17 Mutable Suggestions For Naming A Startup
Naming a startup is hard. Very hard. On the one hand, the pragmatic entrepreneur thinks: 鈥淚 shouldn鈥檛 be wasting time on this 鈥?for every successful company with a great name, there鈥檚 one with a crappy name that did just fine. It doesn鈥檛 seem like a name has much influence on the outcome at all. I鈥檓 going to get back to writing code.鈥?I sort of agree with this. You shouldn鈥檛 obssess about your name. But, you also shouldn鈥檛 dismiss it as unimportant. Part of the startup game is to try and remove unnecessary friction to your growth. Sure, you could build a spectacularly successful company despite having a lousy name 鈥?but why not stack the odds in your favor? One more reason why spending calories on picking a great name is important: It鈥檚 a one-time cost to get a great name 鈥?but the benefit is forever. Conversely, if you short-change this and dismiss it completely, you鈥檙e going to incur what I鈥檇 call 鈥渂randing debt鈥?
Not bad at first, and maybe not a big deal for you ever, but every year, as you grow, you鈥檒l have this small voice nagging inside your head 鈥渟hould I change the name of the company鈥︹€? It鈥檚 going to be annoying. And the longer you wait, the more expensive the decision is, and the less likely you are to do it. Save yourself some of that future pain, and invest early in picking a decent name. You may still get it wrong, but at least you鈥檒l know you tried. One last note before we get started: Not all of these are weighted equally. And, remember that these are suggestions not laws. 1. Make sure it鈥檚 legal! This should be obvious, but it鈥檚 an important step that too many entrepreneurs skip. Before attaching yourself to a name, make sure that someone else doesn鈥檛 already have claim to it by way of a trademark.
The good news is that if you satisfy some of the other conditions below (domain name, twitter handle, Facebook name), odds are relatively low that someone鈥檚 already using the name. 2. Hint At What You Do: You have two paths to go when picking a startup name. You can pick a name that is 鈥渟ynthetic鈥?and made-up (example: Wufoo or Quora) or you can use somthing that is somewhat descriptive of what you do (example: Backupify or KISSmetrics). I lean a bit towards the descriptive side of the spectrum. But, a lot depends on what you鈥檙e building. Synthetic names are often great in the long, long-term (easily trademarkable, and you can truly 鈥渙wn鈥?them and infuse them with meaning) 鈥?but most of the time, I鈥檓 more worried about surviving in the short-term. So, I like simple names that convey a bit of what the company actually does or stands for. 3. Make it easy to remember: How do you know whether a startup name is easy to remember? You don鈥檛 know. So, test it. Talk to people. Describe the company.
At the end of a 2-10 minute conversation, casually ask them if they remember what the name of the company is. If it didn鈥檛 鈥渞egister鈥?it鈥檚 not a failure on their part (and make sure to tell them that), but a failure on your part for not having something that鈥檚 memorable enough. 4. Make it unambiguous when spoken: A quick way to test this is to ask friends and family what they think of the name over the phone 鈥?and ask them to spell it back to you. If a decent percent of them get it wrong 鈥?or are uncertain, you鈥檝e got a problem. 5. Make it unambiguous in Google: Many of the tricks of the trade you鈥檒l use to monitor conversations that mention your company on the web will involve doing some sort of search. If your name is something like 鈥淧umpkin鈥? you鈥檙e going to have a harder time distinguishing when people are talking about the generic term, or when they鈥檙e talking about your company.