Struggling to find the right name for your next project?

Finding a name is a complex task. It's very subjective making it hard to nail the decision. Luckily there are certain steps you can take that can help you make the whole process more objective. This will also help you choose one of several options.

Part I: 4 Make or Break research-points

1. Google the name
   Open up your browser, head to Google and browse all you can find about the name. You can also download a VPN and search from the point of the countries you'll operate in. I've always used Tunnelbear for this task. It has many different countries available and 500MB of free data per month.

2. Check if the domain is available
   I can’t think of a start-up that won’t need an interesting website in 2021. So make sure you take the time to check if the domain is available. It doesn’t have to be the dot com domain. Alternative TLDs like dot io or dot co are growing in presence and trust. Therefore it's totally fine if you buy domains with alternative TLDs.

3. Translate to avoid blunders
   Making huge mistakes in naming is something even big corporations aren't immune to. Take Ford, for example, they named one of their cars Pinto and marketed them in Brazil. What they didn’t notice, pinto is a slang term for "tiny penis". Make sure to avoid those blunders by searching for common translations in all languages you’ll address your audience in.

4. Trademark search
   Lastly, you still have to do a trademark search. If you build a start-up and the name you have chosen is already a registered trademark, that's bad news. You'll have to start over. To check available trademarks, we use marcaria. With this tool, you can search every registered trademark globally and for specific countries. It's quite amazing, to say the least. Don't rush this process - if you're not careful in this step, you'll spend much more time and energy than you would have needed.

Part II: 5 additional steps to ensure quality

For part 2 we will focus on ensuring quality. Some of those steps include

1. Easy to spell & say
2. Shorter is better
3. Test if the name is memorable

You can read all of those details in our blog entry:
Naming my Start-up

If you're looking for more name ideas check out our available names:
Names for Creators