Ask HN: How do you name a project/product? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you name a project/product?

2 pointsvulcan017 comments

How do you go about finding a name for your side project or your product?

If it matters, I'm trying to name a software product, but don't restrict yourselves :)

The traditional way of naming was to base in on the product function or feature. For example, MS Office is literally an office suite composing of a spreadsheet, word processor, etc. Windows is another example, "floating bordered boxes" were quite common then but Microsoft gave them a name based on their functionality.

But the modern hipster way is to name it something cool and different! Android, for example, is quite futuristic and refers to a robotic machine, it has nothing to do with a smart-phone OS, does it? Same is the case with Ubuntu, Hadoop, MySQL, Python, Chromium, Electrum, etc. You can even name it on a Greek God or something these days!

Hmm, you're right. I wonder how people come up with the "modern hipster" names though :) Do they just name it after whatever sounds cool?

Funny you mention a Greek God, when my username is a Roman one :)

"Modern hipster" is whatever goes against the conservative approach, their thought process is based on the premise that whatever happened in the past was bad (and there were true horrors in the past too).

So yeah, what goes against the conservative approach is really cool! For example, naming each iteration of your product based on a funny animal like Focal Fossa (Ubuntu), or a candy like Kitkat (Android). The conservative approach is to be professional and let them be just versions like 1,2,3 or code names like Longhorn or Aurora as Microsoft did but for internal purposes only.

Names are arbitrary labels. For an internal project, it can be anything - absolutely anything. Your favorite national park, your favorite movie star or cartoon character, your favorite mathematician, something completely random, something vulgar or crude - anything. Just pick a name, and roll with it.

For an external name (company and/or product), names are still arbitrary labels. But you need to avoid trademark violations, and you need something that will attract customers rather than repel them. So avoid the vulgar and the crude. As for actually attracting customers with a name... that's marketing. I can't help you on that.

Good point about the distinction between internal and external project names.

I'm having trouble with the attracting part haha.

Step 1: Decide some parameters on what you want the name to do. Is it going to be descriptive of the prouct? Do you want it to be a single word or multiple words? Do you care if it gets an acronym? Do you want to use existing vocabulary/meanings or create a new word or repurpose an old word?

Step 2: Once you have these parameters set out - come up with a list of potential names. No name is too stupid for this step. Add to the list in as many different mindspaces as possible (in the morning, before sleeping, after a drink, after a smoke, after a coffee, etc).

Step 3: Seek feedback on the list of names from a trusted source. "Would you use a software product with name X that does Y?" "When you hear of a software product with name X, what do you think it does?"

Step 4: Hopefully the above steps narrow down the list some, with your shortened list go and see if there are other products using the same name and decide if you want to do a weird spelling or axe the name entirely.

Rinse and repeat and of course YMMV. I'll admit that I've only ever used this process for coming up with names for personal blogs and usernames such as bitbybitbybitcoin.

> Add to the list in as many different mind spaces as possible

Thanks for this suggestion. I've mostly been trying to think of names while sitting in front of my computer.

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