5 ms·

Ask HN: How do you name your company?

How do you get a creative name that is: 1) Easy to say 2) Easy to spell 3) Makes sense to what you do 4) Has an available url

ParameterOne 10y ago
yes i would agree with all of those plus http://www.marketingmo.com/creative-brand-development/how-to-choose-a-great-brand-name/ http://www.marketingmo.com/creative-brand-development/how-to...
DigitalSea 10y ago
The same problem that everyone else has: naming things is hard. I would probably focus on building your product first and then naming it after you've got something functional. Asking friends and family to come up with a name can sometimes help. There are plenty of online name generators out there that can help. One bit of advice I highly recommend, let the availability of the domain name you want dictate your name. Nothing worse than coming up with a great name and discovering you can't buy the domain name you want.
- npgatech 10y ago
  >> One bit of advice I highly recommend, let the availability of the domain name you want dictate your name. Nothing worse than coming up with a great name and discovering you can't buy the domain name you want. This has changed. With the advent of generic TLDs, the breadth of available domain names have greatly increased. You can always add a suffix if company name is not available - XYZ.com is not available, try XYZ.tech. If not, try XYZtech.com, XYZ.io, etc..
  - ploggingdev 10y ago
    That's generally a bad idea if you're a startup or any business. The main issue is that most people recognize a .com domain with being trust worthy. Whether that's reasonable or not is up for debate. And if you send email from .xyz domains, there is a higher probability of being marked as spam. If it's a side project using tlds other than .com would be ok, but for a serious business, don't.
    - npgatech 10y ago
      I think that's only going to change. Here is a $560B company that uses new gTLD: https://abc.xyz/ https://abc.xyz/ More https://www.quora.com/Which-Companies-use-io-Domains https://www.quora.com/Which-Companies-use-io-Domains
  - DigitalSea 10y ago
    The problem with quite a few of the newer TLD's is they can be quite expensive. Can't beat the cost of a .com or .net. Having said that, I own a lot of custom TLD's ranging in renewal costs.
- god_bless_texas 10y ago
  Thanks. I should be clear, we're having to rename our company...basically because a potential investor said our name sucks. And, it sorta does.
KarinneLima 10y ago
I've been through the same issue a few months ago. This article has a few good recommendations. http://startupbros.com/how-to-pick-the-perfect-name-for-your-business-or-startup/ http://startupbros.com/how-to-pick-the-perfect-name-for-your... I'm not affiliated to them in any way, but hope this helps. Good luck :)
- god_bless_texas 10y ago
  Thank you

How do you get a creative name that is: 1) Easy to say 2) Easy to spell 3) Makes sense to what you do 4) Has an available url

ParameterOne 10y ago

yes i would agree with all of those plus http://www.marketingmo.com/creative-brand-development/how-to-choose-a-great-brand-name/ http://www.marketingmo.com/creative-brand-development/how-to...

DigitalSea 10y ago

The same problem that everyone else has: naming things is hard. I would probably focus on building your product first and then naming it after you've got something functional. Asking friends and family to come up with a name can sometimes help. There are plenty of online name generators out there that can help. One bit of advice I highly recommend, let the availability of the domain name you want dictate your name. Nothing worse than coming up with a great name and discovering you can't buy the domain name you want.

npgatech 10y ago
>> One bit of advice I highly recommend, let the availability of the domain name you want dictate your name. Nothing worse than coming up with a great name and discovering you can't buy the domain name you want. This has changed. With the advent of generic TLDs, the breadth of available domain names have greatly increased. You can always add a suffix if company name is not available - XYZ.com is not available, try XYZ.tech. If not, try XYZtech.com, XYZ.io, etc..
- ploggingdev 10y ago
  That's generally a bad idea if you're a startup or any business. The main issue is that most people recognize a .com domain with being trust worthy. Whether that's reasonable or not is up for debate. And if you send email from .xyz domains, there is a higher probability of being marked as spam. If it's a side project using tlds other than .com would be ok, but for a serious business, don't.
  - npgatech 10y ago
    I think that's only going to change. Here is a $560B company that uses new gTLD: https://abc.xyz/ https://abc.xyz/ More https://www.quora.com/Which-Companies-use-io-Domains https://www.quora.com/Which-Companies-use-io-Domains
- DigitalSea 10y ago
  The problem with quite a few of the newer TLD's is they can be quite expensive. Can't beat the cost of a .com or .net. Having said that, I own a lot of custom TLD's ranging in renewal costs.
god_bless_texas 10y ago
Thanks. I should be clear, we're having to rename our company...basically because a potential investor said our name sucks. And, it sorta does.

KarinneLima 10y ago

I've been through the same issue a few months ago. This article has a few good recommendations. http://startupbros.com/how-to-pick-the-perfect-name-for-your-business-or-startup/ http://startupbros.com/how-to-pick-the-perfect-name-for-your... I'm not affiliated to them in any way, but hope this helps. Good luck :)

god_bless_texas 10y ago
Thank you