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How to Name Startups
by
Courtland Allen
https://atay.me/posts/how-i-name-startups
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I didn't see any mention of checking for trademarks. When similarly intelligent people use a similar set of guidelines to come up with domain/company names, depending on the type of business, there's a possibility that someone else has already registered the trademark for a similar business.
There are probably more important things to worry about given the likelihood. But it might be worth considering since it doesn't take long and it might be helpful as a deciding factor if stuck between two close options. Potentially steering clear of any legal issues is not nothing.
Thoughts?
Thoughts? Yep.
Trademark research is almost more important than the name itself.
A start-up of mine has specialized in name finding. Many of our clients had this problem, you have 10 names for one idea but which name is legally the most harmless. Even I already had an objection against a trademark registration.
Hint. As a side project, we developed NameScore. This helps to check names.
Hey Courtland, tell us the story how you came up with "indie hackers" name :)
I don't remember exactly what was going through my head, but I just went back and found this Google Doc. Clearly I was inspired by Nomad List, and I wanted something evocative and inspirational. I went one step further and named the site after its users rather than naming it its own thing.
Very glad I didn't go with WageHackers or DreamHackers ;-)
Inception BWAM sound
So much of this falls into three buckets—programming, freedom and money!
I'm so happy that list wasn't filled with ____Makers.com names! DreamHackers sounds cool but a totally different, less business-ey niche.
I’ve built a product that helps you name things: https://naminus.com
Give it feedback by clicking like / love / hate, and it learns your tastes and generates names tailored to your tastes over time. Similar to how Pandora learns your taste in music.
Appreciate any feedback! Reply to this comment and I’ll give you some extra credits if you decide to purchase either of the premium packages.
anything as long as it doesn't end with -ly
all good names ending in -ly have been exhausted in 2016
and by good I mean not horrible
doopoll was originally called dooloop because our earliest customers were all about ‘closing the loop on feedback’.
But a German television company was very against us using that and told us quite clearly with a cease and desist.
We got lucky that our current name is close to what we already chose and is descriptive of what we actually do.
I just don't agree with length thing. Up to 10 letters?
Indie Hackers has 12 and yet it's still incredibly easy to remember.
Real Not Complex has 14, but it's easy to remember for my target audience, because math people talk about REAL and COMPLEX numbers all the time. :)
Wow! I've needed something like this! Thanks so much @csallen 👍
This is the most comprehensive and useful thing I've read on brand naming:
https://www.nickkolenda.com/brand-names/
Here are some other awesome resources I've used!
This comment was deleted 5 years ago.