3 ms·

Ask HN: Getting a name for a startup

5 points by vsakos 12y ago

Hello! I have an idea for a startup project (in fact it's not only an idea, I even started realizing it, being a cs student) but I have a problem finding a name for it with an available com domain. For the last 3-4 months I thinked only about the "perfect name", but nothing. The problem is I'm not very creative (including finding good names, designing etc). I read many articles about this, but nothing helped. Also I found many naming contest websites, but these cost at least 50$ and I can't afford it, I'm really low on budget (you know, I'm a student). Do you have any advice how can I find a name for my project?

jere 12y ago
IMO, there are two fairly easy ways to name your company: 1) Combine english syllables to come up with a fictitious word that sounds good. This is how Ninite was named and they even provide the source for the program they used: http://ninite.tumblr.com/post/620277259/how-ninite-was-named-by-a-computer-program http://ninite.tumblr.com/post/620277259/how-ninite-was-named... There are some other tools to help you with this: http://wordoid.com/ http://wordoid.com/ 2) Jam two words and/or numbers together. They can be somewhat or totally unrelated. Examples: 37Signals, RocketDog. Neither of these techniques gets you a name that is related to your project (you can loosely relate to your project with the second technique), but I think that's the least important part. Mostly, you just need a good domain and to sidestep any trademarks. Using a single cool sounding word seems like about the worst angle you can try from a legal/financial perspective; no matter how obscure you think it is (e.g. town names, latin words), it's probably been used dozens of times by others. One of my startup ideas was a company that did this for you. It's not especially hard to do anything of this but it is tedious. It's not a very good idea in retrospect.
- vsakos 12y ago
  1) Thanks, I will definitely read this. I didn't mentioned but I also tried Wordoid and some other similar services. My problem with these is that I need a word as the starting point, but I can't find one for which wordoid can generate words that sounds good and is easy to pronounce (the generated word is either crap or the com domain is not available). 2) I tried jamming words, but nothing... I even tried finding keywords for this on BetaLis and YCList.
  - jere 12y ago
    I know what you're saying with Wordroid. You'd find a good one eventually, but it's incredibly time consuming. As for as second technique, my point was you don't need to use related keywords. Use extremely common words. Animals, plants, foods, colors. Maybe jam a number onto one. Here's a tool to do this. http://watchout4snakes.com/wo4snakes/Random/RandomPhrase http://watchout4snakes.com/wo4snakes/Random/RandomPhrase Generate an Adjective-Noun or Noun-Noun. Here are some examples I ran across: Fourth Asylum Coding Helium Young Uproar Tedious Headline Hungry Virus Not saying any of these are great, but this is the kind of name I'm talking about. These might sound ridiculous to you, but if you actually look at tech names, they're often meaningless or incomprehensible. When someone searches for one of these ridiculous names on google and finds only you, that's when the name shines.
dirktheman 12y ago
There are a couple of sites that I regularly use for exactly this. The key is to find words or synonyms for what your startup does, and enter them in one of these websites: - http://www.nameboy.com/ http://www.nameboy.com/ - http://www.bustaname.com/ http://www.bustaname.com/ - http://www.dotomator.com/ http://www.dotomator.com/ - http://www.leandomainsearch.com/ http://www.leandomainsearch.com/ These sites give you tons of suggestions. It'll save you a lot of time!
Netuned 12y ago
I suggest these tools to help you: http://www.businessnamegenerator.com/ http://www.businessnamegenerator.com/ http://www.wordlab.com/name-generators/business-name-generator/ http://www.wordlab.com/name-generators/business-name-generat... http://www.rhymer.com/ http://www.rhymer.com/ http://www.naming.net/ http://www.naming.net/
kjs3 12y ago
The couple of times I've done this, it involved the co-founders, an unabridged dictionary and a couple of bottles of good scotch. I'm admittedly old fashioned about such things.

5 points by vsakos 12y ago

jere 12y ago

IMO, there are two fairly easy ways to name your company: 1) Combine english syllables to come up with a fictitious word that sounds good. This is how Ninite was named and they even provide the source for the program they used: http://ninite.tumblr.com/post/620277259/how-ninite-was-named-by-a-computer-program http://ninite.tumblr.com/post/620277259/how-ninite-was-named... There are some other tools to help you with this: http://wordoid.com/ http://wordoid.com/ 2) Jam two words and/or numbers together. They can be somewhat or totally unrelated. Examples: 37Signals, RocketDog. Neither of these techniques gets you a name that is related to your project (you can loosely relate to your project with the second technique), but I think that's the least important part. Mostly, you just need a good domain and to sidestep any trademarks. Using a single cool sounding word seems like about the worst angle you can try from a legal/financial perspective; no matter how obscure you think it is (e.g. town names, latin words), it's probably been used dozens of times by others. One of my startup ideas was a company that did this for you. It's not especially hard to do anything of this but it is tedious. It's not a very good idea in retrospect.

vsakos 12y ago
1) Thanks, I will definitely read this. I didn't mentioned but I also tried Wordoid and some other similar services. My problem with these is that I need a word as the starting point, but I can't find one for which wordoid can generate words that sounds good and is easy to pronounce (the generated word is either crap or the com domain is not available). 2) I tried jamming words, but nothing... I even tried finding keywords for this on BetaLis and YCList.
- jere 12y ago
  I know what you're saying with Wordroid. You'd find a good one eventually, but it's incredibly time consuming. As for as second technique, my point was you don't need to use related keywords. Use extremely common words. Animals, plants, foods, colors. Maybe jam a number onto one. Here's a tool to do this. http://watchout4snakes.com/wo4snakes/Random/RandomPhrase http://watchout4snakes.com/wo4snakes/Random/RandomPhrase Generate an Adjective-Noun or Noun-Noun. Here are some examples I ran across: Fourth Asylum Coding Helium Young Uproar Tedious Headline Hungry Virus Not saying any of these are great, but this is the kind of name I'm talking about. These might sound ridiculous to you, but if you actually look at tech names, they're often meaningless or incomprehensible. When someone searches for one of these ridiculous names on google and finds only you, that's when the name shines.

dirktheman 12y ago

There are a couple of sites that I regularly use for exactly this. The key is to find words or synonyms for what your startup does, and enter them in one of these websites: - http://www.nameboy.com/ http://www.nameboy.com/ - http://www.bustaname.com/ http://www.bustaname.com/ - http://www.dotomator.com/ http://www.dotomator.com/ - http://www.leandomainsearch.com/ http://www.leandomainsearch.com/ These sites give you tons of suggestions. It'll save you a lot of time!

Netuned 12y ago

I suggest these tools to help you: http://www.businessnamegenerator.com/ http://www.businessnamegenerator.com/ http://www.wordlab.com/name-generators/business-name-generator/ http://www.wordlab.com/name-generators/business-name-generat... http://www.rhymer.com/ http://www.rhymer.com/ http://www.naming.net/ http://www.naming.net/

kjs3 12y ago

The couple of times I've done this, it involved the co-founders, an unabridged dictionary and a couple of bottles of good scotch. I'm admittedly old fashioned about such things.