How do you name your applications? I've seen this is one topic where most programmers struggle before starting a project. How do you name your apps? Do you think is important to name them well? Where do you find the inspiration? How much effort do you put into that? |
One of my earlier database apps for an in-office app ran on FoxBase, guess what people called it? It had the fox logo and such. Good or bad other programs were assumed to be "FoxBase" too because of the ID screen and lack of a definitive name, was kinda hard presenting it without a unique name.
The revised database system using PHP, I gave it a name: WANDA (currently stands for - Web Accessible Nimble Database Architecture) A whole lot better then its development name, "the Web Database" I think having a name helped differentiate it from other programs, also picking one that is short, fun, easy to remember also helps for word of mouth adoption. The different applications within WANDA have more mundane names like WANDA Mail List, or WANDA Librarian, but with WANDA being so short it works.
I don't know about weird names, you can get too out there and people wont be able to recognize or spell it much less remember what its called ("Cuil", "Xara Extreme", "Quark Express", really?)
I think proper names are a good start if nothing else comes to mind, especially if they relate to the application's purpose, or at least are easy to remember.
Mainly what I did was decide I wanted the name to be a female name that was an acronym for something (female being friendlier and more efficient sounding), so I listed out relevant words and started testing acronym ideas. WANDA was the first that struck - (the movie A Fish Called Wanda did have some influence there, gotta go with the loosely related Monty Python reference...)
Commercial projects or free projects that need marketability often take on names that are at least tangentially-related. The names "Windows", "Stripe", and "Cairo" are all at least somewhat related to what they do. Windows is a GUI-driven OS with windows in it. Stripe takes magstripe card payments. Cairo is a drawing library that no doubt got its name from hieroglyphics.
But then there are a lot of projects with awful names. They might be good projects, but the names don't mean anything or don't have immediately obvious connections. A really annoying trend has become "hip" in the last 5 years or so, which is to pick a random, sophisticated-sounding noun, check if the .io is available, register your randomSophisticatedNoun.io domain, upload the (most likely javascript) to github, and then make a Show HN post about it and/or spam it on your blog.
Rome. PieCrust. Square. Robin. Bluefin. Selennium. Uber.
The names don't mean anything. I saw "Rome" on HN just a day or two ago but the name is poorly chosen because I can't tell you what they do.