How to name your new startup?

Naming startups is hard. At least for me. I spend days before I pick a suitable name for my startup, and even then I am not entirely satisfied with it. Here is a "short" practical guide on how to improve, and possibly speed up the process.

Let’s say you are creating a startup that stores video files.

1. Add prefix or suffix

Alter the name by adding some popular suffixes to it:

video + ly = videoly
video + ty = videoty
video + ed = videoed

Here is a list of suffixes I use:

ar - or - sy - ed - us - oo - ty - er - is - ly - ry

Similarly, you can use some popular prefixes, and prepend them to the word:

be - co - de - ex - in - un - se - re - co - my

2. Compound words

Try to mix your base word with something that will resonate well with it:

Video + Guide = VideoGuide
Video + Art = VideoArt
Video + Stash = VideoStash

Or, you can use some of the general premium keywords, like:

Auto - Black - Club - Design - Gold - Health - Tech
Home - Media - Perfect - Premium - Pro - Service
Services - Shop - Solutions - Studio - Web - World

With these, you need to decide whether the keyword sounds better as a first or a second word. For example, Perfect goes well as a first word (PrefectVideo), Services as a second (VideoServices), and Design can go in both places (VideoDesign or DesignVideo).

3. Make one word out of two

Some examples are Groupon (group + coupon), Instagram (instant camera + telegram), Sony (lat. sonus (sound) + sonny (slang)). You can also use three words, like Vodafone (voice, data, and telephone) and Durex (Durable, Reliable, and Excellence), and so on.

I am mostly using this method when creating names for my startups. You will probably end up with tens or hundreds of names this way. And most of them will be bad, but out of 500, you can narrow it down to 10 suitable names.

For one of my sites, I ended up with Eredom, which is a combination of Erebor (from Hobbit) and domain(s).

4. Use made-up words

You can use something that doesn’t have any specific meaning but still sounds good. Names like Addier, Coitta, Benuin, Tammos, and other, somewhat brandable domain names.

Although they don’t hold any specific meaning, with a good logo and branding, you can make them into powerful company names. Made-up names like Kodak, Cisco, and Rolex are well-known brands, and after all these years, they sound natural, like any other English word.

You can check out more of those on eredom.

5. Use domain naming tools

There are a couple of excellent tools that I use (like InstantDomainSearch and NameOyster) where you can type your term and you get a lot of names around that term. I wrote a list of tools I find most useful, and you can find more here (and a bunch of other tools).

Spend some time playing with them, as they can help you immensely with your search, and save you (a lot) of time.

6. Buy a (registered) brandable domain name

You can find a lot of services offering already taken domain names, like BrandBucket, SquadHelp, Brandpa, and others. They usually contain only .com domain names, and when you buy a domain, you will also get a logo with it.

My opinion is that the short, made-up names there are overpriced. Yes, they look nicer with the logo and everything, but I don’t think that the price for the made-up, recently registered .com names like minyr, pufno or optha should be in the 10k range. On the other hand, they do have good two-word domain names, but they come with a price.

Hopefully, after all these steps, you have ended up with a lot of possible startup names.

Now what? Read on.

How to pick the best startup/domain name?

1. Choose .com

Dot com is still the most valuable domain extension out there: it is still the most widely recognized and trusted. You may be tempted to look at other domain extensions, but, in the end, if your startup has any success, you will look to buy a .com extension.

So, why not just save the time, and go for the .com right away? Don’t end up like Nissan - they still don’t own the nissan.com domain.

2. Keep it short

Short domain names are more memorable, and they are easier to say, spell and write.

If you can, go with the shorter name. Or, at least, try to keep it under 15 characters.

Also, remember that fewer syllables are better than fewer letters. Go with up to three syllables.

3. Make it pronounceable and easy to spell

Say the name you have chosen out loud. Do it twice. Grab someone, and make them say that name out loud. Does it make sense to them? Did they struggle to pronounce it? Were they successful for the first time? Call someone, and say it through the phone. Were they able to write it down on the first try?

If the answer to any of those is no, try to think about another name.

Also, be careful with double letters, or with words with omitted letters. Fiverr is now a well-known brand, but they had issues at the beginning with people constantly misspelling their name. Similarly, we are now aware of how to spell Flickr, but it wasn’t like that back in the day when people were constantly typing Flicker in the search bar.

Think twice about unexpected letter combinations. It will make your marketing efforts harder, especially in the early startup days.

4. Avoid domain names with numbers or dashes

If you can, don’t use numbers or dashes. With those, the other side is not sure if the name is twodots or 2dots.

The same goes with dashes. You might think that car-dealership is a good name, but almost no one will search for that idiom using a dash. And they will probably end up on a different site, and you don’t want that.

5. Google a name

This is important. Look if there is a similar domain name already taken. Take some time to investigate what Google (and other search engines) return when you search your new domain name.

6. Check a trademark

You want a unique name. A name that is not easily confused with something else, especially with something popular. Try to search for an existing trademark on the name. USPTO is one excellent source for checking copyright infringement.

7. Check social accounts

Equally important is to check if all or some (major) social account handles are taken. It will vastly improve your marketing efforts. I can recommend namecheckr, but there are other tools for that.

8. Leave room for growth

Depending on the purpose of your startup, you might consider the globality of your startup name. miamicookies is a good name for a cookie stand in Miami, but if you want your cookies to conquer the world, you need to be less descriptive. Go with something more universal, yet still associated with cookies - cookily, for example.

9. Optionally, protect your brand

As noted in the first point, aim for a .com domain name. After you have bought your .com name, to solidify your brand, you could take other (more well-known) domain extensions, like .net, .co, .org, and similar. Maybe you can even get some misspelled versions of your name, to avoid someone from hijacking your users.

10. Get a good name, not a perfect one

Finally, don’t overdo it. Search and investigate, but don’t lose days, or even weeks, looking for a perfect name. With a good name, you are good enough for the time being. Focus on creating value for your users/customers, which is the best thing you can do in the early startup days.

I hope this will help someone speed things up! Good luck in your search :)