Ask HN: How do you choose a name for your product / service?

27 points by finspin 9 years ago | 15 comments

Any tips you could share on how do you come up with a product name? Do you validate the name with your friends / potential customers or do you just go with the first thing that comes to your mind? I'm thinking that having a good name is quite important but is it worth spending too much time on?

Jemaclus 9 years ago |

I don't have any ideas about picking good names, but one rule of thumb about picking names is that it should pass the bar test. The bar test is simple: if you're in a loud bar, and someone asks you the name of your company, and you tell them, they should be able to go home and type it into Google exactly and know what it is.

For example, "Microsoft" is a good one, as are Captain 401K, Uber, and Stripe, because it's made of real words or are easy to spell and remember.

On the other hand, company names like "Shypmate" or "Cymmetria" are poor choices, because they sound close enough to regular words but are spelled differently. Another thing to consider is whether one word sounds like another. For example, a company I used to work for, RentJuice, was often misheard as "RentJews". I used to joke that it was a Jewish escort service...

Anyway, it's not a foolproof way to come up with GOOD names, but it's a simple way to identify names that are weak, especially when it comes to the ability to spread by word of mouth.

aquark 9 years ago | |

Actually I think Stripe is a surprisingly bad name. I work a lot with Stripe (& love them technically), have over a thousand of (mostly non-technical) customers that are connected via Stripe connect.

The name gets mangled by customers, A LOT. The most common confusion is (repeatedly) calling them swipe though strip has come up more than once. People are thinking more in terms of swiping cards than the stripe on them and so that verb sticks in their mind.

finspin 9 years ago | | |

Here's a story by one of the founders on how Stripe came up with the name https://www.quora.com/How-did-Stripe-come-up-with-its-name

rcavezza 9 years ago | |

This is good advice. I would add you should also buy the domain names that can also make the same sound. For example, if you founded uber.com, you might also want to buy oober.com and redirect to uber.com.

codegeek 9 years ago |

Don't over think it of course but here are some guidelines:

- Not longer than 7-8 characters

- If you go for something unconventional, it should be easy to pronounce (very important. "Google" was unconventional but easy to pronounce)

- Try not to use a dash or even numbers unless it is relevant like 411.com etc. Because if you do, then I have to think. Is it 1 or one ?

- Don't make me think if I have to type your domain on my browser/phone etc. Spelling should be easy too

- If the name gives me an idea of what you do, really great. But not required. For example, careerbuilder.com gives me an idea but monster doesn't. If I never heard of either, i can easily guess which one is related to careers and jobs potentially.

eble 9 years ago |

Having a good name is good thing. But the service you are building must be of high value. First build a great product, then name it whatever you want, rename it whenever you want.

jimsojim 9 years ago |

Recently came across this interesting guide on this: https://www.igorinternational.com/process/igor-naming-guide....

finspin 9 years ago | |

Wow, you can write a whole book on the topic! Lots of good info in there, thanks for sharing.

supernormal 9 years ago |

I like Ben's approach to naming products/services - http://blog.pieratt.com/post/77293289254/a-3-step-process-fo...

The name does not directly need to coincide with its inherent value, paint the picture with your personal or teams values.

taprun 9 years ago |

I used http://leandomainsearch.com and found a six letter domain that was made up of two English words. The name has nothing to do with my offering, but it's short and easy to pronounce / spell without any confusion.

Bonus: Since it was available, it only cost 99 cents for the first year (with coupon).

rogerdpack 9 years ago | |

For anyone interested, for my "hobby" projects naming conventions, one tip/trick is that you don't have to worry about the domain name being available (just competition with the "real" domain name) if you create a subdomain using afraid.org, ex:

mydomainname.inet2.org

or what not. You can have any domain name you want including ones whose .com and .org and .net are already taken LOL. Great for side projects, free, blah blah...

bharani_m 9 years ago |

I had a lot of trouble coming up with a good name/domain for my side project. I tried a few name suggestion tools [1][2] but wasn't satisfied with the results.

I was browsing through this site called FreshDrop [3] which lists expired/expiring domains and stumbled across a nice name - Metriculator.

Luckily metriculator.com and the social media handles were available. This might not work for everyone but is definitely worth a try.

[1] http://impossibility.org/

[2] http://www.leandomainsearch.com/

[3] https://www.freshdrop.com/

asteadman 9 years ago |

no. name picking is a rabbit hole, proving your product/service is far more important. pick something unique so that people can google it and come up with a meaningful result. If it becomes a problem, you can always change it AFTER you've proven your idea.

finspin 9 years ago | |

Yes, that's what I've been thinking too. The only thing that holds me back is that I'm going to put a lot of effort into promoting the product launch and generate traffic to my domain. If I switch the product name (domain) later on, all the effort might be wasted. I know I can redirect the old domain to a new one but still, backlinks might lose some weight.

Mz 9 years ago |

http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2015/08/how-aflac-go...