SCISSCI » Main » ChoosingAName

What is the name for?

• Identification
  • Of what? (a group of people? a place? a thing? an activity?)
• Branding and Marketing
  • help describe your goals
  • help distinguish from similar projects

What aspects of a name really matter?

• easy to say
• easy to spell
• distinctive
• memorable and catchy
• domain name availability (especially .com)
• trademark conflict

How to choose a name:

1. Come up with a long list of potential names, by any means necessary (stream of consciousness, glossolalia, cut-ups, random word generators, spam email titles... )
2. Eliminate the obviously terrible or unworkable.
3. Narrow the list down to a manageable number of words and word combinations (10-30)
4. Check .com availability. Try word variations and synonyms, focusing on short and easy-to-say (if you have to explain anything about how to spell it, it's bad)
5. For a good name, .org or .net are acceptable. But the taken .com should be very distinct from your project. If the .com is "squatted" (empty, with meaningless advertising), you risk having people think your site is dead, so you should really really like the name.
6. Show your short list of acceptable, available names to everyone you know.
7. Discard the entire process, and use the first thing that pops into your head. (at a certain point, the specific name doesn't really matter)

Resources and Advice:

• Findlaw: business name do's and don'ts
• Random Ethinic Name Generator
• Random Band Name Generator
• Ten Thousand Statistically Grammar-Average Fake Band Names
• Fantasy Name Generator - the insult names are especially "artsy" (Dorkclown, Airskull, Snoogylump...)