How To Name Your Company, Service, or Brand

A good name is simple. But more than simple, a great name goes to the base of what the company does, both describing it and expanding on it.

Example: The process of naming Twitter by Noah Glass is described in Hatching Twitter, which was recently released. Regardless of how close to the truth it is, “twitter” describes it perfectly, as it is a short, irreverent/irrelevant sound. From this, the idea of birds emerge, making it even better.

A good name is a noun, and its use can be shortened to either make it into a verb or a noun.

Example: Breather is a network of rooms for work or rest, which at one point were called “Breather rooms,” but which since have been shortened by users to “Breathers,” as in “I just rented a Breather.” This makes word-of-mouth infinitely easier.

A good (domain) name passes the phone test.

Example: Re: (Fiverr.com)

Person 1: “Oh yeah I just used this service Fiverr.”

Person 2: “Fiver, awesome.” (Types it into phone.) #FAIL

Oops. Your service better be damn good if people are willing to spell it out every time.

Funny story actually, I was literally typed Linked.in into my browser to search for them, because i had already assumed their site was using .in instead of .com . Another side note, some people have rules around investing or not based on how good your name is.

(A corollary.) A good domain name is worth any price you are capable of paying.

But, you can make them cheaper by choosing .io, .co, or whatever other extension you like. You can also try to use domain tweak when choosing your company domain name.

Example: instagr.am nailed it.

Your company’s Twitter handle needs to be easy to obtain. I consider those to be the primary ones. FB, Google+, all the other stuff, don’t worry about it.

Combinations of two words are ok, and can even be great (though Facebook is actually one real word). With word combos, it has to roll off the tongue, which means two or three syllables, but almost never four.

Example: Microsoft and Pinterest, ok. Shopkeep, awesome (based on a real word).

A random invented word is better than the stuff you made up.

Example: SoundCloud? Absolutely. TokoMata? :)

Do not, I repeat, do not name your company very similarly to another startup, especially a successful one.

If you can’t come up with anything, try changing one letter from something you really want, or something that sounds like a real thing.

Example: Mustbin.

You can find a good name just by free writing, and doing so for an absurdly long time.

Just keep writing and writing. Seriously. Do it in a text file. Keep writing until you reach 10,000 words. The right name will come along, as long as you keep writing.

Look, eventually, none of this will matter. But right now, it matters a lot. Your company name is your identity.

Think about it for a LONG TIME.