What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Shakespeare’s famous line from Romeo & Juliet is wrong.

First, our perception is very sensitive. The color and shape of a spoon can make something taste sweeter. The sound of a deep fryer can make food taste crunchier.

So, if a rose were named “trash,” it might not smell quite as nice.

This is called the labeling effect.

Second, the popularity of roses might not have taken off if the word didn’t sound as lovely as it does. Products named with softer sounds are often seen as more luxurious (think Chanel or Moet) compared to products with harsher names, which might come across as lower quality or even unpleasant.

Think how many people are named Rose versus the harsher words Geranium or Orchid. Could that not have something to do with the popularity of roses?

All that is to say, the name of your startup or product is very important.

Metrics to optimize when choosing a name:

1. People’s perceptions. As discussed above, the name should evoke the appropriate emotion or set a certain expectation. This is why grocery store names imply lower cost (Costco) or high quality (Whole Foods).
2. Memorability. You want a name that is not easily forgotten, or they’ll remember your competitor.
3. “Googlability.” They need to be able to find you online.
   1. For example, the name Demand Curve is not particularly SEO-friendly.
4. “Spellability.” They need to know how to spell it when they hear it.
   1. This is a major sin of many startups trying to be clever.
5. “Sayability.” They need to know how to say it when they see it. And it should be nice and easy to say.
   1. People don’t like to feel or look dumb. If it’s hard to say, they won’t.
6. Understandability. When people hear it, can they guess what it is? If not, does it make sense when they know what it is?
   1. The “bnb” in Airbnb implies accommodation. VRBO is meaningless.
7. Distinct. You want something that’s not easily confused with something else.
8. .com preferred. Try to find something you can get a good domain for without spending insane amounts of money.

And yes, ChatGPT is an atrocious name on a few metrics:

1. It’s quite a mouthful to say.
2. GPT is a meaningless acronym to everybody but AI nerds, so it’s taken months for my girlfriend not to say ChatGTP (not memorable, and people don’t like things that make them feel dumb)

At least chat hints at what it is, but GPT means nothing (low understandability).

But it is googleable and distinct. However, it’s a rare product that was so good and revolutionary that the name didn’t matter. 99.9% of products aren’t that lucky.

So, let’s use the 8 naming strategies from Ali’s The First 1000 to name our startup/product. His article gives way more examples, so check it out, as I’ll just be doing a higher-level overview.

8 startup/product naming strategies

Here’s the great image created by Ali as a summary:

Creative names

1. Mashups

Two words become one. There are two main types:

1.1 Compound Names (fusion of 2 complete words):

Slam together two complete words.

• Ticketmaster: Ticket + Master
• YouTube: You + Tube (slang for TV)
• Paypal: Pay + Pal
• Coinbase: Coin + Base

1.2 Portmanteaus (Blending sounds and meanings of 2 words):

Blend parts of words together to create a new one:

• SpaceX: Space + Exploration
• Netflix: Internet + Flicks (movies)
• Duolingo: Duo (meaning two) + Lingo, from "Linguistics" (which comes from “tongues”)
  • This can mean “you and your language learning partner”, or
  • “Two tongued” which is exactly what “bi-lingual” means.
• Binance: Bitcoin + Finance

2. Play on words

Words that describe the product, service, or value

Here, Ali says they need to be creatively spelled. I’ll break this category into two.

Creatively-spelled words:

• TikTok: Sound of a clock ticking away as you waste hours of your life
• Reddit: “read it”
• Google: googol (the number one followed by 100 zeroes)
• Nvidia: from the Latin word “invidia,” meaning “envy”—as in, you’ll make people envious. And the “vid” implies it’s for video (which GPUs were for).

Real words, creative meaning:

• Stripe: The black strip on the back of a credit card
• Twitter: Birds making tweet, tweet noises.
• Kindle: Suggests warmth and inspiration. Curling up beside a fire reading.

3. Paying tribute

This category includes companies named after someone (or something) significant to the founder.

3.1 Tribute to the past [mythical or historical figure]

• Starbucks: Tribute to Starbuck, a character in "Moby Dick."
• Apple: Sir Isaac Newton’s apple
• Tesla: Nikola Tesla (inventor of DC current)

3.2 Personal tribute

• Walmart: named after founder Sam Walton (combined with Mart)
• X: named after Elon’s old payments company.
• Roku: means 'six' in Japanese. Roku was the founder's sixth startup.

4. Aspiration

Names that reflect the company’s mission or goals.

4.1 Expression

• Uber: from the German word über, meaning "over, above.”
• Target: symbolizing becoming the go-to shopping destination.
• AgelessRx (our client): implies their goal of increasing longevity.

4.2 Personification

• Nike: The Greek goddess of victory.
• Amazon: The South American rainforest, reflecting size and diversity

Practical names

5. Easy to remember, write and pronounce nonsense

Meaningless words that are short and memorable (ideally, they rhyme or have a .com available)

• Temu
• Hulu
• Tubi
• Brex

6. Value/service descriptor.

Words that simply describe the product/service.

• Threads
• Telegram
• Shop
• Messenger
• Bible
• Weather

Apple loves doing this.

7. Domain name

• The company/product name is just the domain:
• Character(dot)ai
• Booking(dot)com
• Customer(dot)io

This is my second least favorite.

It can get annoying to say. And it’s annoying it Slack/messages when the URL always unfurls. People often start writing things likes booking(dot)com or crypto(dot)com—like I did above to prevent your email tool from autolinking.

8. Abbreviation

When all else fails, use an abbreviation.

• VRBO
• CVS
• ADP

Choose an acronym that’s distinct and easy to say and remember. GPT is terrible. CVS is not bad. At least when evaluated for "is this nice to say?"

But tbh, this is one of my least favorite since acronyms don’t have any soul.

So what’s next

Honestly, I’d recommend shoving this article (both what to optimize for and the naming strategies) into ChatGPT (or fave AI). Then, describe your product/startup and ask it to generate a bunch of ideas.

Then, evaluate each one yourself. Base it on the 8 metrics above and how you feel about it. Remember, the perception and feeling is important.

Then, ask some friends and some people in your target audience what they think. What it makes them feel. How they would say it or spell it.

Keep doing this until you find an obvious winner.

Ideally, it should stand out like meeting your long-term partner. It just clicks and makes sense.

Check out Ali’s article, and the rest of his great newsletter!