Naming a product can be a stressful and time consuming process. We discussed the possibilities of such names as chryke, formosaurus, and a bunch of other weird names before settling on [Wufoo](http://wufoo.com “Create online surveys, html forms, and invitationsâ€?). While some people love our name, and others hate it, we were sold when our parents and friends were able to remember the name after being told just once. It’s our belief that an easy to remember name combined with a quality product is the key rather than a name that is just descriptive of the product. To learn more about what to consider when naming your product, here are a handful of links worth checking out.
The New Rules of Naming - Seth discusses what makes a good name and a bad name. Find out why he believes that it’s more important to have a name that works with Google and Technorati rather than the perfect product name.
Snarkhunting.com - This site has an entire section dedicated to naming and branding a company with some great articles on naming.
The New Naming Game - “During the first dotcom boom, at least you knew where you stood. If you wanted a trendy name for your startup, you’d just combine two randomly selected words - a fruit and a colour, say - and lo, you were in business as a meaningless Redmango or a YellowGrape. We are all much wiser now, of course, as Web 2.0 has come along with a plethora of online ventures devoted to your digital lifestyle. But eeeuw, what a bizarre set of apparently random letter combinations today’s web gurus are foisting on their businesses.â€?
Building the Perfect Beast - A 90 page PDF guide on naming and branding that includes case studies, naming tools, and more.
The Name Game - Guy Kawasaki discusses what he thinks is important in a name and believes that there should be more to the naming process than looking for an available domain.
How They Named Companies - Learn how companies like Amazon and AltaVista came up with their names. Did you know that Nike was named after a Greek goddess?
Cool Articles, well worth the read.
Just so you know, the link: for snarkhunting.com is broken… you have http://particletree.com/notebook/whatas-in-a-name/Snarkhunting.com instead of the correct link.
Try out something I’d like to think I invented: “Scrabble Marketing”.
My experience with how a board game, Scrabble, can revolutionize your branding and product naming strategy sessions. It’s a fun, exciting and productive method for idea generation.
Good call Alex.
Martin, that’s not a bad idea. Could make that into a neat little web app that also checks if the domain name is available =)
Also: http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/webapps/trademark-tips-for-your-web-app
I would also check out StartSimple in New York
http://www.startsimple.com/
More traditional names and naming then the web2.0 stuff, but some very evocative names none the less.
Great article, however in our case we opted for a different strategy. You stated that:
“It’s our belief that an easy to remember name combined with a quality product is the key rather than a name that is just descriptive of the product.”
We recently changed our name to Voices.com because it’s a great domain name as well as it explains what we offer. In today’s environment, I find the shorter, more memorable names are the most effective.
Thanks a lot for Chris campbell for the article i am looking for the same….