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Ask HN: How do I name my web app?

7 points| productnaming | 10 years ago | reply

I am about to launch a web app that is a major improvement over existing products. However, I'm stuck trying to think of a name for it.

How do you create names for startups, web apps, etc. that are memorable and convey what the product does?

So far I, I can only think of names that make sense, in which case the domain name is already taken, and names that don't make sense (I've started trying non-English languages).

Any suggestions?

19 comments

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[+] nadavw|10 years ago|reply
Hey, first time commenting in HN...let's hope i don't break any rules :) We spent 5+ months thinking about different names & brainstormed literally for hours. You can find lots of good idea generators & checks for domains, social, etc here: http://startupstash.com/

We tried lots of languages (Greek, Spanish, Cherokee, you name it!) and even looked at cocktails (hint from Gimlet Media)...but nothing felt right...at the end we figured it needs to be something super simple but also tied into other aspects of what we're doing...

Since most of our users are traveling, we thought about things you see while traveling (animals, famous places, etc) as well as the actions you take (packing, moving, flying, etc)...in the end we loved the idea of "pack" -- it can be a noun, verb, whatever you want...but it was obviously taken across social media...

So we played around with Pak, Pakk, Pacq, Paqk, etc. We settled on Pak & Paq then ran it by some friends--good thing!!!--as apparently Pak is a racist slur for Pakistanis (never knew that)...so we went with Paq which fits into "have you Paq-ed for your trip?" "drop a Paq" and our mascot...Ally the Alpaqa!

Another tip is to think about what your core demographic is and play to those languages/strengths...While we loved "caja" (spanish for box) in Hebrew (we're based in Tel Aviv) it sounds like "cacha" which means "so-so"

Hope this helps!

[+] theGREENsuit|10 years ago|reply
This is how I go about naming things - by thinking of an associated concept or word or image. Recently, my workplace was looking to name their new BI tool. I thought about what BI gives you, thought about images it invokes, etc. Ultimately, I thought 'Echo' was a good name since you can think of business data being the echo of business and it's not the usual 'intelligence', 'insight', etc.
[+] drakonka|10 years ago|reply
Ok so I went through a whole thing for this with my snail simulation. Usually naming stuff is pretty easy for me but...well, it is hard to make a snail simulation sound interesting and cool (because it's not). But I sure as hell was going to try!

One of my big rules was that I didn't want it to sound too _gamey_. This is a _simulation_, not a _game_. I also wanted it to sound kind of unique. The other thing is...the .com. You wouldn't think .com domain names related to snails would be very popular, but all the snail.com stuff I tried had already been snagged! My list of brainstormed names included, but was not limited to, the following:

* Snails

* Snail Simulator (sounded too gamey because of all the other simulator games, but I registered the domain just in case)

SnailWorld.com (unavailable)

* SnailTales (too gamey and cutesy sounding)

* TheSnails

In the end I settled on...wait for it...Gastropoda.

It sounded unusual and the use of the name of the snails' taxonomic class kind of promoted the simulation over the game aspect. Ignore the fact that slugs should then also fall into this...and are not included in the simulation. But as for the .com - even gastropoda.com was already taken!! I ended up registering gastropodasim.com and learning to live with it.

But it never quite felt right. I kind of resigned myself to not being 100% happy with the name - I just needed _a_ name. And then...I learned of the .life TLD. Screw the long _gastropodasim.com_! I saw that snail.life was available!

And, urged by the sheer appropriateness of this name and domain name to the thing I am actually making, I learned to drop the .com and renamed the project to SnailLife.

In the end availability of domains and some hard rules on the message I wanted to get across (unique, not too gamey-sounding) was what drove the naming of my simulation for me.

[+] acpmasquerade|10 years ago|reply
SimulatingSnails

Gastropodasim would never be the name of my choice.

[+] acpmasquerade|10 years ago|reply
What is the concept of the app ? We can try if some hints are provided.

Also, namestation does good job in helping to crowdsource the naming (domain names) problem.

Found an article suggesting some ideas behind choosing a good name. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/239556

[+] productnaming|10 years ago|reply
It's a document editor (meant as a replacement for google docs, etc.).

The main advantages of the app over what already exists are:

- Minimalist design - Faster - Simpler - New features - Works on mobile devices

That article is useful, thanks!

[+] panorama|10 years ago|reply
The best, leanest compromise would be not necessarily needing [yourname].com. For instance, get[yourname].com, try[yourname].com, [yourname]app.com, and so forth. Or other tlds.

Otherwise the time spent trying to think of a unique, non-taken name that is easily recalled and spelled/pronounced is a little too much trouble than it's worth at this stage I'd bet.

[+] partisan|10 years ago|reply
Visualthesaurus.com is a good option for finding related terms. That combined with the techniques mentioned in other comments should get you on your way.
[+] J_Darnley|10 years ago|reply
Whatever name you choose don't forget to drop all the vowels from it.
[+] _august|10 years ago|reply
Check out domai.nr for checking multiple possibilities quickly
[+] rajacombinator|10 years ago|reply
try combining it with a feel-good word like zen[blah] or an animal [blah]monkey?