Ask HN: How to choose a name for a web app? | Hacker News Reader

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

9 pointsmstefff25 comments

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.

Thanks..!

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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.

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.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=91005

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

http://searchyc.com/

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.

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.

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.

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.

I started that a few weeks back. Still haven't put anything together yet. Thats exactly how I ended up naming my last site and I was pretty happy with how it worked out. Guess I need some patience.

Makewords.com is a pretty useful tool as well.

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 .

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...

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

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

http://www.nameboy.com/

http://www.makewords.com/

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..

Dollr.

(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.)

what pattern?

need a bit more info than that. is there any particular interesting hook to it? crowdsourced stock picking? stock market watch?

maybe name it williamst.com or southst.com or pearlst.com or investirati.com

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.

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

I just got a sweet idea.

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.

You're welcome.

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.

"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.

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"

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