Ask HN: How to name an open source project?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8819876

by Annonomus • 12 years ago

2 3 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

What's the best way to think of a name for an open source project? This will be one of my first projects I make, and I suck at naming. I know I'm not going to get a perfect name, but any tips so I don't end up with a name like RWThemano (courtesy of http://mrsharpoblunto.github.io/foswig.js/... ironic how that doesn't have a good name)

LarryMade2• 12 years ago

Your mileage may vary -

Depends on the target of the project. You probably want a name that works with what it does. Something easy to pronounce and memorable helps. If its web-based you might want to determine a name along with domain name availability. In the case of my local community web search it started with doitincalaveras.com and is now refined to doplaces.com, if you are persistent with word combinations you can still get good short web domain names.

Here are some I did:

Many just get a name of what it does, character set editor, librarian (library management), etc. If you don't expect it to be competing with a lot of other things, this works fine, (you could always rename it later like - Bookworm Librarian, without too much hassle)

Alliteration of existing words, names. Years ago I made a program to automate cleaning up text files, I called it "Alphamix text file processor" (play on Vitamix the food processor)

Second thought is an acronym, compile a long list of words that the project entails and then try to work up a witty acronym consisting of those words for the name. I did this for a databasse management system; I called it, WANDA: Web Accessible Nimble Database Architecture. I had intended it to have a female name as many of the application I develop with it would be used in an office environment and was thinking of a smart professional assistant vibe.

Some play on popular character or story names (WANDA's logo is a fish, thinking of a Fish Called Wanda...)

Mainly think of your audience - if its techies you can get away with a lot. If it is not, don't get too weird (you know Atari was originally Syzygy, not a great name for long term public recognition. It it is too obscure people may not know what it is and you won't get the browse-by traffic that a more pertinent name could provide.

If its something fun, you might go for the absurd such as my favorite game name "Chess Maniac 5 Billion and 1" ... or maybe some name Douglas Adams would have made up for your product.

hackerboos• 12 years ago

Something that you can google. I hate projects with generic names that bring up unrelated google results.

MrDHat• 12 years ago

I, mostly, figure out the best use-case for the project and then translate it into some other language to get a cool name. For example, I am currently working on a 2 way synchronization system which will mostly be used as a queuing system, so, I translated 'Queue' to 'Qatar', which is Hindi for queue :)

Sometimes, I like to get the closest match in any other industry (Communications in this case). We recently named a notification system 'satellite', and similar names for publishers and subscribers.

Ask HN: How to name an open source project?

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