Comments on: Six naming myths to ignore

By: Brandon Zylstra

Brandon Zylstra — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:28:51 +0000

The bogus advice from Heckler et al is probably intended mostly to make the hearer feel unable to come up with a name on his own, and thus to bow before the experts and pay lots of money for them to do what they say they don’t do.

By: David Lavietes

David Lavietes — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:58:29 +0000

Nice post. Things are moving so fast these days, by the time you can formulate a rule it’s probably not true anymore.

One place where I disagree, though (although possibly more properly with Seth Godin than you): depending on your name for search rankings is a losing proposition. Even if you can find that name that comes up first now (and can get consumers to remember it), any competitor worth their salt can revise their site to rank on that same term within days. And they could outrank you with paid search literally tomorrow. So don’t throw out any good names just because they don’t search great. Just get yourself somebody who knows how to optimize your website.

By: JP

JP — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:17:55 +0000

Hey there, really enjoyed this article. I certainly subscribe to the meaningful naming convention over the shorter name. I mean if you’re talking about searching on a meaningful phrase – which many people do- well that’s got to work in favour of those sites which use a sequence of commonly used words (or a well known phrase) in their URL.
Cheers, JP

By: Conversition

Conversition — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:26:24 +0000

Great post! As domains get snapped up, we find ourselves getting more and more creative. We had to get creative with some of our own names like Conversition, MatterMeter and Evolisten. In the end, as long as it’s easy to say, spell and you don’t get too generic, you will win mind share. Above all, the produc still has to be amazing. Again, great post!

By: Spike Jones

Spike Jones — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:59:29 +0000

Greetings Chris,

Allow me to clarify re: Brains on Fire. For the “no Latin roots” part, you’re exactly right. We don’t have Latin majors on staff that find a root and then we form a name around it.

As for the “no mashed together words,” Viral is a word and Mental is a word. Indie is a word and Bound is a word. Those aren’t mashed together. By mashed together, I mean more like Virtalist or Indound. You know, smashed together in form a new word that doesn’t make any sense.

I don’t necessarily think that we pigeonhole ourselves with the ad. It’s simply a statement of what we DON’T do. Thanks for the mention!