Ask HN: How do you name your startups or web apps?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=799009

by ehsanul • 17 years ago

8 5 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

The question is quite self-explanatory. But there's no clear answer. Even if one does find the perfect name, often the domain is just not available, often due to squatters. It seems like we all have to turn to domain hacks or something.

So how have you named your startup or web app?

Mankhool• 17 years ago

I'm developing my first mobile / web app. I wanted it to have a Canadian theme. My wife suggested "Gander", as in Newfoundland. Close to where the transatlantic cable comes out of the sea and close to where Amelia Earhart stopped for fuel. I wanted "Maple" and after vacillating between it and a few others I decided it was as good a name as any for an app - and I could make a distinctive icon for the store. Also, I really like acronyms, but it was only after a few weeks that I realized just how perfect a name it was, because what I'm working on is Mobile Access [to] People Living Everywhere.

growt• 17 years ago

I hope you don't run into trouble with these guys: http://www.maplesoft.com/Products/Maple/

Remember to always do some research on your chosen name before you actually name the product.

mg1313• 17 years ago

Try this www.dotomator.com ...

jacquesm• 17 years ago

Thesaurus, a corpus of text based on project gutenberg.

Usually I have a fair idea of the kinds of words I want around a project, the thesaurus gives one or two alternatives that I had not thought of (English 2nd language here), then I use a little program I wrote that tries to pull together two or more words based on a dictionary extracted from project gutenberg.

The resulting words are looked at one-by-one, promising ones go in to the 'register multiple' field at moniker, when I have enough I submit, check to see if any of my favorites came back as free.

It's time consuming, sometimes as much as a day for a good domain, but it almost always works.

chinmi• 17 years ago

You think long, hard and often.

As long as you're the least bit creative, after a while (days, weeks,...) your brain will come up with something.

Try deforming an existing word à la Google, try combining two words into one (techcrunch), try using numbers or you can even try and invent a new word.

Squatters can't buy up everything, there are still options.

Ask HN: How do you name your startups or web apps?

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