Article · 14 min read

How to Pick a Name For Your Startup: An In-Depth guide

Stripe Free Beginner

A practical checklist for the mechanical parts of naming: trademark and domain screening, pronounceability, cultural checks across markets, and not picking a name so specific that your next product cannot live under it.

  • Run a trademark search in your own country's database (the USPTO in the US) before you commit to a name.
  • Check the domain too, ideally the .com or a close variation, since recognition still follows it.
  • Optimise for pronunciation, consistent spelling, and brevity over cleverness.
  • Avoid names that lock you to one product, service, or geography, since the business will move.
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The question it answers

  1. Does our name actually matter? We keep arguing about it and I cannot tell if it is important or a distraction.

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