Naming Startups
I was reading Megan Dorn's blog post this morning about coming up with a name for your company, and I was frowning. There were some fine points, but some others I strongly disagree with.
"Kleenex" is a brand that is counterproductive - it leads entrepreneurs down the rabbit hole. Exxon and Kodak are the other two examples you see all the time. A totally made up blue sky name is fine if you have a billion dollar advertising budget to teach everyone in the world what it means. Compare "Jaiku" and "Twitter". Twitter is onomatopoetic but even more than that it sounds like what differentiates it - twitter evokes the frequent, lightweight messages skittering about. Jaiku is a cipher at best. Which is probably all you can say about any "blue sky" made up name - your best case first impression is completely neutral without a budget to teach us what it means.
"Domain Names" - Don't event think about branding around something you don't have the .com for. Choosing names without a registrar's search box open in front of you is a fun exercise, but expect to come up with 20 names, especially if you struggle with uniqueness. I personally couldn't do it... I have to know if the .com is available before I even start rolling it around in my head - why waste my time without knowing?
"Competitors" - I can't find the Mark Cuban quote about how many streaming sites had the word "cast" in them, and how no one could remember any of them. Looking at your competitors names for inspiration seems like a pretty bad place to find it, and an opportunity for groupthink. Instead look at the competition to highlight what differentiates you, then pick your name around that.
"Expansion" suggests that you name your startup something that would fit if you moved into other industries. I couldn't disagree more. It is orders of magnitude easier for a trillion dollar AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph) to teach us "Oh yeah, we sell broadband internet now too." than for a "Yahoo" in someone's garage to teach us "Hey everybody, we're a portal".
Ok, that was a lot of what not to do. Here are a few tactics I use.
Parallel Words: Come up with a list of words that are associated with things that are associated with what your startup does instead of a direct description. Words you might use to describe an action involved in using the site but don't precisely describe the startup. Um... if you had a music site, a parallel word could be "Phonograph".
Evocative Verbs: Come up with a list of words that have drama built in. These make great modifiers. I keep trying to work "Unless" into a name.
Phrases: You have to be careful not to get too hung up on an esoteric phrase, but a common phrase which can be twisted a little can make a great name. They often have a built in resonance which made them slip into the vernacular in the first place.
Free Association: You should have a pool of words that describe what your startup does directly. Be creative, think about verbs and what differentiates you. Short words are actually your friend more than long ones.
Misspellings: Avoid them. "Digg with two Gs" can get away with it (it's certainly better than "Dig") but it always introduces the possibility of confusion. Never misspell a word which has any chance of looking like it was accidental... don't flip ie clusters, don't replace one vowel with another, etc. Doubling up consonants seems to be safest if you have to go that route.
The .com thing: I despise domain squatters, I get angry just thinking about them. There is a special place in hell next to the spammers and the RIAA reserved just for people who register a domain with the goal of extorting money out of companies that actually create things. But truth be told I think they are a boon for naming a company. They keep you out of the generics, where your name gets lost. Branding around a single English word or even a simple concatenation is a really bad idea, and the squatters make it impossible.
Two Word Pairs: Take all of your lists from above and start mixing and matching them. I find that two word pairs are the easiest way to get closer to the goal...
The Goal: A unique name that evokes what you do without describing it explicitly. A name that you don't have to tell people how to spell, and that can be understood over the phone the first time. One that is memorable, you can brand around, and that would look good on the side of a square building in an office park. Very few brands have all of these aspects nailed in a 10 character or shorter name.
Naming is one of the most difficult and important parts of starting a business, so make sure you give it the energy it deserves. When you find the right name you'll know it immediately because you'll know why the hundreds you threw away didn't work.
"Kleenex" is a brand that is counterproductive - it leads entrepreneurs down the rabbit hole. Exxon and Kodak are the other two examples you see all the time. A totally made up blue sky name is fine if you have a billion dollar advertising budget to teach everyone in the world what it means. Compare "Jaiku" and "Twitter". Twitter is onomatopoetic but even more than that it sounds like what differentiates it - twitter evokes the frequent, lightweight messages skittering about. Jaiku is a cipher at best. Which is probably all you can say about any "blue sky" made up name - your best case first impression is completely neutral without a budget to teach us what it means.
"Domain Names" - Don't event think about branding around something you don't have the .com for. Choosing names without a registrar's search box open in front of you is a fun exercise, but expect to come up with 20 names, especially if you struggle with uniqueness. I personally couldn't do it... I have to know if the .com is available before I even start rolling it around in my head - why waste my time without knowing?
"Competitors" - I can't find the Mark Cuban quote about how many streaming sites had the word "cast" in them, and how no one could remember any of them. Looking at your competitors names for inspiration seems like a pretty bad place to find it, and an opportunity for groupthink. Instead look at the competition to highlight what differentiates you, then pick your name around that.
"Expansion" suggests that you name your startup something that would fit if you moved into other industries. I couldn't disagree more. It is orders of magnitude easier for a trillion dollar AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph) to teach us "Oh yeah, we sell broadband internet now too." than for a "Yahoo" in someone's garage to teach us "Hey everybody, we're a portal".
Ok, that was a lot of what not to do. Here are a few tactics I use.
Parallel Words: Come up with a list of words that are associated with things that are associated with what your startup does instead of a direct description. Words you might use to describe an action involved in using the site but don't precisely describe the startup. Um... if you had a music site, a parallel word could be "Phonograph".
Evocative Verbs: Come up with a list of words that have drama built in. These make great modifiers. I keep trying to work "Unless" into a name.
Phrases: You have to be careful not to get too hung up on an esoteric phrase, but a common phrase which can be twisted a little can make a great name. They often have a built in resonance which made them slip into the vernacular in the first place.
Free Association: You should have a pool of words that describe what your startup does directly. Be creative, think about verbs and what differentiates you. Short words are actually your friend more than long ones.
Misspellings: Avoid them. "Digg with two Gs" can get away with it (it's certainly better than "Dig") but it always introduces the possibility of confusion. Never misspell a word which has any chance of looking like it was accidental... don't flip ie clusters, don't replace one vowel with another, etc. Doubling up consonants seems to be safest if you have to go that route.
The .com thing: I despise domain squatters, I get angry just thinking about them. There is a special place in hell next to the spammers and the RIAA reserved just for people who register a domain with the goal of extorting money out of companies that actually create things. But truth be told I think they are a boon for naming a company. They keep you out of the generics, where your name gets lost. Branding around a single English word or even a simple concatenation is a really bad idea, and the squatters make it impossible.
Two Word Pairs: Take all of your lists from above and start mixing and matching them. I find that two word pairs are the easiest way to get closer to the goal...
The Goal: A unique name that evokes what you do without describing it explicitly. A name that you don't have to tell people how to spell, and that can be understood over the phone the first time. One that is memorable, you can brand around, and that would look good on the side of a square building in an office park. Very few brands have all of these aspects nailed in a 10 character or shorter name.
Naming is one of the most difficult and important parts of starting a business, so make sure you give it the energy it deserves. When you find the right name you'll know it immediately because you'll know why the hundreds you threw away didn't work.
posted by aseever at
8:46 AM
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