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How do you A/B test product names (or domain names)?

What criteria do you use to qualify the choices at hand?

Some common ones are "be a two-syllable word" and "hard to mistype". But there are other, less obvious ones. For example, I've found sometimes that somewhat controversial and/or non-intuitive names end up being more sticky than something that's easy to get at first but less memorable in the end.

Also, what sample size have you found sufficient to go with the winner?

on January 19, 2020
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    I’m having the same things going through for myself as well. Few criteria to follow for choosing domain name:

    • easily pronounceable (English word the best, if not then made up words like google)
    • less than 3 syllables
    • avoid auto-correct words (especially those made up word. Unless your domain name is already so popular and it becomes one of the modern dictionary words like google as well). You can try to typed it on your phone’s note and see if keyboard language auto correct it.
    • Brandable names (don’t sacrifice it for shorter name)
    • somewhat related to your business (like airtable.com, it’s excel table in the cloud)
    • pick .com extension
    • no number, no hyphen
    • less than 15 characters
    • max 2 words combination (Godaddy.com, not TheGoDaddy.com/BoringCompany.com, not TheBoringCompany.com)
    • don’t use domain name that only consist of pure consonant, unless you have one character domain name like Elon Musk has (x.com)
    • memorable (shortlist 10 domain names and show it to your friends, ask them which domain name they remember on the next day)
    • your names can easily tell a story. The Boring Company name is quite amazing as it makes me think twice. Boring = Making holes = Bored

    If you get to follow these rules, the domain name may be valuable which you can sell it at a better price in future. You can use godaddy appraisal tool to get some insights of how much your desired domain is worth (https://my.godaddy.com/domain-value-appraisal)