [yourname].com.
For instance, get[yourname].com, try[yourname].com, [yourname]app.com, and so
forth. Or other tlds.

Otherwise the time spent trying to think of a unique, non-taken name that is
easily recalled and spelled/pronounced is a little too much trouble than it's
worth at this stage I'd bet.

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europa
May be you can try some good sounding plant scientific names
[http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/node/22?letter=A](http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/node/22?letter=A)

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partisan
Visualthesaurus.com is a good option for finding related terms. That combined
with the techniques mentioned in other comments should get you on your way.

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J_Darnley
Whatever name you choose don't forget to drop all the vowels from it.

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_august
Check out domai.nr for checking multiple possibilities quickly

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blackdev1l
just take any italian word, you won't regret it.

~~~
acpmasquerade
works sometimes :)

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rajacombinator
try combining it with a feel-good word like zen[blah] or an animal
[blah]monkey?

